Wacky Proofs for
Afterlife Examined
PREFACE
Several philosophers have desired to encourage the
selfish wish of people to live forever by trying to provide them with
philosophical proof that the afterlife exists. Such attempts collapse under
fallacies.
OCCULT ARGUMENTS FOR HEREAFTER
If you believe in magic it would seem to be a basis for holding that you can
have eternal life beyond death. I have refuted the power of magic in my book,
Magic Doesn’t Work.
You could cast a spell to make you survive death.
But when the occult says that we can only succeed with magic if we cast spells
that natural law permits what if nature has the law that you cannot survive?
And also, the beings that have survived death could be casting spells to prevent
your survival. The less who survive the more they have to enjoy.
And Spiritism, communication with supernatural beings or the spirits of the dead
proves nothing because the power of mind over matter or clairvoyance could
account for the really supernatural events if they happen. The dead would hardly
come back to talk to us when we cannot be sure if it is them who are speaking to
us. Spiritism does not demonstrate life after death. How can it when you need
mind over matter to be able to communicate with them and when you have that
psychic power it could be creating the spirits that talk to you out of your own
resources for all you know.
THE POWER OF LOVE?
Consider this,
Nobody can honestly say that the cosmos and the earth with all their awesome
wonder and complexity were not designed by an intelligence.
There is no higher being than a human being so we must have made all things for
we have occult and magic powers. We prefer to be embodied to have feelings and
sometimes we would take a suffering body for some noble purpose and have the
power of mind over matter. This power only works when it is done in a spirit of
love. Love is rational therefore you have to know what reason tells you to
believe and believe it first. You want your enemies to change and everybody to
be happy. Evil is caused by neglecting to use the power of love. Black magic is
impossible.
If you use the power of love you improve yourself in your heart and your own
happiness though you will have some setbacks. The power will not make you win
money even if you believe you want it to help the needy for you must simply will
that the best that can happen will happen.
It you use the power as a substitute for action it will not work for that is an
unloving abuse of it. Somebody has to work to make the world nicer. You have to
be there for other people so that the power can help them. The power could be
unlimited but we haven’t the capacity to use all of it and never will. But it
will always be available.
We existed before we were born and so death will not terminate our existence.
Who needs God with such a simple and wonderful doctrine? We adore love instead
of God.
Sceptics cannot refute every instance that gives evidence for psychic power. We
should try our best to refute magical claims but if we come up against something
that is irrefutable and convincing then we have no right to say there is no
evidence for psychic power. A testimony that stands must be accepted as true.
This argument is full of holes.
Love is only a feeling. The argument supposes that the first being was made by
chance. How did that being learn to love when it was all alone? And why does
love cause us to have vulnerable bodies that can die? It would make more sense
for us to be immortal than for us to die and have to be reborn or preserved
without a body. And if love power worked people would improve and love more and
hate would not exist by now. And as for the experiments proving love’s magical
power, they prove no such thing because psychics are not saints. Uri Gellar
supposedly bends spoons but why doesn’t he expend his energy on forcing nature
to deliver up the secret cures for killer diseases?
ARE WE THE MAKERS?
Let us examine another version of the belief that we made all things.
It goes,
“All things were made by intelligent beings. Since there is no being greater
than us, we must be those beings.
We must be beings which can live without the body for we must have existed
before we made bodies. There is no way of knowing if we came into existence or
always existed. Our souls would perhaps be made of matter that does not obey the
laws of the kind of matter we see around us. They are invisible. If the universe
returns to what it was “before” the Big Bang” we would need to be able to
survive this as disembodied beings. Would we have free will in the disembodied
state? We cannot believe this for there is no evidence that free will is even
possible.
We must have power over matter and have the power to influence one another but
we are not all-powerful. Why then are we imperfect? Why do we suffer? Why do we
die? If we can control matter as if by magic then there is no need for evil. But
why have we come here at all? We have faulty minds. We are not right in the
head.”
There might have been beings greater than us at one time.
Evil refutes the theory for we would not be that mad. We wouldn't tolerate evil
if we had magical powers now so the madness idea does not wash with the
rational. We are all so different so why couldn’t the sensible souls change us?
We often change from evil to good seeing the evil as bad.
Perhaps we have come here because our disordered minds can only be fixed or
arranged to be fixed by becoming vulnerable human beings to suffer and work to
end the problem? It might be right for there are some strange laws. But if we
have miracle powers we shouldn’t need to become incarnate.
It is said, “When something seems to make a person worse as a person, that is
like making a person very sick so that some time in the future a more terrible
disease will be averted”.
