Everyone dies. Most never consider this. Most pass their days as if their immediate circumstances are all that matter – and I am often not an exception. But one day cold hard reality will hit. We will die.

And what happens after we die? Have you ever considered this?

Is it the extinguishment of your consciousness? Does everything black out like dreamless sleep? Will it be as if you never existed?

Life would be such a waste if we go into nothingness. Whatever purpose your life had would become totally unknown to you, and to all, ultimately. It would be a state inconceivable to us now.

Do you go into some energy matrix? Are you “one” with the universe? Well, what does that mean? Are you still conscious as a self-aware entity with free will? Are you conscious and self-aware but trapped forever to watch the universe unfold like a plant in a desert? Or does this “oneness” mean you are not conscious and not self-aware, which, to me, I see as no different than the extinguishment of consciousness already mentioned.

Do you believe in reincarnation? Will you come back as a blade of grass? A cricket? A sea horse? A shark? A bear? A man? A woman? Something else? Do you believe that souls are recycled for eons until they are perfected, or is that just something you tell yourself so you don’t have to face the reality of the permanence of the death of your current body, and the eternity that will come after you are no more?

We will all look into the abyss. We will all get closer to its edge and stare into the vast unknown until we take that final step. You will take it. Have you ever dwelled upon that last moment? That last breath? Or are you afraid to think about your own death?

I cannot lie and say I don’t fear death. I cannot say I don’t fear the unknown. I do. Yet, the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ brings hope and courage to my current life.

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You can say man invented God as an opiate to avoid the fear of death. You can say that you are fear-free, and that you are as indifferent to the moment of your death as you are indifferent to the moment in which you will fall asleep tonight. So be it. I would say that makes you one of the most unique beings ever created. However, it is far more likely that you simply haven’t considered the enternity of the next state you will be walking into, and whether that eternity is a place you wish to be, or do not wish to be.

You can say “science” explains all through the Big Bang and Evolution. All is only material. There is no Creator imbuing spirit. However, the irreducible complexity of the motor functions of a mere paremecium is only the beginning of ever-increasing levels of complexity of all life within the delicate balance of the earth and universe. One, the chance of one life evolving from non-life and, two, that new life continuing to evolve into ever-more complex beings upon a planet so perfectly conducive to this purported evolution is mathematically impossiblle. It’s like a print shop exploding, and from the rubble appear 10,000 perfect King James Bibles. It can’t happen.

I say the atheist denies God as his own opiate. He denies God because he does not want to recognize that a Creator bestowing upon us the gift of life and spirit requires that we abide by rules or laws necessary not just for the promulgation of life, but also for its flourishing. His vanity and pride get the best of him. It makes him feel good to denounce the “sky daddies” others put their faith in. It makes him feel like he is strong and smart while others are stupid and weak. Plus, without a recognition of rules, he can do as he wants. There is no such thing as sin.

Can I prove this? No. I profess it as faith.

After all, we as human beings do not possess the capabilities to pierce the greatest of mysteries. In this life, in these physical bodies, we do not have the capactiy to know exactly where we come from and where we go when we die, like we can know the gravitational constant of the earth is 9.8 m/s2. But there are answers to these mysteries. There can ONLY be answers.

Whether we recognize so or not, we all have religions that posit those answers, if but to ourselves. We all have a creed of faith that explains to us the origins and nature of the universe. Atheism is a religion too.

But is it right? Is there no Creator God? Is life a freak accident? Are you thus mere evolved slime? And is there no soul that continues on consciousness after death?

Again, faith.

I do belive there is an eternal part of our being that will see beyond the limits of these mysteries our minds currently perceive. Again, the complexity and wonder of life evinces to me a Creator, and I cannot believe our Creator created us, and imbued us with the power of consciousness, love and efficacy to make the world better only to take all this away from us when we die. No. We do have eternal souls.

In fact, without an eternal soul that experiences consciousness in some medium, like a heaven or hell, life is purposeless. It could only be so by definition. A purpose is something set up as an object or end to be attained. That purpose could only be established by what created you. If chaos, or random nothingness, created you, it cannot be said there was a conscious mind creating you for a higher or nobler purpose. It can only be said your existence is accidental. And if accidental, than purposeless. Change my mind!

Thus, what else could you be but a freak amalgamation of elements?You are mere evolved slime. Consciousness is an illusion. All that you think has value is vanity. You are living one big lie.

Thus, what difference would it make how you live your life? After all, as the freak accidents we could only be without a soul, why be good? Why love, and forgive, and be charitable? If the murderer and the saint have the same end, what does life matter?

Do you believe you have a soul? Will you experience some thing as your flesh rots? And if so, will you experience that medium for an eternity? If so, what will it be like? Will you have free will? Will you be an agent for change? Or will you be that plant in the desert, that conscious vegetable?

Don’t ignore death all your life. You can’t. I can’t imagine what terrors befall those who try to when they must face it.