The light at the end of the tunnel: the afterlife and its grip on our hopes
Some people spend years reaching their goals. Others spend their entire lifetime. Seeking the afterlife is one hell of a gamble. What makes people bet all their chips on the potential eternity?
BY: KHALIL ADEN
Photo by Himsan via ShotStash
Faith, to me, is an innate feeling, a way of thinking. Optimism and faith are very similar when you seek to look at the bright side of things. Although we attribute faith to religion, you don’t have to be religious. What people choose to have faith in can vary in multiple things. You might have faith in a new movie that’s going to be released. Or you might have faith in a political leader that you think will do right. Faith is in a lot of aspects of our lives and we often forget how much faith plays a role.
Some people choose to put faith in ideologies. And one that has been questioned over time is the existence of a potential afterlife.
The afterlife is often described as the destination where people who have passed away go. Whether you lived a good life or followed a righteous path can determine whether or not you can live eternally in the afterlife. Some religions believe that this life is the test or the precursor to eternal and great life afterwards. The idea of an afterlife is centred around your faith in its existence before anything else. Whether you’re religious or just faithful in the premise, you have to commit to the philosophy and its existence. But the issue or obstacle that you have to overcome when putting faith into something like the afterlife is the unknown certainty. It’s easy to have faith in your favourite basketball team winning their next game. It’s not so easy when it comes to having faith in the idea that this life is only a stepping stone to the potential eternal life that comes after. The magnitude of both situations isn’t comparable in any sort. If my basketball team loses, I can witness their defeat live and be able to say that they lost the game confidently. If I’m a believer in the afterlife, I will have no idea whether or not it exists, unless I successfully make it there in the next life.
That leaves me with one question, what is it about the afterlife that makes people dedicate their lives and faith to it? I reached out on Reddit on r/religion and asked folks about what drove them or motivated them to believe in this idea of the afterlife. I received some mixed answers but all of them were intriguing, to say the least.
One user had told me that he believes in karma. They mentioned the law of karma states that “As you sow, so you shall reap,” meaning that the decisions that you make have repercussions that you will have to deal with. Those repercussions won’t be seen in this lifetime. But where you end up in the afterlife will be the repercussion of your choices. This would be in line with what we humans associate Heaven and Hell with. Two different places that represent two different pathways in life. Those who lived a “good” life are rewarded with a divine afterlife known as heaven. Those who lived a life of evil are more associated with hell, a place of suffering and pain. These two paths can dictate how it is that we live our lives. The constant thought in the back of your head that if I act a certain way or put certain energies out into the world, eventually I’ll be repaid with the same energies I released. So you make a conscious effort in hopes that your decisions in life are repaid when you transition out of this world and potentially into a new one. It makes sense to want to live a life of kindness and thoughtfulness in order to have that reciprocated in the next lifetime.
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A second user had mentioned how they had lost a family member and it affected them deeply. The pain that they felt was excruciating and they couldn’t handle it at times. Having gone through that experience, they felt comfort knowing that their loved one was in a Kingdom in the afterlife after having their last moments being painful. I don’t know what it feels like losing a family member. But the pain of losing a loved one must be terrible. Especially if they didn’t transition peacefully.
The idea of the afterlife stems from that grief. You hope that this person that you love dearly is at peace and is able to live happily in the next life. For their sake, and yours. We tell ourselves that they’re in a “better place” but we don’t know truly. It helps ease that pain that your loved one is gone and it gives you hope that you can potentially reunite with them in a better life.
When I think about these answers and overall why we hope that there’s an afterlife out there, I think about the conditions we have on this planet. Not everybody abides by the same moral compasses. There may be people who live a life of kindness and compassion, but there’s going to be people who live a life that doesn’t have much compassion for others. Living that life may have benefits that pertain to self-interest. For example, look at pharmaceutical companies in the U.S who overcharge the amount of medicine in order to gain profits.
Although this can lead to the potential deaths of many who can’t afford these prices, it doesn’t matter as this helps them gain more money and better their own life. Without a doubt, it’s scummy and irresponsible. But there aren’t any repercussions in doing so. I think that people hope to be benefitted from their kindness and compassion rather than their self-interest. It’s easier to be evil than kind as you aren’t reciprocated as nicely for being kind as you are for being evil. It hurts to come to terms with that and that there isn’t anything stopping you from becoming “evil” so to speak.
So we believe in the idea that we will be rewarded for taking the higher and harder road. It gives your life a sense of meaning knowing that instead of succumbing to the conditions of this world, you acted against it by taking the higher road in the situation.
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One factor that contributes to the idea of an afterlife existing is the feeling of fear. Living our lives knowing that once we pass away it all ends is unfulfilling. This world isn’t kind to us as much as we want it to be. A lot of pain and grit isn’t needed in order to live comfortably for the small time we have here. The stress that we endure from what this world throws at us is heavy. Heavy enough for people to not want to live anymore. People around the world have to deal with things like famines, poverty, war, corruption, etc. just because they happened to be born in a certain area.
On top of that, we live in a world policed by ourselves and are forced to abide by rules that may favour certain individuals but not others. The only upsides to our life are the connections that we have with our family and friends who are also going through the same thing. Our parents and ourselves are in a continuous cycle of bringing people into this world and setting them up so that they can continue to live on to the next generation.
Many may object to what the layout of this world is and what our role is. Or you might not know what you're doing here in the first place. The afterlife can help with forging meaning into your life. For some, that cycle may be all that they participate and believe in. Having a goal in mind and something to look forward to helps with what you're going through at the moment. That could be something like learning a new skill or exercising. For this life, it could mean economic security for you and your family. But on a large scale of things, it could be your eternal life after this. Living so that you can peacefully transition into the afterlife where the burdens of this world are no longer holding you hostage is something to look forward to.
Most concepts of what you need to do are along the lines of living a holy and wholehearted life. Living not for yourself, but others as well. To leave a kind memory of yourself on all the people that you have impacted over time. Being the best human that you can possibly be. It doesn't seem that by living this sort of life, there is any harm to yourself or others. All the more reason to believe.
The answer to the afterlife existence might never be answered. The decision to believe in the afterlife is contingent on our beliefs and how we interpret what the afterlife means. How we choose to spend our time and what we work towards can benefit us in different ways. Living your life in hopes of reaching the next plane of existence may be suitable for some. Others might not want to change the way they live because of the uncertainty surrounding the afterlife.
Whether or not the afterlife exists may never be answered. But one thing is for certain, the footprint that we leave on this world is remembered by those that we interact with. The memories that we leave behind after we’re gone are the closest thing we have to an afterlife.
