We know there is life because we are alive.  We have seen deaths, and it is clear we won't live forever.  But this is my view.  Buddhists might disagree.  While I don't think there is any kind of afterlife, most religions promise or suggest that there is something after you die.  Aside for attempting to sway people into being better human beings, perhaps this final carrot at the end is why religion has done so well in the history of humanity.  Even if reality turns out to be my viewpoint, at least many religious-inclined individuals gain the benefit of some psychological relief about the coming inevitability. Hindu and Buddhism teach origins quite different from Islam and Christianity, but these two have rather similar beginnings because they developed in adjacent locales.  For Christians, in the beginning God created the heavens and Earth. Only on the fifth day did He bring forth life, in the seas and also flying creatures . Land animals and us came on Day 6.   Well, us mean

I've been subscribing on and off to Free Inqui ry for several years.  However, I never get much of a chance to read it, the issues piled up and, because I had for the first time in a long time read all the Time , National Geographic, Scientific American , and a few other mags, just happened to pick up a 2015 issue of  FI headlined as The Myth of an Afterlife . This bimonthly treats: Common themes such as   separation of church and state ,   science and religion , dissemination of freethought, and   applied philosophy . Regular contributors include well-known scholars in the fields of science and philosophy. For the next few Sundays I'll feature articles from this publication.  First, a contribution by the editor, Tom Flynn, the Introduction to The Myth of an Afterlife : He went to Amazon.com Books Department to search for the keyword afterlife, and found 9,209 results.   The first page yielded only books about the afterlife.  There was not one skeptical view.  Most of them

  MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR. YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:       WHY ARE WE HERE?  WHERE WILL WE GO? From  Worldometer :            DAY   USA     WORLD     Brazil        India     South Africa June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82 July     19      412    4606          715       675          85            22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572 Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193           10       534     4813         593     1013        198           12     1504     6556       1242       835