Weighing the Soul
Although taught by many religions, I have always experienced difficulty in accepting the concept of some form of life after death. The form of afterlife can vary between religions from resurrection, reincarnation to some form of continued existence. The religious beliefs of most of us are heavily influenced by our parents even if they are non-practising. As children we tend to accept without question what our parents say and this is often reinforced by other forms of religious teaching external to the home. It is not until our individual minds mature are we able to question some of the teachings. Many possibly never do and prefer to store any questions of the divine into an area of the brain marked sacred and untouchable, an area not to be delved into.
We are normally taught about a mysterious undefined “thing” that we all possess called the soul that apparently exists for each of us although no one can show one or has ever seen one. If you pause for a moment and try to locate your own soul now you will probably be unsuccessful. We are somehow supposed to believe that after we die and our bones and flesh are nothing more than dust, this unspecified essence of our former selves will continue for eternity.
A vast number of people including myself believe in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution which is now more than just theory. This shows how all life is constantly evolving and splitting into different species. even human beings, (Homo sapiens), have evolved as other common genetic ancestors like Neanderthals have died out.
I was taught that only human have souls and somehow animals do not. Although as a child I accepted this, I would now question how those that cannot even see their own soul, if it exists, can determine whether any other creature has one. As the human race evolved there must have been a point in time when our ancestors were more animal than human. At which point was it determined that a particular person had a soul but their parents did not? Was it when a descendant was say 51% more human by today’s terms than their parents? Did anyone tell them? Presumably this also meant the souls of these early ancestors still exist somewhere but somehow, their parents who did not possess a soul have gone into oblivion. It does seem to me a logical impossibility to make such a determination.
I also wonder what is the purpose of this essence of our being after our death? Will it also have the ability to think and reason without a brain? I find the concept of going to some for of heaven or nirvana for eternity to be completely mind numbing.
As you may have already guessed, I personally do not believe in life after death or the existence of a soul. What I believe exists after death is exactly the same as existed before birth, oblivion. I do understand there is a will in the human psyche for the need of an afterlife but belief and desire will never change whether life actually exists after death or not.
The thought of eventual oblivion does not bother me at all in the same way I was not concerned about events in the universe or the world before I was born. I tend to be pragmatic about an afterlife. It either exists, or it does not, nothing I or anyone else says or does will change that. If an afterlife does exist then one day will all know the answer to that when we eventually die. If an afterlife does not exist, then none of us are going to worry about it after we are gone.
It does seem strange that after the thousands of years mankind has inhabited the earth, the answers about an afterlife in terms of proof rather than belief remain unanswered.
Strange as it may seem, I am still not an atheist.
Filed under: Life after Death | Tagged: afterlife, Darwin, eternity, heaven, Homo sapiens, Neanderthal, nirvana, oblivion, pragmatic, pragmatism, reincarnation, resurrection, the soul, Theory of Evolution, Thoeory | 5 Comments »
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