Life without an afterlife ? : A dialogue with a philosopher
by Dr Muhammad Aqib Gultasib
( Adapted from Urdu)
His words were intriguing and he spoke slowly and carefully. It had been a long time since, I last had the opportunity to talk to such a person.
He made his case:
” We shouldn’t pay attention to fictitious stories. Rather we should focus on the actual realities of our lives…we all wake up in the morning to go to work. We come back home in the evening, tired…we spend time with our loved ones.”
” That is what we know to be reality. The happiness we get from our close relationships and friendships, the problems of our daily lives, career struggles, health, illness etc…all this is reality, everything else is a fantasy…”
“…Hunger… ” he continued “..is the greatest reality of life. Hunger and finally, death”
“Who knows what does or doesn’t happen after death? “, he observed.
“Nobody has come back to tell us about it. Neither are the dead able to communicate to with us, by any other means. All concepts about an afterlife are just stories…”
“Therefore, we should focus only on what we know to be truly real… We should expend our energies in making this life, the best that it can be. We should live life to the full. We should try as many different experiences as possible. This is the only actual purpose of life…”
“But” I replied “…If the concept of reward and punishment for ones deeds, and life after death are dismissed as nothing but delusions, then surely this raises serious doubts about life itself being worth living?
“Which doubts? Could you give me an example?”
“For instance, let’s say I spend the prime time of my youth studying and worrying about my future employment prospects. I manage to pass the most competitive exam amongst thousands of other students. Eventually I apply for a job. My future is still totally uncertain and all my efforts could easily go to waste..”
“I then get married… knowing all the additional responsibilities and duties I will be expected to perform as a husband and father. All that burden… that will fall on my shoulders. Once again, without any guarantee about my peace of my mind, or satisfaction”
“Should I carry on living just to watch a loved one contract a fatal illness, slowly crawling to a painful death? …To see my parents ageing, growing weak and dying?”
” … should I continue to live through all the terrible suffering I see around me? Little kids begging on the streets, writhing from hunger…whilst hearing about all the awful abuse and crimes committed against them on the news?…seeing humanity on its knees in front of feudal lords and the wealthy?”
“And I should calmly go about my business in the face of all this appalling suffering, until I too, am crippled by old age or illness, and then wait to die myself, slowly and painfully?”
“My brother! If there is no life after death, then there is no hope that the loved ones who were separated from us in this world will meet again in heaven. Nor any possibility that the oppressor who has been cruel to others but got away with it, will one day be punished. The hope that all those innocent victims will be rewarded for their pain and suffering in such a way that they will not even remember any of their sorrow or deprivation; if even this last ray of hope is extinguished, then there is no reason to stay alive. ..”
“The future is so uncertain, and this world is so full of injustice, cruelty and suffering…I would prefer a quick death, to such a purposeless existence.”
“If I didn’t believe in life after death, I wouldn’t waste any time in ending this hollow, meaningless existence with my own hands…it is the concept of an afterlife that makes life meaningful…it is only knowing that this existence is a mere trial, that makes one able to bear the atrocities and injustice we see around us..”
“I wonder how you deal with such a vacuous life, without any belief in an afterlife that makes sense of this theatre of the absurd…?”
He paused, and slowly began to reply:
“That would require a big discussion. The views I have today, have emerged from a long academic and research journey, which I have undertaken.
I have found this truth after comparative evaluation of many different philosophers and schools of philosophy. This is MY truth…and what you are espousing, is definitely YOUR truth…”
“Nice to meet you, we’ll talk about this again sometime”
He held out his hand for a farewell handshake.
As I watched him leaving, I found myself thinking that, without the ‘safety-net’ of religion and scripture to guide a person, one can stray so far from a person’s original nature, along the confused maze of pseudo-philosophical debate.