LIFE AFTER DEATH

‘death’ five times in a row at ten-year intervals, how are we justified in believing that, on the ultimate occasion, he will have ceased quite finally to live? Those who find this argument unacceptable—and modern philosophy is, in the main, opposed to the concept of the soul as an independent entity—will insist that the mind, or the internal entity, that is called man does not, in fact, enjoy any independent existence. Man is simply the outcome of the interaction between the body and the outer world. All feelings and thoughts in man develop in the course of a material process, just as friction between two pieces of metal causes heat. Sir James Jeans is of the view that consciousness is merely a function or a process, and contemporary philosophers maintain that consciousness is nothing more than a nervous response to external stimuli. According to this concept, once a man dies, that is, when he biologically disintegrates, there can be no question of his survival, because the nerve centres which interact with the outside world and produce a set of responses which we call ‘life’ no longer exist after death. The concept of life after death, viewed in this way, appears irrational and unconnected with reality. It must be pointed out at this juncture, that if this is the sum total of man’s existence, we should certainly be in a position to create a man—a conscious, living being. Today we are highly knowledgeable about the elements which make up the human body. All of these are, obtainable in abundance, beneath the surface of the earth and in the atmosphere. We have examined in great detail the internal system of the body with a microscopic ‘eye’ and we are very well aware of how the skeleton, blood vessels, tissues, etc. have been constructed. Moreover, we have the services of so many expert artists who can copy the human body to perfection. If the opponents of the ‘soul’—concept are truly convinced that their views are correct, they should prove their point by constructing ‘human’ bodies, placing them in sets of circumstances where they receive the correct number and type of stimuli and then demonstrating to the rest of the world how these inert bodies begin to move about and talk in response to their environment. The plain fact that no man can create another man in this artificial way, that no man can breathe the spark of life into a lifeless lump of flesh, should The process of the death and decomposition of the body goes on continually, whereas the inner man survives in his original form.