Death comes to every living things, including humans, so it is not surprising that we should contemplate our destiny or what becomes of us after we make the transition from being alive to being dead or unalive.
Physiologically, we can see the result of death or the state of being unalive. It is characterised by the body being lifeless, grey, with the person's vital organs and life functions being shut down and no breathing taking place. Of course, there are times when their is no body to observe, as is the case when the cause of death, such as in an earthquake, explosion, etc, literally destroys a person's body.
Not to everyone is given the merit of demerit of dying peacefully in their bed or in an hospital or hospice ward.
Normally, when a person dies he/she is usually buried or cremated. With burial, the body takes a longer period of time to become physically destroyed and return, over time, literally to inorganic matter, as it is consumed by other life forms whose business if to feed on dead bodies. Given a sufficiently long period of time, even the bones can breakdown and become part of the surrounding geological formation.
With cremation, the body of the dead person is consumed by fire and become ashes within a matter of hours. From the processes of cremation and burial, we have evidence of what happens to the body after death. This evidence is such that, when considered by a reasonable and logical person, should lead them to the conclusion that, after death, a person ceases to exist; at least, as a physical, sentient life form.
And yet, for Christians - and probably other religious faiths - the apparent finality of this post-death process is not sufficient to dissuade them from arguing that life persists or continues beyond this state of unaliveness.
For Christians, the death of the human body is no more than a door through time and space, which humans have to traverse, in order to migrate to 'everlasting life' in heaven. The Christian doctrine seeks to argue that this process, of 'being alive to death of the physical body to everlasting life' is necessary, because, the human body, being physical, is corruptible, due to its susceptibility to infirmities of the body, sickness and, the decayable post-death state, and is therefore not capable of hosting everlasting life.
According to the Christian doctrine, humans, on their way to heaven - or hell, for those the doctrine designate as evil doers - need to shed this heavy and burdensome physical body - much the same way as a space rocket has to shed is heavy solid fuel tanks, as it propels itself into higher space, one might argue - in order to attain 'everlasting life.'
So, what does this say about what happens after death, to, let us say, the 'essence' or 'core' of humans, before they die? What happens to our 'ergo sumness', that sensed voice within us which says to us, and 'we' are able to say to others, 'I think therefore I am', or 'I am, therefore I think'? What happens to this 'human state of consciousness' does after death?
The Christian doctrine would argue that 'the dead awaits the Day of Judgement, when they shall be called forth and be judged by god, who will then reward the faithful with everlasting life or 'bliss' in 'Heaven', and the wrong doer with everlasting torment in 'Hell.'
And how is this going to be possible, a prudent observer might ask, knowing that, except for those who, on Judgement Day, will have died more recently, the bodies of the billions of dead humans accruing since the specie evolved - or, as the Christian and other theist doctrines would argue, 'created- and whose bodies have become dust and mixed with the surrounding elements?
Logically, then, it would be illogical and impossible for billions of previously dead and organically dispersed human bodies to reformulated into living persons and present themselves for 'judgement.' It is simply not possible, never mind being probably. Yet, this belief is one which apparently lead some, if not all the different denominations within Christendom to prefer the burial of their dead, as opposed to them being cremated, even though, given sufficient time, the end product of both process is the same; back to dust.
It would make more sense to argue that there is no 'day of judgement', but that, after death, the 'spirit' of dead person is 'judged' by god and is then allocated to 'heavenly bliss', or 'hellish torment.' Of course, such a theory would still be highly improbably.
Christians have used the purported feat of Jesus Christ being 'resurrected from the dead and ascending into Heaven - although, for all we know, this 'Heaven' is probably a state of mind, as opposed to an objective place or time - as 'proof' of there being life after death.' This 'proof', of course, is very problematic, since the Christian doctrine has stated, albeit elsewhere in the Bible, that the physical body cannot have everlasting life, because of its corruptibility.
Why, then, was it necessary to have Christ being resurrected, as part of the formulation of the Christian doctrine, (or deception) when it so forcefully contradicted the proven fact that the physical body is perishable and cannot survive death?
It makes no logical sense at all, and leads me to the unavoidable conclusion that, although their might be occasional individual phenomena which might appear to contract it, human consciousness - this I am therefore I think or I think therefore I am - does not survive the death and destruction of the physical body. It really is back to the tabula rasa; blank slate theory, but minus.
May your day be a peaceful and enjoyable one. Live the life you have now to the fullest.
OWOHROD
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