On Life after Death

Since we started thinking, we've been afraid of death. It's instinctive, but also intellectual:

…the dread of something after death,

The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns…

(Hamlet Act III Scene 1)

The invention of religion was mostly in response to this, to assure us that there is life after death. It is unbearable to think of the loss of subjectivity, the annihilation of the consciousness and our inner world. Many religions tell us that death is only the destruction of the body, but not of consciousness (or soul, or whatever it's called). We turn to religion because we seek this consolation.

But is life after death really desirable? Is eternal consciousness a good thing? To me it sounds like insomnia. How sweet it is to sink into dreamless, deathlike sleep after a long day. Why would I want to stay up forever? Is it not better to dissolve into oblivion? Now if we could only get over this irrational fear of the unknown…

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause…