Is there any major religion that does'nt believe in live after death or reincarnation?

This one doesn’t.

I don’t know what purpose such a religion would fill. How else would they scare us into doing what they say?

atheism/evolution

AstroChuck, in view of that last answer, would you care to limit the scope of what you mean by “religion”?

I’m atheist. I don’t consider atheism a religion.

Judaism has many forms and quirks and historical theological examinations. One of the favorite Jewish hobbies is arguing this (and almost any other question).Two Jews=three opinions. In the communities where I have lived, your good deeds are what live after you.

Here is one site: http://www.near-death.com/experiences/judaism06.html

Here’s where I fall on the spectrum, due to my upbringing and private beliefs (from site cited above):
” And many secular and Reform Jews continue to view themselves as part of the tradition of Judaism, without adhering to any sort of afterlife belief.”

It just occurred to me that many Unitarian Universalists don’t believe in a literal afterlife. But I always thought of Unitarians as atheists following the philosophies of Christ. I suppose some Unitarian out there could explain how I have this wrong.

If you’re willing to stretch the definition of religion far enough, Humanism doesn’t take any definitive stance on the question of afterlife. Unitarianism is one of a few religions that borrows from Humanist thought.

by the way, I meant life after death, not live.

@AstroChuck: I’ll bite. The UU church has evolved a great deal since the days when it could be considered a Christian religion. I think the most important change was the merging of Unitarians and Universalists. At that point, the church was effectively no longer Christian, I would argue.

Many UUs believe in God, god, goddesses, or gods. Many don’t believe in any of these things. Belief in a higher power and/or an afterlife is not considered a teaching of the church. All of these philosophies are welcome under the umbrella of the UU religion, but congregants are not asked to embrace or deny of these things.

So I think this begs the question of, “if there’s no chosen deity or afterlife, in what respect is it a church?” And that is a separate and important question unto itself. The only creed or dogma the UU church genuinely expects people to adhere to is the Seven Principles, which I hope you will forgive me for reproducing here:

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

* The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
* Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
* Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
* A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
* The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
* The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
* Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”

I should know all this as I was ordained (on the Internet, as a lark) in the Universal Life Church.

The Quakers (Society of Friends) generally focus on the here-and-now. I was a fellow-traveler for twelve years when I was involved in a Quaker day school in Philly. The mid-west Quakes were more dogmatic.

• After Death
Few liberal Quakers believe in direct reward and punishment, heaven and hell, or second coming of Christ. The primary focus is nondogmatic: God is love, love is eternal, and our actions in life should reflect love for all of humanity.

Here is the site for all Friends’ Faith and Practices: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/80/story_8038_1.html

edit: site is for Liberal Quakers.

My wife’s Godfather converted to the Society of Friends (Quakers) and he definitely believes in an afterlife.

@Astro: Note that I said “generally” and “Liberal.” Where does your wife’s godfather attend Meeting for Worship? I am curious because I knew that there were different doctrines when I was involved with the Quakes.

He lives in Southern California. That’s all I know, except, as a Quaker, he considers himself an ordained minister. I believe all members of the Society of Friends are considered ordained. Which, I guess means Richard Nixon was an ordained minister. Weird.

The Eastern Quakers can act legally as a corpus.That is, the Meeting itself has the power invested in it by the state to marry people. No individual is considered a minister; everyone is equal and no one is more equal than any other.

Ask him whether he could marry people without the power of his Meeting chapter behind him.

I’m jewish and for the most part we don’t

Those of you who don’t like Unitarians and want to drive them out of your neighborhood, just burn a question mark on their lawn.

~gigglin~ @Chuck

Many buddhists do not believe in reincarnation, or any type of afterlife, but I also know other buddhists who do believe in reincarnation.