Thursday 31 March 2011

Afterlife

When I see notions of the afterlife in film and television, I get the impression that our conception of what the afterlife is meant to be is just this life we have right now, but unhinged from the material. The dead are still portrayed as being very much alive. Without brain processes how do they think? Without material bodies, how do they experience? What could it possibly mean to be outside of time?

Our capacity to conceive of the transcendent is made incoherent by the sheer amount of the natural world we shift beyond the natural. This natural baggage makes the transcendent so alluring, it's taking what is great about the natural and removing those aspects that limit our existence. But it leaves an incoherent mess, one that is too problematic to consider in any meaningful way - leaving any thoughts on there being such a possibility as unexamined wishful thinking. And because of that, no matter how alluring the idea of an afterlife is, there's just no reason to take the notion seriously.

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