A philosophical question - life, death, murder?

[Yukaphile]

Here's a question I want to pose to you all. If people were to ever conclusively piece together what happens to that essence that composes us after our body decays, well, would people suddenly think murder or killing is that bad? What impact would it have on us as a society? See, for me personally, I believe there are things you can do to somebody in this life that's worse than killing them. It scars them for life, leaves them as damaged, crippled people who were never the same as they once were. Yet we as a collective society consider murder the worst sin. Even killing, in self-defense, has that same association. Torture and sexual abuse seems to take a backseat to that. And I think it's because in the end, we don't know, and it's our fear of the unknown and our own fallibility that contributes a lot to that. So what if some scientist had blasted through the universe and found God? Learned there is an afterlife that we pass on to? And yeah, in this case, it depends what kind of afterlife, I'll give you that. Or, in the second scenario, definitively concluded nothing happens, we cease to exist, that it's one big nothing after we pass on?

What impact do you think that would have on our society? I think it'd change a lot of societal views. Of course, I think in the first scenario, a lot of religiously-minded people would accept it as confirmation. Then again, there's also those other religions that would take issue because it's not their God. So it'd be a mixed bag. I think atheists, if the science is sound, would accept it, while some probably would not. But what impact would it have on our crime rate, criminal justice system, and so on? How do you punish somebody for murder when, say, you have absolute proof they didn't "die" in the sense we think of it today? That they effectively continued on in another form? Same for the second scenario.

I really wanna hear your guys' thoughts on this.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

While tenants of faith are distinct from actually knowing, for all intents and purposes people that believe in an eternal resting place still see murder as an appropriately condemned act. So the idea that we hate it so much because we simply don't know is a bit misleading.

That's a first thought on the matter, which does change your premise imo, but yeah it's an interesting question still.

[clearspira]

If I ever do meet God, my first question to him would be... ''cancer in children? that was a dick move''. My second however would be ''so you gave me no evidence of the afterlife or your existence at all for what reason exactly?''

If there is a sapient God, he either does not care about us, has better things to do with his time than dealing with us, or is a nasty bit of work. Because my definition of ''all loving'' would not involve giving cancer to small children, and if it did for some horrific reason, I would want to give the grieving parents my personal guarantee that they will meet again.

[Mecha82]

There are two points that I want to make before I go forward:
1. I don't see why it should be God as in one that Christians, Jews and Muslims (yes, it's same one) worship when there are other active religions in this world as well as those that are no longer believed in that are also numerous.

2. As society we humans have made murder and several others bad deeds towards each other crime because of morals that we have as species. Also morals don't depend on any deity and faith and are something that we humans have without needing some religion to tell us that those are bad. Not that having faith stops some people doing those and some do those in name of they faith.

So those in mind thing that could change would be that if what ever religion (or not any in case of Atheism) is proved to be correct one could either become dominant or it could create more discord because religion is about believing into something that can't be proven to exist and any one who is religious believes that they faith is correct one. I don't see anything changing when it comes to crimes and punishing those crimes. Only that more people committing might use they faith as excuse for those if they believe that it could let them get away from it or do those because they feel they lives meaningless if they faith was proven to be among wrong ones.

[Darth Wedgius]

No need to tip toe around Yukaphile, when you say "that essence that composes us after our body decays," we all know the word you're trying to avoid.

Katra.

It depends on what happens to it. If we find out that there is an afterlife as bad a hell, I think murder becomes worse. If we find out that everyone goes to a beautiful heaven where all questions are answered, everyone loves everyone, and all pizza is good for you, maybe murder becomes not as bad as some of the more serious assault and battery. Murder would be more like robbing someone of their childhood. If we reincarnate or if there is no afterlife, I think there's not much change in how we treat murder.

If we run into God, there'll be an 11th commandment regarding paparazzi.