by Christine G.

Created on: July 15, 2008

In the Eighties, while he was still a practising Anglican priest, Tom Harpur wrote the well-documented book "Life after Death", which was made into a TV series. Harpur's remarks on science are particularly interesting, and foreshadow what is happening in the Third Millennium. Science seems to be moving more and more into the world of uncertainty and fuzzy logic, becoming increasingly spiritual, while Christian religion has fossilized and is relying so much on argument from authority that spiritual growth is almost impossible in the context of organized religion.

Do our lives continue after death? Harpur makes solid case for a positive answer to the question. However, he admits that certainty is beyond him. All he can offer is a strong probability.

I'm not used to hearing a man of faith talk that way. After all, if we have enough faith, we are absolutely sure, right?

Maybe not. Maybe faith doesn't grow in the soil of certainty. If we are sure, we don't need faith.

Despite many years of prayer and study, I cannot say that I KNOW that my life will continue beyond physical death. Some days I believe; some days I hope; some days I struggle; some days I am sure that the whole idea is an absurd fantasy. I envy those people who truly believe, but when they let me get close to them, I often discover that they are not as sure as they profess to be. This confusion is complicated by the fact that the Biblical heaven is not really a place where I would like to spend eternity, and it seems heretical to propose other alternatives.

One of my friends has had two near-death experiences. His eyes light up when he talks about them, and I see his eagerness to return to the beauty, love and peace that he experienced. However, scientifically, near-death experiences do not prove that there is life after death - after all, those who tell the stories are still alive. All we can know for sure is that such experiences exist, and that they change people.

After my father died, a young man contacted me. With some hesitation, he told me that he had been visiting his dead grandparents in another world. He had seen my father there, and wanted me to know that he was all right. This young man kept insisting, "I am not religious." Nonetheless, he prayed to the God of his understanding and had mystical experiences on a regular basis, which clearly enriched his life. I am both frightened and attracted by people like him.

I want to die well - to move gently into another dimension, with such grace and beauty that those who see my death will be less afraid of their own. But I can't control that. All I can do is live as well as I can today, hoping that the choices I make will prepare me for the final adventure.

Learn more about this author, Christine G..
Click here to send this author comments or questions.