Entertaining and well reasoned, THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE is a significant contribution to philosophy and free thought.

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Product Description

THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE
The odds of an afterlife: Reasonable. The odds of meeting God there: Nil.
THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE describes an afterlife that is consistent with known law and requires nothing more than physics. It demonstrates that an afterlife is possible based on reason, and supports the probability of an afterlife with an original and testable support for dualism -- the proposition that our mind and body are separate.

An afterlife based on reason has profound implications. An afterlife that requires only physics requires no God; it makes the concept of God irrelevant and removes the 'God of the Gaps' completely. It enables us to prove that many religious conceptions of an afterlife are false, including the concepts of judgement, selectivity based on belief, and the existence of Heaven and Hell. It removes the concept of an afterlife from its religious associations, so humanists and other rationalists can examine it on its own merit. And an original and testable support for dualism could resolve a philosophical debate that's been going on for more than 2,000 years!

'Philosophy has had one arm tied behind its back by the absence of a law prohibiting an afterlife, and the other arm tied behind its back by the absence of any logical mechanism to support it. ... Until now.'

Entertaining and well reasoned, THE ATHEIST AFTERLIFE is a significant contribution to philosophy and free thought.

Author DAVID STAUME is a philosopher, secular humanist and public speaker. He is a member of rationalist and freethinking associations, is studying at the University of London, and can be contacted via the website www.ModernPhilosophy.com.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #751442 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

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Customer Reviews

An Interesting Read
When I first got this book, I was so excited to open it up and tear through the pages. I thought that it would open up an entirely new way of thinking about life and death. That even as an atheist, it could be reasoned that there is an afterlife. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. This book is extremely interesting, but it seems more speculative than factual. It has a great many analogies for what an afterlife may be without a god, and some of the ideas that Staume puts out there are very imaginative. However, I couldn't agree with where a lot of the ideas go. I was hoping for a better argument for mind-body dualism, but there were no arguments here that were satisfying, at least for myself.

If you already agree with the principle of mind-body dualism, then some of the ideas may not see so far off. For me, it seemed to contain a lot of unsupported assertions such as our dreams are weird, so maybe they actually happen in multiple dimensions that we can't comprehend in our 3 dimensional waking lives, our our conscious selves and our physical brain interact like a TV and a TV station. Maybe I couldn't connect because my dreams are not as far out there as some of the things described in the book.

This book makes for good science fiction, or even as a way of provoking ideas about the afterlife, but most of it is the author making claims of what if. To be fair, I don't think he claims that this is the absolute truth, only a mere possibility, but I consider this to be a quite unlikely possibility. A lot of the claims seemed heavy on analogy and weak on testability or real world examples. I wanted this book to be a mind-opening tome that would change the way I looked at the world, but instead, it was an interesting, yet unsatisfying read.

Fascinating !
"At first, I was a bit frightened by the title of this book. After all, I was born and raised in a traditional Catholic home. A home where beliefs in an afterlife were based on Heaven and Hell. This book bases an afterlife on reason.
It gives insight to some propositions I knew very little of. The concept of Dualism and the Inside-Out Theory were well explained with the excellent use of analogies. Major points were discussed in detail and were brought back together in a reader friendly method throughout various points in the book.
For myself, this was an entirely different look at the possibility of an afterlife. An afterlife without any religion or God. An afterlife of reason. One book that is worth the read...though at moments I thought my
head was going to explode! Well, it didn't .... as for the title of the
book, no need to be frightened."


Richard,
Dallas, TX
USA

Finally--A Real Conversation
For too long, it has been virtually impossible to have a rational discussion about the possibility of an afterlife. On the one hand, you get the same old platitudes that we've had for millennia from the religious folks--about how wonderful the afterlife will be if only you believe the right things (and how horrible it will be if you don't). On the other hand, you can expect nothing but ridicule if you raise the question with metaphysical naturalists. Those of us who are open-minded and interested in a serious conversation without saccharine appeals to faith and hope or withering displays of sarcasm have had little or nothing to talk about. That's why Staume's book is so important. Finally, someone has had the courage to step forward and propose a rational system for the afterlife. In a logical, straightforward, and concise treatment of the subject, Staume lays out his views on the nature of human consciousness and his reasons for believing that it may be possible for us to survive death. He doesn't try to befuddle readers with complex arguments, belittle them with his own moral or intellectual superiority, and (most importantly) he doesn't threaten them in the least if they disagree with him.

Simply teasing apart the concept of God from the concept of an afterlife is an important step in the right direction. We have all been so culturally conditioned to view the two as one and the same that any conversation about the afterlife inevitably leads right to God. This is frustrating, because if (as Staume proposes) the afterlife is simply a natural phenomenon controlled and mediated by the laws of physics, we don't need God to explain the afterlife any more than we need him to explain the weather.

Our understanding of consciousness is so limited that people will grasp at straws in their attempt to make themselves feel better about their mortality. And for all of recorded human history, God has been the only straw for people to grasp for. It's God or nothing if you want to believe in an afterlife. What Staume offers is a strikingly different view--rather than grasping at the same old faith straws, we can actually have a conversation and discuss our ideas about a possible afterlife rationally, like adults. Many will find Staume's ideas convincing. Others will not. What is important is that here is an individual who has the courage to open the debate--and that's what we need. More conversation and fewer threats and mockery.