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What about the huge % of our consciousness that is composed of chemical affective states? Does it make sense to talk about emotional gratification without social conditioning and human context? Does it make sense to talk about "pleasure" without nerve endings and a functional cerebral cortex?

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This is why I think it is extremely unlikely that there is any sort of "afterlife". While it is impossible to prove that there isn't some part of us that survives the death of our bodies, an objective look at available evidence suggests to me that most likely our existence ends at death and all beliefs to the contrary constitute wishful thinking to avoid that unpleasant reality.