I've never understood why people don't start with the basics regarding questions of gods, afterlifes, etc
Well first we have to ask what consciousness is? No one seems to have a freaking clue other than that you know its there because of your personal experience. Its impossible to deny you are a conscious being. Try it.
So that one seems overly difficult. How about the next question. Mainstream scientists operate under a mechanistic view of the brain and believe that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. In other words, consciousness is dependent on the brain and when your brain dies, your consciousness dies with it. So the question is, is there any evidence that suggests that consciousness is more than a byproduct of the brain?
And yes there is:
Extremely comprehensive but kind of expensive. They made a crucial mistake in my opinion with the title by using the term 'irreducible' and that makes people think its a book from intelligent design people. Its not.
http://www.amazon.com/Irreducible-Mind-Toward-Psychology-Century/dp/1442202068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364863247&sr=8-1&keywords=irreducible+mindI recommend this one. Its smaller, less comprehensive, but gives a good overview of the types of studies being done and why they are serious, statistically significant results. He has an hour and half long talk on youtube that summarizes some points of the book but moreover explains the taboo of any subject labeled parapsychology:
http://www.amazon.com/Entangled-Minds-Extrasensory-Experiences-Quantum/dp/1416516778/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364863400&sr=1-1&keywords=entangled+mindsThere are other books but those are the ones I recommend most often.
So if you're with me so far and agree with the material or at the very least agree its all worth some more serious study, the idea that the mind can operate outside the body is of serious consideration. So the concept of an afterlife seems not so remote. That doesn't mean a god exists but it makes it more likely in my opinion. But lets take it further.
A shitload of people experience something called a Near Death Experience. These people across all cultures and backgrounds have an experience with very similar but not always the same results. If you're catholic you'll often see 'jesus' whereas an atheist won't. But there are a lot of similarities. They almost always report these same activities.... they float outside of their body with a degree of vision different than the peripheral vision of having eyes, they feel 'realer than real' as in its not a vague dreamlike state, they see a giant being of light that gives them nothing but unconditional love(god?), they experience the interactions they had with people over their lives and in those experiences they feel the joy, terror, pain etc that they caused in other people.
Not everybody has a near death experience they recall when resuscitated but last I heard it was around 20% of people do. Even mainstream science admits this is happening but from a reductive, materialist perspective they say its a powerful dream and nothing more. Given the information I already outlined, and interesting cases where the person outside their body recalls events happening usually in hospitals while out cold and well outside of their bodily physical senses range, there is reason to believe its an actual experience of something real.
So is God real? Don't know, I think so though. I think that so many civilizations and cultures thought there was both some sort of intelligent god thing and afterlife is interesting. Also, this doesn't get into the anthropic principle material which is only countered by positing a multiverse, both explanations being absurdly exotic.
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