The Afterlife Hypothesis
 |
Where do we go after we die? To many, this question is both simple and obvious. The belief of an immortal soul is a core teaching in all of the most popular religions in the world today. Among the Abrahamic religions, i.e. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, God judges the faith and or works of all who die and appoints them to either heaven or hell. While Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs all believe in the reincarnation of the soul, or energy, into another being. However, the growing number of atheists, agnostics and people unaffiliated with religion seem to take on a more nihilistic approach where existence begins at birth and ends in death, with no continuation of the consciousness in any known form. Despite identifying as an agnostic atheist myself, I do not subscribe to a state of definitive oblivion. Yet I also fully admit that there is no evidence outside of subjective, anecdotal experiences that can establish a scientific theory for the reality of an afterlife, and that the cessation of existence seems to be the most probable outcome. Nevertheless, new discoveries are made concerning the world around us consistently in the realm of science, and what may have been considered unsolvable or only hypothetical in the past later becomes reality or theoretically functional. With that in mind, I have considered the plausibility of post-mortem existence quite extensively since I parted from religious explanations of mortality, and I would like to share a few ideas and concepts that I believe may hold some potential for what lies beyond the veil of death.
Before I delve into the more secular hypotheses, I’d like to take a brief overview of the belief I was taught growing up in the Mormon faith. According to the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there are multiple stages of the spiritual journey after death. At the advent of our demise, our spirit supposedly enters a parallel dimension on earth called the spirit world, which is separated into two categories: paradise and prison, and serves as a sort of waiting room until the resurrection. After returning to life, there will be a judgment before God, and we will all be sent to live in one of three degrees of glory: the Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial Kingdoms. The highest glory, the Celestial Kingdom, is where those who lived good lives, have faith in Jesus Christ, and fulfilled all of the required covenants go to dwell in the presence of God, and eventually become Gods themselves. The second Kingdom is the Terrestrial glory, designated to those who believe in God, but hit a ceiling in regards to faithfulness. Last and certainly least, the Telestial kingdom is for those who lived sinful lives, and or did not accept Jesus Christ when given the chance. Before entering this particular kingdom, however, they will have to suffer a form of hell for a thousand years because of their unrepentant natures. On the plus side, it is believed that even the lowest kingdom “surpasses all understanding” in terms of glory and beauty. There is also a state of existence known as Perdition, or Outer Darkness, that is similar to the classic version of hell, but that is only reserved for Satan, his followers, and the few who gain an absolute knowledge of God and still betray Him.
Now, what are some explanations for an afterlife that is not based in religious dogma? The first intriguing idea I would like to present is that we enter some kind of dreamscape, where all conscious life contributes to an alternate plane of existence. I base this hypothesis on the many stories out there of deceased loved ones visiting the living in their dreams, the traditions of dream-based visions, psychedelic experiences, and the plethora of near death accounts could all possibly be forms of high lucidity dreaming and connecting to a more powerful source of consciousness. I speculate that we manifest our own reality in the dreamscape, depending on our own disposition, and possibly the influence of other conscious beings. Because the dreamscape would be a collective consciousness, people may have some ability to come and go from their own realities and into others’ realities. It is also possible that this existence could be a form of paradise or hell predicated on the life the individual led. To illustrate this, say a murderer dies and enters the dreamscape, but they are burdened with the guilt of murder and perhaps the influence of those he killed that would plague their consciousness with manifestations of nightmares that are beyond their control. It may take that person a long time to come to terms with his actions and stabilize their dreamworld. While those who enter the dreamscape with little to no regret can more easily create their personal utopias and connect with friends and family in shared realities. To be clear, there is no hard evidence to support this idea. I in no way advocate it to be true, only that it is a plausibility which may explain intensive dream related occurrences.
This next afterlife scenario has gained traction among scientific and philosophical communities world wide and it is called the simulation hypothesis. The concept goes that the world as we know it is a simulation, or in other words a sort of virtual reality within a greater reality. Though the idea of questioning reality has been around going back to the 4th century BC with Zhuangzi’s Butterfly dream, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the idea really only started entering the mainstream with The Matrix: a movie about a man named Neo who is freed from a virtual prison where he and most of humanity are farmed by malevolent robots. Fiction, however, is not the only support for this hypothesis. Scientists who entertain the notion point to quantum physics and the erratic behavior of certain subatomic particles like photons and electrons that, when isolated, seem to blip in and out of existence, or change in behavior depending solely on whether or not the experiment was being observed. Some physicists believe this is empirical evidence to suggest that the universe we live in is not as concrete as we would think, and that it could be artificial. What is interesting about this hypothesis is that it could also allude to the possibility of intelligent design since someone somewhere would have had to create a virtual universe.
