by DCBentley

Created on: April 26, 2010   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

What if we indeed simply cease to exist?  Why is that so terrible?  It is exactly what we assume happens to grass, corn, roaches, squid, rats and some would even admit dogs and cats.  To believe that we humans are the one and only exception to the ‘lights out’ theory of death is completely illogical. That doesn’t mean it isn’t somehow possible, just not rational, logical or probable.

To believe in life after death, continued consciousness after bodily death we have to step away from what we know, what we can see or measure and create or attach our thinking to theories that cannot be proven.  In order for us to remain sentient after our brains shut down we must believe in a higher power that by definition is outside the known or knowable physical universe.

Logically if celery just dies, if insects just die, if frogs and birds and cats, dogs, dolphins, chimpanzees all just simply fade away, and we are genetically, biologically very, very similar, what part of ‘logic’ lets us leap from that point to ‘eternal life for humans’?  It doesn’t. Logic dictates that the natural order is most likely, by a very large margin ‘fade to black’. 

If indeed we are eternal beings, at least consciously, then why do we not remember what we were doing, seeing, and thinking three thousand years ago?  Are those of us here now all simply in round one of eternal life?  Or if we are eternal beings, but we are not able to recall events or lives previous, what exactly is the point of eternal life and is it really actually eternal at all?  If we are not able to recall our past experiences how can it be considered eternal?

How would that be any different from just simply fading away?

We could want to believe there is more life after we die, we could want it really, really badly. We could even imagine palaces, flowing gowns, harps and halos, ghosts and wandering spirits, cosmic tribunals and eternal damnation . But these are merely imaginings.  We have no reason to believe in any of it unless we just want to believe it, unless we just choose to believe it.

Odds are that logically we are much more likely to be like celery and grasshoppers and less like mythological gods.

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