The Search for God Page 2.1.3.2.1
I hate this topic. I disdain that I even need to cover it or discuss it. Yet, death permeates my being; it consumes my mind.
Ever since I was a young child, death has yipped at my heels, assaulted my senses, and played peek-a-boo in my mind.
At nine, the cancer boogeyman brought death that was not sudden, but a long-drawn-out expectation, wondering every day if I would ever see him again. Would I ever sit on his lap and read a book with him again?
The Unknown
Would I ever again stand in amazement in the bowling alley, wondering how he could throw strike after strike? How I hated going to the hospital because of the funny smell but hated myself for my selfishness. Is that why we don’t want to talk or think about death?
Death stares at us down a long corridor, smiling expectantly, waiting, knowing we will enter its domain, each and every one of us. So we turn away, hoping that the boogeyman will go away if we hide under the covers long enough.
See, we all know what death is, but we hide it. I hate facing this topic, and to repeat it should show you how I truly feel about writing this.
Death is separation
Oh, I could use the clinical definition of death: when all physical body functions cease, thus our heart stops beating, and our brain function dims; but really, we are separated from people in this world; a grandfather from his family; a teacher from his students, and the list goes on.
The question we want to know is: Does the soul, the mind, that immaterial part of a human, survive?
- Is there a separation also of body and mind?
- Does anything live on? Or is death the end?
- Is there no more happy ending?
My heart will not go on (no matter what Celine Dion sings in the Titanic).
Is there survival after death?
As humans, we know what happens on this side of death to the body, and we acknowledge the loss of a person’s mind or soul, but is there something else that happens?
Does that immaterial part of us survive?
Isn’t that the real question we want to know? We hope, we speculate, but just like “the red planet”, Mars, until we sent a probe; until we sent a man to the moon, we were only guessing.
The problem with death is that no human has reliably returned from that separation in my lifetime. All books and accounts are about one person “returning fro m the dead.”
We can’t test a scientific premise; we cannot send some explorers. We would have gotten more than enough “DeathTronauts” to go. Death is beyond our observable universe.
We don’t have a telescope large enough, nor have we a microscope powerful enough. Where do we even look? Death is truly an unknown universe we all must visit, but unsure how to prepare.
- What do I bring?
- A bathing suit?
- Sunglasses?
- A paddle to cross the river Styx?
- A coin for the ferryman?
What is death?
- A separation?
- The unknown?
- The final destination for every human?
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Death is a universal absolute truth from man’s perspective.
- Why is that significant?
- Every human must come to grips with the implication of death.
- If you agree, the next steps
- If you disagree, Please Consider Reading
- Why should I care what happens to me after death?
References and Links