The Afterlife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s a new religion debate online featuring Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Shavit-Artson. \u00a0It's framed as a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/the-afterlife.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Afterlife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a new religion debate online featuring Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Shavit-Artson. \u00a0It's framed as a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/the-afterlife.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-10T19:48:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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{"id":514,"date":"2011-03-10T19:48:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T19:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/the-afterlife.html"},"modified":"2011-03-10T19:48:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T19:48:00","slug":"the-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/the-afterlife.html","title":{"rendered":"The Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There\u2019s a new religion debate online featuring Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Shavit-Artson<\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s framed as a discussion of the afterlife. \u00a0I have watched a lot of debates about religion, but this is really one of the best.\u00a0 This is because what we actually have here are two atheists, Hitchens and Harris, debating two men who don\u2019t have the slightest idea what they really believe in or don\u2019t believe in.<\/p>\n

In fact, as far as I can tell, the rabbis actually reject every traditional idea about God and religion.\u00a0 Instead, they substitute them with partial textual readings, a smattering of skeptical Jewish precedents, vagaries uttered by the sages in their more cantankerous moods and their own emotions.\u00a0 And they\u2019re not too successful, I should add.\u00a0 Frankly, I can\u2019t see how they manage to keep it up without becoming strained by intellectual exhaustion.<\/p>\n

The core of their convictions (to the extent that they can articulate a conviction) is that they are certain that we are all made of more than \u201cstuff.\u201d\u00a0 The source of their discomfort is that they are unable to cope with the reality that we\u2019re made of the same\u00a0stuff\u00a0as leaves, bugs and bacteria.\u00a0 And when we die, our fate is more or less that of leaves, bugs and bacteria.\u00a0 I guess they feel that this somehow demotes humanity.<\/p>\n

Watching this debate while knowing that Hitchens needs the comforting reassurance of a happy afterlife right now more than the rest of us, reminds me that we don\u2019t have to give up our intellectual integrity in the face of death.\u00a0 We\u2019re all going to die.\u00a0 Everything that has ever lived will fall to death.\u00a0 We humans don\u2019t have a special essence that protects us from this.\u00a0 Our mind (which is our brain which is our \u201csoul\u201d) isn\u2019t going to survive this life in any form whatsoever.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to heaven and we\u2019re not going to become one with any kind of super-consciousness present in the universe.<\/p>\n

Wolpe spoke about shoveling dirt in his father\u2019s grave and finding solace in the fact that what was in the coffin was not really his father.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that he experienced his father as more than just a human shell.\u00a0 But that was his father in the box.\u00a0 His father is nowhere else, except (and from this he can take some comfort) in his own memories.\u00a0 Like all forms of life, humans are recycled right back into the environment.\u00a0 Until the day comes that our consciousness can be downloaded into a sophisticated artificial environment (and that\u2019s only speculative science fiction), when we\u2019re gone we\u2019re really, really gone.<\/p>\n

This is why secular humanism proposes that we seize each day of our extraordinary lives.\u00a0 We have already won an against-all-odds lottery by coming into this world and we should enjoy it and infuse it with our own unique meaning.\u00a0 We should also work hard to elevate the dignity and well being of all human beings so that they can enjoy their lives, too.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, the only plausible afterlife is the memories we create with our loved ones and others.\u00a0 Especially since I have had children, I have made it my goal every day to earn that version of the afterlife.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be the one enjoying it, but I\u2019m certain that it will provide some measure of consolation for my daughters.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is not as cheering as the idea of a posthumous personal existence, but it has the merit of being true.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"