THE CONCEPT OF THE AFTERLIFE AS AN IMPERATIVE

Argument for the Life Hereafter ~ 213 ~ activity involved is far more subtle and complex than the instincts which move animals, birds and insects to be provident—for example, the ant storing food for the winter and the weaver bird weaving a nest in time for the arrival of her offspring. These activities take place, not as the result of forethought, but as the result of instinctive compulsions. There is no conscious, intellectual effort on their part. To keep ‘tomorrow’ in mind and then think about it and plan for it requires the capacity for conceptual thought—the privilege of man alone. No other living organism is known to have been endowed with such a capacity. Had there been no ‘tomorrow’ for mankind, civilisation could never have developed in the way it has, for the concept of ‘tomorrow’ is inextricably linked with the desire for an improved, future life. The absence of this concept would have been a contradiction in the face of nature. The desire for a better life is often equated with the desire to escape the unpleasant consequences of failure or from general conditions of adversity, and that once a society becomes stable and prosperous, this yearning simply disappears. Roman slaves, for