THE CONCEPT OF THE AFTERLIFE AS AN IMPERATIVE

Argument for the Life Hereafter ~ 223 ~ rewards in the after life, whereas a weak, immoral man will find himself propelled towards the straight and narrow path of virtue by his inner fear of the punishment that awaits him after death. These motivations will be far stronger and more effective than any external, artificial sanctions. This holds for everyone, whether in a superior or a subordinate position, be it in darkness or in light, in private or in public. The moment one seriously considers the fact that tomorrow, if not actually today, one will be made to stand before God Almighty on the Day of Reckoning, and that God, having kept a watch over everyone, will indeed sit in judgement on that day, one will be stiffened in one’s resolve to perform only good and right actions and to eschew all that is base and evil. On this most important of religious beliefs, Mathew Hales, an eminent jurist of the late seventeenth century commented: “To say that religion is a cheat is to dissolve all those obligations whereby civil societies are preserved.”14 How meaningful is the concept of the life hereafter when seen even from this angle. Even unbelievers who refute the notion that a day of judgement is an