THE CONCEPT OF THE AFTERLIFE AS AN IMPERATIVE

Argument for the Life Hereafter ~ 210 ~ But the same author rejects this great call from nature on the basis of certain trifling misgivings: Now this appears a very reasonable theory as long as we do not examine it closely, and as long as we do not carry out its propositions to their full extent. But when we do so we find that it conducts us to absurdity as we shall very quickly prove. The souls of idiots, not being responsible for their sins, will go to heaven, the soul of such men as Goethe and Rousseau are in danger of hell-fire. Therefore it is better to be born an idiot than to be born a Goethe or a Rousseau and that is altogether absurd.11 His rejection is just like Lord Kelvin’s refusal to accept the results of Maxwell’s research. Lord Kelvin asserted that unless he could develop a mechanical model of whatever was under scientific consideration, he could not attest to his understanding it. That is why he did not accept Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light as it could not be fitted into his material frame. Today such a notion seems quite absurd in the world of