DEATH AND LIFE

There is no life after death.  Once a living organism ceases to function it simply disintegrates.  Man is no exception.  While in effect, life-energy binds elements together and permits growth.  When it ceases to be operational, the components of an organic structure revert to a non-cohesive state and neither growth nor movement is possible any longer.

The universe contains forces that pull things together and that pull them apart as well.  Gravity, magnetism, and life-energy organize matter and hold it together.  Entropy and organic disintegration achieve the opposite effect.  All of the matter within the universe is continuously breaking down and recombining.

A relatively rare set of conditions on Earth permitted living things to form and evolve.  Over millions of years, flora and fauna have become more complex and sophisticated.  One result of this progression is the development of intelligence, with man emerging as not only a thinking animal, but one that is capable of using imagination and engaging in philosophical musings. 

Humans possess the ability to utilize reasoning in attempting to understand their place in the overall scheme of things.  At the same time, their brains contain the vestiges of more emotional states of mind in which superstitious belief took precedence over logical trains of thought.  Thus, while people can theoretically embrace the concept that they are tiny motes that are briefly existing due to the beneficence of a fragile and transitory environment that is but a small speck within an indifferent universe, their feelings tell them that they are important individuals living in a world created by a superior being and will live on in some form after they expire.

Once the binding force of life no longer holds the elements of their bodies and brains together, however, they do not live on.  The mind can only function within a working human frame.  After the spark of life is extinguished, the unique features of a person’s spirit and personality vanish.  There is no soul present that persists after death and goes into some other dimension or moves to a new body.  A mature adult of the human species has typically acquired skills, gained experience, and stored up many memories during his or her lifetime.  Death brings about a cessation of all cerebral activities and the abrupt dissolution of all retained data.  The person then only lives on as a result of his or her accomplishments and in the memories of others.