Death: The Final Frontier

Death. Our greatest fear. Our imminent end. But why is it so terrifying? Nothing is definitively understood about what happens to the ‘eternal soul’ when the body dies. Since humans first came into existence, we have tried to explain phenomena around us. These include everything from weather to childbirth and even from the birth of everything to the death of everything. Religion is a culmination and collection of these explanations often tied together with a story of supreme beings.

But is death really final? Just like humans have struggled to comprehend the world around us, we have also struggled with the concept of permanency. Even our modern permanent markers- there are tips to get out even sharpie ink. So why should death be more permanent than our markers? So stems our belief in the afterlife. We spend our whole lives culminating a personality, a unique intelligence with knowledge. We cannot seem to comprehend that it is all for nothing; that it all just ends when the body finally gives out. Be it an afterlife in another world like Christianity, Islam, and even many pagan beliefs, or reincarnation like Buddhism and Hinduism, humans insist on death not being the end. 

Most mainstream religions believe in some version of the afterlife, often times divided by how 'good' you were while on Earth. And, often times, it is our actions while alive that determine where we spend our eternal life. Even the norse had a division of afterlives between the honorable warriors going to Valhalla and the common people going to Hel. What most of us are likely more familiar with is the Christian concept of heaven and hell. You do good deeds while alive as a Christian and you go to heaven. You do bad things, Christian or not, and you go to hell. If you do good but aren't a Christian... That is a point Christians argue over constantly. Regardless, it is that hope of eternal bliss that drives some people, and sometimes entire cultures, to do better: for fear of what hell might be like. 

The interesting turning point in all of this is actually the typical flood myth. Like creation, almost all religions have a flood myth. Often times before the flood, humans are long lived and sometimes even abused by their creators. But after the world is washed away, the lifespans become dramatically shorter, humans are left more to their own devices without divine intervention, and belief is 'restored' because only the faithful are saved. Christianity explains this sudden reduction in lifespan as an intended consequence of the flood. 

Regardless of what happens when our body dies, it is inevitably going to happen. I think rather than focusing on what comes next, we ought to focus more on what we have left behind and how we come to terms when the Reaper pays us a visit.