This is the dangerous notion that evil and suffering should be approved of as
they only exist for a good purpose that makes them worthwhile so that they
should be welcomed! This notion is why I am so severe against belief in God.
We could put ourselves into a permanent state of everlasting happiness if we
have unique powers.
It is said, “We have given up our powers to become human which is why we cannot
use our powers over matter now”. If we do that so that we can be made better,
then we can use that power to make ourselves be perfect for we would not let it
go. Why can’t the disembodied spirits help us if we cannot help ourselves?
When we program the will and control matter we should have been able to make
ourselves perfectly happy and contented. Why make people evil to cure them when
all you have to do is to prevent the evil from coming out? Evil is looking for
the wrong kind of good so real good would satisfy us and we would not do evil.
Consider how positive and happy thinking can lead to inner transformation and to
a charming and decent personality.
We can suffer all we need in a few minutes and have the lessons of life
implanted in ourselves instead of coming to earth to do it the hard way.
The theory implies reincarnation because if we are nuts one dose of earth-life
will not be enough. There would be no need for death if we need to be
reincarnated so reincarnation is a false theory except when a person murders
over a programming mistake and when it is not meant to be.
The theory says that committing murder is not wrong for the person would not be
allowed to die unless he or she were ready. But that is silly for very evil
people have been murdered.
The disembodied persons should be able to stop you from killing when they know
it is not meant to be.
Eternity is the state in which no past or future but only the present exists.
Each moment of time is rolled into the present in it.
Any human being who enters eternity after living on earth is there even before
he was born on earth. Because all time is made into one.
That same person would have infinite power – that is, all possible power that
can exist – if he or she has any psychic power at all because once the power is
used it will still be there and it can be used ad infinitum.
But in that case, we must all become one person or one almighty God for two
persons cannot each have all power that can exist, that is unlimited power. That
is absurd for suffering proves that there is no God.
If we enter eternity at death or any time then it is proven that nobody has
psychic power. Reason scoffs at the mystics who claim to be able to transcend
time and slip into eternity when they go into their trances. We might think,
“Mystics such as Zen Buddhists and monistic Hindus make such ludicrous claims.
If they really were in eternity where there is no past and future but only a
present that never changes how did they get out of eternity? And especially when
they shut down all mental activity? You need activity and the power to work in
time to escape and if the eternal state is so terrific who would want to? Since
they would still be in eternity when they emerge they would be able to utilize
infinite psychic power if there is such power for being in eternity they are
better than anything in time. Eternity is unlimited and time is limited. Their
minds become unlimited in power for what is put into eternity can never be
depleted for there is no change in eternity.”
The reply of the defenders of the mystics to these objections is that if you
reach the eternal state all you want to do is enjoy the bliss and you will not
use any powers when you come back to earth-level. Relishing the bliss is what
you do with all your powers and when you come back to earth-level there is
nothing left for anything else. The mystics are in eternity forever but they are
also in time so they have to come back to time. Time is like an ante-chamber of
eternity which is how they can be in both at the one time. Their past self is in
eternity but the self after that is back in time.
The reply does not work for even if you leave your awareness in eternity to come
back to time when you would be happier if you never returned to time it is clear
that you would not come back to time at all especially when time is supposed to
be a bad thing that keeps you away from the state of eternal happiness that is
your right.
The theory that mad minds made all things and we are some of these minds
incarnated is dangerous for it implies that when we went to all the trouble of
becoming human beings to act mad that we should act that way and the madder we
are the better for then the more we will be fixed for the next time we are
reincarnated.
Nobody has the power to make themselves.
THE GOSPEL OF EVOLUTIONS
One reason religion thrives is because it offers a promise of everlasting life.
People can argue that death is not evil for we will just slip out of existence.
But it and this argument are evil for it is better to exist.
This is a theory that might be right:
“Evolution is not one force but billions of forces which is why things evolve at
different rates and conflicts between laws can cause setbacks. Things that seem
never to improve may just be so slow that we cannot notice. Let the word
evolution be on our lips no more. It is evolutions.”
“There is no way the powers could let death be the end. If we do cease to exist
they will bring us back.
“Evolutions causes death when we would make more progress in a new existence
but sometimes accidents will happen, in us the laws work to perfect our bodies
and minds so that we will be perfectly good and happy. Evolutions must be
enthroned in the place of God.
“This is the simplest theory therefore we should accept it for it is our duty
to agree with what is the most rational.
“Sometimes people suffer in order that we may help them and evolve. We should
not believe that people should suffer for Evolutions should be able to eradicate
all suffering. If Evolutions did not happen on this world it happened on
another.
