Is there an Afterlife?

(Cleethorpes Boating Lake taken with my Praktica)

Sadly my 92 year old Mum passed away on Thursday, the 12^th December 2013. She was a great woman. Her passing is a stark reminder of our mortality. So is there an afterlife?

On Thursday, 12^th December 2013, my 92 year old Mum passed on at 9.20 AM. My two nephews Nick and Phil Gamble wrote fine tributes to her loving nature, spiced with a sharp sense of humour.

For many months Mum resisted a long list of illnesses including breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, Paget’s Disease and latterly dementia. What finished her was an inability to swallow leading to extreme weight loss.

Although her passing was not unexpected, it served as a stark reminder of our mortality. Again I have to ask, is there an afterlife.

At the risk of speaking heresy again, Science does not give much comfort. No Earthly life form has achieved any known state of immortality. Apparently certain species of jellyfish are technically “immortal” because they “revert to youth” instead of dying. Sounds like a Dr. Who “Regeneration”!

Some trees are apparently hundreds or even thousands of years old, but none seem to be immortal. More to the point, there is no scientific evidence that we each have a “soul” that lives on after “Death”.

Not that Science knows everything. Maybe the soul exists at some sub-atomic level or something.

Our main hope of salvation, however, is that this Earthly “Material World” is not the be all and end all of Existence. Perhaps there is some “Spiritual World” that lies beyond the “Material”. Maybe our Universe is but a Virtual Computer Simulation as in “The Matrix”. Or it could be that there is another “dimension” that overlaps with ours.

Call it what you will, I pin my hope on some “Alternate Realm”, somewhere beyond our universe of matter, space and time.

Yes I would Love at least one of our World Religions to be true. Wish I could go further and have “Faith” but I honestly cannot. I have to keep an open mind on these things.

Actually it remains possible that our ancient Religions were based on Mankind having encounters with extra-terrestrial beings. There is some compelling evidence that many religious “myths” were created by such meetings etc.

As I say, I’m open to any “theory”, but not yet convinced by any. I simply Hope that there IS an afterlife. There seems little point in Life evolving only for it all to die. True, people die so that new generations can live. But again what’s the point if each generation is mortal?

I just pray there is more to this than meets the eye, as they say.

Paul Butters

PS I may only hope rather than have faith, but at least I feel that I long for something that is “Good”. A man I know is horrified at the thought of being immortal. I cannot take for granted that my reverence for Life is shared by all. Nor that my notion of “Goodness” (or “Evil”) is universally accepted.

PPS 13\10\14 - There may be an alternative - http://www.immortal-jellyfish.com/
- A Dr. Who-like Regeneration!!!