by Teresa Weimer

Created on: October 07, 2009   Last Updated: October 09, 2009

What happens when we die is an age old question that has confounded the human race since the dawn of man. There are endless opinions and variations of answers based on a world of different beliefs, however there are largely only two positions, one being spiritual and the other scientific.

The spiritual side of the coin believes that our souls undergo a spiritual transformation post mortem. People with this position tend to develop their belief system based on a concept of life after death, an afterlife in heaven or even condemnation to hell. Faith and religion is the root of this belief in human creation which resulted from the actions of a higher power such as God. This side of death believes the soul is the essence of the true eternal being which continues to exist after we die. Supporters of this theory feel that humans temporarily occupy a physical body which acts more like a cocoon as we grow and develop while we spend time on earth. Upon death our souls are released from human form as we again return to our natural soul energy and head home.

The physical side of the coin is usually comprised of people of science such as doctors and scientists or those with an agnostic viewpoint who tend to lean toward a general belief in evolution with death being strictly a physical process. Science says we are formed of matter from cells that evolved from the planet based on a theory of evolution. The idea of a soul existing is our imagination's way of coping with the finite reality of death and our inability to accept the possibility that we cease to exist. Science believes we are born of the earth and return to it. Simply put science believes that human existence is defined by only one lifetime and nothing more... ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

While I believe in science I also believe it can only explain what the human mind can conceive. We can only test what we discover which is limited to our own human scope. Anything beyond our world is speculation and science doesn't guess. It was science that claimed the earth was flat until we were able to advance far enough to prove otherwise. I believe spirit goes far beyond our current realm of knowledge, meaning just because science can't prove it, doesn't mean we must exclude it. Especially when people having near death experiences collectively shed doubt on the prospect of living only one life time.

Science believes everything must be proven and further supported by a logical accompanied by hard evidence. Yet when I look

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