Life After Death

We are the only species on Earth who are capable of pondering this question out loud. It all started with an awareness of ourselves and the world around us. We experience friendship, love, happiness as well as adversary, hatred, and sorrow amongst ourselves. We find beauty, wonder, inspiration as well as chaos, decay, and destruction in Nature. We understand that nothing lasts forever.

There is good but also bad and there is life but also death. It is inconceivable and unnerving to realize that our life on Earth is a one-time deal:

1) The unique consciousness that each person acquired during one’s journey of life will be lost forever,

2) We will not be judged or be responsible for the good or bad deeds on Earth,

3) The wonderful life we come to know is nothing but a game with no rules.

4) Following one's desires is all that matters.

Religion

Around 85% of the world population is religious. They believe in the existence of one or more omnipotent, omnipresence, and omniscient beings who are watching over not only the deeds but also the thoughts of the followers. There are many religious sects in the world, however only a few have withstood the test of time with a large faithful following. Their common denominators are:

1) One supreme being who is responsible for all that was is, and will be,

2) The scriptures that lay down the strict moral codes, and

3) The promise of a better afterlife if the virtues of a righteous living have adhered.

We all know that we are imperfect, have plenty of weakness, and are capable of committing sinful acts. By following the guidelines laid down by a perfect being, the believers will attain peace of mind that when the judgment day comes they will be absolved of all their sins and enter the next phase of life with a clean slate. Religion more than settles the issues of life after death. It makes people see that there are not only rules but also meaningful purposes in the game of life. Sacrificing their selfish desires and controlling our carnal urges for the welfare of the community will be rewarded after they finish their life on Earth.

Science

Many people also believe in reason and logic and have no faith in the supernatural. With their inquisitive curiosity, objective observation, and exhaustive fact-finding and data collection, they set out to understand how Nature works, what makes living things alive, and why are people different physically and mentally.

They reason that if there is life after death, there must be an indestructible soul co-existing inside the mortal body. When the body expires, the soul - the true self - departs this world we know and embarks on the next assignment. Nobody knows for a certainty what are the soul’s makeup and purpose, and where it is going after it leaves the body. We do know for a certainty that when a person dies, the person is never heard from again. It can then be concluded that if there is life after death, that life will no longer have anything to do with what it leaves behind. The soul, if there is one, will more than likely gather what it had learned and experienced in the present existence and move on to the next quest.

Legacy

Whether one is a person of faith, logic, or carefree, there is no dispute that human life on Earth is not the result of random and unpredictable acts with no rule. Our civilization of more than 7000 years was built from nothingness. We have endured and survived natural catastrophes, disease epidemics, and globally destructive wars. We have learned not only from our mistakes but also from the invisible laws of Nature in its game of life:

1) All-natural phenomena occur for a reason and spread according to a set of laws,

2) All living things exist for a reason and flourish according to a set of laws, and

3) Our civilization lasts for a reason and was, is, and will be built by people from all walks of life according to the same set of laws.

Not everyone’s role in life is obvious at the time. For example, in hindsight, we can all appreciate the significant existence and matrimony of Einstein's little-known grandparents. There is a reason that we cannot know for a certainty that there is life after death. Each person’s main function on Earth is to fulfill one’s role in life whether one likes it or not. Just like the success of a big corporation depends on each employee doing one’s task well, life after death has nothing to do with the survival of the human species and its civilization on Earth.

Life after death will not absolve a person's good or bad doings nor help in any way a person's unfinished affairs on Earth. If there is life after death, the unique consciousness and the essence of the self that each person acquired acting out one’s role in life, will most likely be the only things that get passed on as lessons learned.