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Believing in "life after death," meaning the continuance of a consciousness or soul after the visible death of a human being (or, if you are Hindu, any animal), is a comfort to many people. We are sad when people die. We enjoy life, so we want it to continue even when nature is done with our living bodies.

I am more comfortable through my understanding of the nature of time. In most of the past I did not exist. Nature existed, then the earth, then life. At some point humans came into existence and developed language and culture. I did not call myself into existence. My creation was a biological process, followed by a cultural process.

I have seen plants, animals, and people die. I enjoy life most of the time; I look forward to a long life. But I know I too will die.

Life will go on without me just as it went on before me and while I was alive.

Time is familiar, yet it is a mystery. I have some control of what I do with it, but I cannot stop it or turn it back.

My friends who have died, and my ancestors, are in the past. I believe the present is real and that the past and future are real. So someone who lived in the past is not so different from someone living in the present or in the future.

When a friend dies it is natural to be sad and miss that friend. But I don't see a need to pretend that the dead are still alive. They are just in the past. Their good deeds and their bad deeds are still real, they are just in the past.

People "pass away." It is not just a polite term. It is the right, natural way of thinking about death. They are still real, in the past.

One person dies but life goes on. No person is alive today who was alive 200 years ago. Despite medical advances, I doubt that any person alive today, even a new born baby, will be alive 200 years from now. Yet, I hope, there will still be trees and oceans and blue skies and people to enjoy them.

If people lived forever none of us would be alive today, because the earth would have become too crowded to admit new people, long ago.

It is a beautiful system. If you want to know God, or reality, the time to do that is while you are alive.

Learn more about this author, William Meyers.
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