Life after Death

While I am on the matter of old age, I might as well get right to the crux of the matter: the big D, and get it out of my chest.

When we are young, life seems limitless. Even when we are at middle age, we are preoccupied with making a living, climbing the corporate ladder, growing a family, building a personal wealth, or whatever else we were busy doing; the matter of growing old is at best a distant glimpse of irrelevance. It's something too far away to worry about. But as time passes, that shadow of old age looms larger every year; and behind that shadow, another, a more ominous one, also appears.

Each individual will have to develop his or her own way to deal with the issue, of course. I just want to lay out my own way to look at it. By so doing, I don't pretend to tell anyone how he/she should treat the matter. Also, discussing the big D inevitably touches on the matter of religious belief, or the lack of it. Again, my religious view has a lot to do with how I deal with the big D, but I don't pretend to influence anyone into adopting my own belief.

Each of today's major religions in the world claims it has THE only real maker of the Universe, and provides some form of life or continued existence after the end of the life on Earth. Christianity provides for Heaven and Hell. Basically the good people go to Heaven and the bad people go to Hell; but those who follow God will be forgiven of their sins and will go to Heaven. (I must admit I am no Bible scholar and this is just a layman's understanding of the matter.) Islam also provides for a life in God's Kingdom after the end of life on Earth. In fact, in Islam life on Earth is but a trial period for the real, eternal life afterwards, when a just God rewards those who believed in him and served him well, and punish those who didn't.

Buddhism doesn't provide an all-mighty maker, but provides for a system of ever-evolving reincarnation, in which a life is "recycled" eternally so there is always life after "death" as the way Nature works. The catch is this: If a person is good by Buddhism standards in this life, he/she will be reincarnated into a good life, most likely in human form, the next time around; if a person is bad by Buddhism standards, he would be recycled into a hard life in human form, or a lower form a life, such as a pig or a mouse or even a single-cell amoeba. The above, obviously, is but a gross oversimplification of the matter.

I do believe that the idea of life after death in Christianity and Islam and the reincarnation system in Buddhism do have a salutary effect on this world; and I believe that that is why they were invented to begin with. They serve to persuade people in this world to behave well and to get along with one another harmoniously. So I think the promise of a good life after death is good if it can achieve that goal. In other words, that is a good trick, but a well-intentioned one.

Now what do I believe? I am not a Christian; I am not a Muslim; I am not a Buddhist, although I do subscribe to a lot of its precepts. I am a Unitarian-Universalist because this is the only spiritual school that I feel comfortable associating with. In terms of the G issue, I consider myself an agnostic: Nothing has persuaded me so far that there is a God; but I am not sure that there can't be some kind of omnipotent force that is responsible for creating and maintaining this world, either. Further, I don't believe we can know the answer for sure in this life; and I don't want to waste my time looking for it.

Is there life after death? I will find out when I die. If there is, I will have to face it whatever it is like. If there isn't, I wouldn't know the difference anyway.

The biggest problem is, of course, the anxiety one has before it comes. How long am I going to live? In what way am I going to die? etc. I don't believe I can possibly know, and I don't want to know. As long as I am healthy and continue to enjoy life, I wish to live forever. But I do accept the fact that life is limited and will end somehow. Whenever life ceases to be enjoyable, there is no point in prolonging it. Government rules notwithstanding.

There are obviously many other aspects of this issue, which I can't possibly address totally at one sitting. I do want to hear others ways to look at the issue. Please comment by talking about your way to look at it.