Life After Death: How Can You Be So Sure?
Reader JT asks:
Hey Pat. I’ve bee struggling a bit and thought to reach out to you… I keep going back to the idea that everything I’ve come to know and love will be over when the proverbial lights go out. How are you so sure there’s something after this life and how can you help me understand this more. I’ve been a fan of your podcasts for years however I wax and wane on my interest in spirituality and learning more about God. Hope this message gets to you. Thanks!
Life after death. What an important question.
However, let me ask this. Is it just life after death we seek, or something more… specific? I ask because people would probably find certain afterlife scenarios less preferable than permanent extinction — various forms of reincarnation, or simply “waking up” upon death to discover you were in the Matrix, where everything in this world was massively fabricated.
My suggestion is it is not just life after death we are looking for, but heaven as traditionally understood by the Christian faith. That is, everlasting union with God, eternal in nature, where our ultimate bliss — our ultimate perfection — is had. With that, of course, comes the hope of reunion with those we loved most and lost.
Do I believe there is life after death of that sort? Certainly. I’m Catholic, after all.
But what makes me so sure?
As I have rehearsed many times, I believe there are good arguments for 1) the existence of God, 2) the immateriality (and by extension immortality) of the human soul, and 3) the Christian faith. (If interested in such arguments, peruse this blog, my podcast, and my articles elsewhere.) The cumulative case, I take it, is quite dispositive (though of course we all have our doubts from time to time — who doesn’t?), and while little if anything by way of philosophical argumentation is absolutely compelling, such that someone must believe it, I would certainly say the case to be made for classical theism and Christianity is as good as any case can be made so far as worldviews are concerned.
Minimally, the Christian faith, with its commitment to resurrection and afterlife, is extremely reasonable to believe. And not only is it reasonable to believe, but it is beneficial to believe, for it gives one practical (but not foolish) hope. Among other benefits.
My suggestion for the non-philosopher interested in looking at this question? Grab a copy of Dr. Michael Rota’s book Taking Pascal’s Wager. A solid apologetic, carefully done by a professional philosopher. Accessible, practical, well-written. Start there, go further if you need.
More important, is this. Do not allow the yearning for life after death to result in some mere intellectual quest. What you are experiencing is, quite obviously, the soul’s upward yearning, for God. So, read the books — sure. But go to Church. Pray. Get confirmed or baptized, as the case may be. The religious life is the active life, a life lived in conformity to Christ. Questioning is only the beginning.