Belief that life continues after death more beneficial?

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Is it more beneficial to believe in a life beyond this one or to believe this is it? I honestly can think of reasons either way.What does everyone else think.

This question is geared towards people that believe either way.

The main advantage of a belief in an afterlife is comfort. Death is a scary concept and it helps a lot of people to think of it as a transition rather than an ending. It's also a very childish idea, and it does a lot of harm. You only have a certain amount of time in this life, so why waste it in readiness for another one that you have no proof actually exists?

The wisest course of action is to assume there is no afterlife. Then, you can focus on living this life the best you can, making every day count and leaving a better world when you finally pop off. And if there is an afterlife, perhaps with some deity judging us on our lives here on Earth, isn't it better to have lived a full and decent life than simply waited for the next one? Any god capricious enough to judge you on your beliefs rather than your actions is not a god worth worshipping.

I think that it can be very enriching to your character to take some time to come to grips with the idea that you won't always be here. Try to understand why this bothers you. Pretend that you can have a conversation with yourself about it.

What you might ultimately conclude is that there are things in this world that are more important, to your heart, than just your own existence. You might find that there are things in this world or values or beliefs that you would actually trade eternal life for, without hesitation, because you believe that it's more precious to this cosmos than your continued existence.

Then again, those are my thoughts. If you sit down and have an honest heart-to-heart talk with yourself, though, you might find that you are not as unhappy about your mortality as you were taught you ought to be.

I don't believe in life after death. It wouldn't add anything to my existence. I can create my own purposes out of my absurd existence. However, I can understand that some people find comfort in it.

It's just a matter of wanting to know consciousness will not cease just because one dies. That's where the comfort lies.

The afterlife is a foolish notion. Life is a gift, not to be wasted concentrating on its end or what may occur after. Afterlife is an invention of man. Some people take it too far and kill to get in their eternal paradise. Heaven is down to the mind of the individual. Everyone thinks they are going there, even actual bad people. It does not make people behave any better, and provides a false sense of hope that loved ones will be met again. I would rather think about the loved one's life and our shared experiences than waste my own life's limited time wondering whether they are watching me take a dump from on high

It is a belief like that makes the fear of death go away. It is a utopia mind set that only a Thiest can have.

Depends on what you define as beneficial. I imagine for somebody that has troubles in life, it is beneficial to have a belief in something better on an individual level and reason to follow a moral code. I suppose one could argue however that a belief in a life after this one on earth give people a reason to not improve their situations.

I can see positives and negatives to both sides, but there have actually been studies that show people are on the whole happier if they have some believe in an afterlife. Is it a foolish sort of happiness? Who knows?

I believe in an afterlife, but it's not a strong belief - I could be wrong, who's to say? I also don't think about it that much. I try to focus on my current life and live it well. I figure even if I am a spiritual being living a physical existence, there's got to be some purpose to the physical existence and I should do my best to make the best of it. Living for some future, heavenly existence while I'm here wouldn't make much sense.

It's nice to believe. It's a comforting thought. If it's based on nothing, it's a placebo effect.
And if it makes them happy, and they don't hurt others, it's not a foolish thought at all.

Vigilans, one thing that I think that most non-religious people miss is this.

When you get right down to it, people postulate this "life after death" as something that is inherently unfalsifiable. They are saying that, since nobody can prove either that there is an afterlife or that there is no such thing as an afterlife (although I know of strong arguments to this effect), then nobody can truly say that they are wrong for believing that there is such a thing as an afterlife. It comes down to what they choose to believe, and that, in their minds, gives them the liberty to pick and choose whatever belief seems to be more attractive.

However, since you can postulate anything in this evidentiary vacuum, I could postulate that only atheism is the one, true religion, and only atheists deserve an afterlife of eternal bliss. I don't believe in it, but I can insert that postulation into the discussion as easily as any other, since the basis of the original argument is that "both sides of the argument are inherently impossible to ever prove." The point is, it makes every bit as much sense as saying that any other system of belief is the "one true faith."

Therefore, the entire argument that believing in an afterlife is requisite for having one is thoroughly bankrupt, since you could argue both sides of an inherently unfalsifiable claim with equal strength.

On the other hand, let's go with the argument that, even if there were an afterlife, it really doesn't matter whether anyone believes in it or not. We are then at liberty to simply state what seems to be the most plausible case, which is that there is no such thing. Since we are choosing to agnostically assume anything that feels comfortable to assume, let's also run with the assumption that we wouldn't have to share an afterlife with unpleasant people, assuming there were an afterlife at all. That can make the casual atheist happy: "this afterlife seems to be a flight of fancy. Since it's my fancy, though, I will populate it with people I want to hang out with."

However, since we don't have any evidence of any such thing, the most secure assumption to make is that, if we end our lives without reconciling what we want to reconcile, there will be no second chances, and death is final. If we go with that assumption, we have every motivation to make sure that we get our lives right the first time, since there most likely won't be a second time.

In conclusion, a sort of loose and casual atheism pretty much makes the most sense from all perspectives, simply by virtue of the fact that the entire argument is based on an evidentiary vacuum.