Life after death
From all I have seen, there is no solid independent evidence for or against some form of afterlife, and I don’t believe there ever will be. Feel free to correct me, but
I’ve never found any convincing argument on rational grounds. The evidence for is anecdotal, the evidence against simply dogma. No one on either side of the argument can come back and tell us about it in a way everyone will accept.
The against crowd will trot out Occam’s razor, but let me point out the flaw with the axiom; It isn’t wide enough. It’s one thing not to multiply entities; it should also advise us not to multiply conclusions. The razor is not a recipe for proof; it advises us not to build castles in the air unsupported by evidence, but we should also beware of building unnecessary negative conclusions, or exclusions, unsupported by evidence.
In a field like engineering, it is important to be right, to find a firm conclusion, or there are consequences. Once you get out into the unknown, the field of forteana, you can safely stand in extensive patches of uncertainty. It is unnecessary to come to a conclusion, perhaps even vital not to. This is one of Fort’s greatest contributions to human thought: he encourages us not to reach conclusions unless it is practically necessary to do so.
I think the lazy inclination to slip down the slippery sides of the fortean curve to either belief or disbelief is responsible for some of the disillusion among forteans – see the article about Middle Aged Mulder Syndrome, [FT415:58-59]. We should forget about conclusions in forteana and watch the patterns dance, until something resolves into coherence or necessity demands a decision.
To get back to the subject, we cannot prove that there is no method, or mechanism, or state of being beyond our understanding, to which we pass when we die. There is no solid evidence against this, or for it, and our tendency to dismiss it I believe is rooted in our opposition to, and battles with, those who dogmatically insist that it is a reality, and that they have all the answers.
I also believe that many people torture themselves with an adherence to this dogma in order to inure themselves to the pain it inevitably brings. They want to hold on to the certainty, however terrible, that they will never see their loved ones again, that they and all they love will pass out of existence and come to nothing, because they cannot bear to allow themselves the hope that it could be otherwise.
Hope makes everything hurt more, and some people are uncomfortable with uncertainty. This attitude hurts people. It’s been demonstrated that those with faith in an afterlife cope better with life’s stresses, and can even live longer.
That is not an argument to believe. Based purely on the facts, on rational assessment, there is no reason to believe or disbelieve, and no particular consequences either way. So maybe we should leave it up to our hearts? A bit more trust of ourselves wouldn’t hurt. Try out the other side’s point of view, see how it feels to live with it, but don’t get tangled up in lists and logic and thought; see how it feels.
Dean Teasdale
Gateshead, Tyne & Wear