“We know that the mind can survive death when children who have hardly any
brain matter still have minds for the mind is something that is plugged onto the
body and is not the brain. The mind is a machine made of undetectable matter. It
is not spirit for if a spirit goes unconscious then it would be non-existent for
its nature is to be aware. And being without parts there would have to be no
forgetting or making mistakes. That we have no souls or spirits is proven.
Physics hints that the mind can exist even after being disembodied (page 229,
God and the New Physics).
The theory that evolution points to everlasting life is also argument five for
life after death in Handbook of Christian Apologetics. It just adds the idea
that evolution is God’s design so he would not let death end all when he went to
all that hard work through evolution. But if that is true then why has evolution
led us to the ability to create nuclear weapons and destroy all life on earth?
That nobody has pushed the red button yet is not the point. The point is that
even evolution cannot stop some lunatic getting access to the button. If that
happens evolution only wasted its time for it is not geared for life in a spirit
world but life on earth.
The reply to this is that evolutions might not be able to make immortals but
makes mortals on the basis that it is better to have a bit of loaf than no
bread. What if the power incorrectly thinks that we live on?
MADE BY FREE AGENTS?
Here is the reasoning behind the notion that we made all
things and caused evil and suffering by the misuse of free will before we became
human beings.
A: Minds may have always existed or were made by chance and evolved themselves
as far as they could. Like thoughts, they are made of undetectable matter. They
had some scientific or strange power over matter so they made all things from
chaos. They became human beings.
They had free will, the power to choose evil or good. Because if they had not
they would have made themselves perfectly happy. They wanted to be happy but
would not let themselves be. They may have made their free will dormant to
become human if we don’t have free will. And they gave up their powers.
COMMENT: There is no need for them to become human or to abandon their powers so
this is silly. Leaving your powers aside enables other stronger beings to do
what they like with you. It is dangerous. We don’t have free will now but really
evil beings would not give up free will in order to do more deliberate evil.
Can we be blamed for the evil we do now even if we don’t use free will now on
the grounds that when we had free will we chose bodies with evil tendencies and
to be born amid circumstances that drew us into evil and error? Is it like a man
hypnotising himself to commit murder in a trance – he did not mean to commit the
crime when he committed it but it was his fault?
No. If you give up free will you are no longer to blame. You are only to blame
as long as you have free will.
We have to treat people like they have no free will and never had just in case.
It is not true that denial of human free will destroys our way of life and human
dignity.
A: We came here to be able to do things we could not do in the pre-existent
state.
COMMENT: When we were able to make the world we were able to communicate with
one another and imagine ourselves to be in paradise forever so what more would
we want?
And if we have such great powers what did we make the rest of the universe for?
Why didn’t we do something better with them? If we are Gods we don’t need to be
on earth.
CONCLUSION
Most doctrines of the afterlife are silly and obviously false. However it is
still possible that we survive death. We have no rational reason however to
think that we do and to really care for our lives in this world we have to
abandon the concept.
BOOKS CONSULTED
AFTER DEATH – WHAT? Fred Pearce, Christadelphian Publishing Office, Birmingham
ETERNAL LIFE, Hans Kung, Collins, London, 1984
GOD AND THE NEW PHYSICS, Paul Davies, Penguin Books, London, 1990
HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch,
East Sussex, 1995
JEHOVAH OF THE WATCHTOWER, Walter Martin and Norman Klann, Bethany House
Publishers, Minnesota, 1974
IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? Paul Kroll, Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena,
California, 1988
MIND OUT OF TIME, Ian Wilson, Gollanez, London, 1981
LIFE AFTER DEATH THE WONDERFUL FACTS, Alan Hayward, Christadelphian, ALS,
Birmingham
REASONS FOR HOPE, Ed Jeffrey A Mirus, Christendom College Press, Virginia, 1982
THE AFTER DEATH EXPERIENCE, Ian Wilson, Corgi, London, 1987
THE DEVIL HIDES OUT, David Marshall, Autumn House, Grantham, 1991
THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING, Fulton J Sheen, Image Books, New York, 1979
THE INCREDIBLE CREED OF JEHOVAH WITNESSES, Frs Rumble & Carty, TAN, Illinois,
1977
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HEAVEN? Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Publishers, Oregon, 1988
The Web
www.csicop.org/sb/9803/reincarnation.html
Case of Reincarnation Re-examined by Joe Nickell. This refutes the reincarnation
claims of Jenny Cockell.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM:
The Amplified Bible