THE AFTERLIFE
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Part 2 - "Afterlife Style: Religion?"
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In Part 1, we established that three is an afterlife based on the three items: the metaphysical quality of life, the principal of the universality of the laws of nature and the principal of the conservation of energy (or E=mc2).

The next question is what will the afterlife be like? This is usually the sticky part of the conversation where the issue of "which religion is correct" rears its ugly head. Then the whole exercise denigrates into a morass of pointless argument between believers. So let us do away with it as best we can and move on.

A useful model for logically and objectively choosing a religion or belief system is to take the hypothetical case of an individual who has appeared in this world from say, a hole in the ground. This person is intelligent and well read, yet has no personal background and so has no cultural bias, no family ties, no nationalistic ties; essentially he has no "people". But he must live a human life from the word "go". This person becomes worried about what happens after his death and so decides to choose the best religion.

How does he do this and pick the right religion? It's an arduous task. There are many different religions and most have belief systems that are mutually exclusive of the others. Most all religions condemn non-believers to eternal torment. It's a bit of a quandary.

As well, all have deep historical roots and some are quite elegant and advanced. Many have sacred texts that form the basis of the religion. Most religions had a church with a hierarchy. Each church claims to be the one true church chosen by God for representation (legal and otherwise) on this earth. As well, most have information to back that claim up in one-way or another. They all look pretty good in their own ways. Who wouldn't want to have the promised 72 virgins waiting for them upon thier Islamic matryrdom?

So which one is right? I'm not going to even try to answer that here. My point is that they all think they are right to the exclusion of everyone else. This is like everyone thinking they have good taste and a decent sense of humor, but not everyone does.

Some people try to be diplomatic and say that whatever you believe in will be your afterlife. On the principal of consistency, it is more likely that the afterlife will be what it is, regardless of what we want. Good people suffer and the evil sometimes succeeds. Wanting or believing something to be some way is not enough to change it in this world. Why would anything change after death?

Based on these observations, we cannot change the afterlife based on what we believe. At the same time, we have no real guide as to which religion is the right one. Logically and objectively, it's not possible to answer this question. This may be not a sound argument, but since no religion can prove they are the right one objectively, who can any of them be right?

The answer to the question lies with in the person themselves, and their relationship to this world and whatever god they sense is here. So the decision must be made in a subjective context, reliant upon the individual. It follows that if you have to chose what to belive in, why would you want a church between you and what you belive? Why would you put religion between you and your God?

Religion is helpful, but ultimately it's the individual that dies and has to deal with it however best they can. Once you are dead, you're gonna have to deal with whatever is waiting there for you. No matter what you want it to be like, it will be.

In Part 3, "Afterlife Style: What will I sense?" We'll think about what it may be like now that we have done away with the notion of religion's effects on your post death experience. Coming Soon!