The Great Mystery

‘IF YOU could ask God personally any question you like, what would it be?’ The outcome of a recent survey in England revealed that 31 percent of those interviewed wanted to know: “What happens when we die?”

Given the opportunity, would you ask that?

Death “is the one thing we know for certain, and we share that knowledge with everyone who is alive,” writes researcher Mog Ball in Death. Paradoxically, however, as Ball further observes, “between ordinary people it is not a topic of conversation. Death isn’t something you talk about with people you don’t know well.”

Actually, many people don’t even want to think about death. As The World Book Encyclopedia observes: “Most people fear death and try to avoid thinking about it.” This fear is actually a fear of the unknown because death, to most people, is a mystery. So when somebody dies, people use expressions such as “passed on,” “passed away,” and “lost in death,” or some similar euphemism. But since all of us face death, can we not be more specific in describing what happens to us when we die?

Skeptics will claim that we are asking hypothetical questions, that it is simply a matter of belief. As the Encyclopædia Britannica puts it: “Death is not life. What it is, however, can only be conjectured.” Yet, the same authority also declares: “The belief that human beings survive death in some form has profoundly influenced the thoughts, emotions, and actions of mankind. The belief occurs in all religions, past and present.”

What forms do these beliefs take? Do they shed true light on what happens when we die, or does death remain a mystery?