If the simulation hypothesis is in fact true, then I see two possible outcomes. The first being that we are also completely created by the simulation. If that were the case, then free will is in fact an illusion created by algorithms. Though a more positive way of looking at it is maybe our consciousnesses are being downloaded and saved for some purpose further on in the program? This would grant the potential for an afterlife even within the simulation. The other option is that we are avatars projected into the simulation and that we have “real” bodies outside of it, similar to how the Matrix portrays it. If that is the case, then when we die we will awaken from the simulation as if we were playing a very extensive video game. I imagine Abrahamic religions will one day jump on board with this idea, since so much of the physical world is full of contradictions to biblical texts, that a concept where all of those scientific truths are rendered null and void in the face of simulated reality would conveniently bypass all of those thorny issues. Though the simulation hypothesis gives me pause, currently, I do not believe it is the most likely outcome after this life, and only perpetuates the question of reality, and whether there are more layers of simulation beyond that one.
The third and final possible existence beyond death is one that, in my perspective, is the most likely to happen when put into the context of human progression. If we were to time travel and bring a person back from the Renaissance and plop them in the middle of Time Square, what would be their reaction? They would see lights and moving images wrapped around buildings that rise to dizzying heights, giant iron birds would be soaring overhead, and horseless carriages roaring all about them. I imagine they would be completely flabbergasted and think we were gods. If technology and scientific advancement continues at the same rate in another five hundred years, what would society look like then? What about a thousand years? Ten thousand years? The potential for human progression is beyond what the greatest science fiction writers of today can even imagine. But why don’t we take a moment and try to imagine the possibilities? Perhaps we will eventually master nuclear fusion, offering clean, renewable energy with the power of the sun that would replace fossil, natural gas, and other unsustainable fuels. What if the sudden amount of affordable, abundant energy led to more capable space programs and the creation of a lunar base for the purpose of research, exploration and asteroid mining? After that, what is to stop us from colonizing other moons and planets within our solar system; maybe eventually terraforming worlds like Mars and Venus to sustain earth life? What if we crack the secrets of wormholes and are able to transport items and people nearly instantaneously across space and time? What if we do not stop at the interplanetary level, but become an interstellar species that are capable of cultivating worlds without number? Perhaps by then, or even sooner, we may unlock the greatest potential of the human genome, genetic engineering, and even reach that elusive aspiration that mankind has sought since time immemorial: immortality. Now, what if we also figure out how to see back in time and record the lives and genetic codes of all human predecessors so that we could recreate a complete conscious entity from the memories and DNA of each specific individual? In essence, what this concept lays out is the idea that one day our descendants will resurrect everyone who has ever died. I see this as the most plausible explanation mainly because it puts the afterlife squarely within our own hands. While heaven, the dreamscape, and a simulation are all dependent on the assumption that it already exists, this self-resurrection hypothesis has not yet come to pass, but can one day as long as humans are capable of overcoming the myriad of crises now and into the future.
One last point I’d like to make is, even if one of the previous hypotheses were actually true, or peradventure the Abrahamic faiths or specifically, the CJCLDS has it right, then it wouldn’t matter anyway, and there would be no harm in aiming for this latter goal. The alternative, however, is annihilation and the eventual cessation of existence. Personally, I’d rather be wrong and laughing at my foolishness in whatever paradise or purgatory I wind up in, than place all my eggs in one basket, only to find they all fell through the bottom. Many atheists have accepted, and perhaps have even embraced, the idea of nihilism. I’ve spoken to some who have told me that they wouldn’t want to live forever even if they were given the option. In the same breath, I’ve also spoken to religiously minded people who said they would not want to exist if there were no God. For myself, I just feel sad that people are so resigned to the possibility of oblivion. I suppose a better question would be, if you had the chance to accomplish every goal and every aspiration you hoped to achieve in life, would you take it? That, perhaps, would change the discussion a little bit. The goal for existence, in my mind, is to reach self-fulfillment, as well as aid in the fulfillment of others and the human race at large. One thing that my religious upbringing has taught me is that we all have the potential to become gods. I still believe in that, though under a different context. I believe that the apotheosis of mankind is the direction our race is heading. And if there is an intelligent hand guiding us there, then all the better. But if we are alone, or are meant to sink or swim by our own volition, then it is my most fervent hope that we can get our act together on this small spec of cosmic dust and set a course for eternal progression.
Comments
Post a Comment