The silent grave

The notion of life after death arises from the innate self-importance of man, who likes to imagine that he alone survives death. The only evidence for his vain beliefs is the absolute silence of his grave.

“How can this body when reduced to dust revisit earth,” wrote an Indian sage 2,500 years ago. “And if a ghost can pass to other worlds, why does not strong affection for those he leaves behind attract him back? ...No heaven exists, no soul, no other world.”

In a Newsweek cover story entitled The New Science Of Mind And Body, Steven Pinker, professor of neuroscience at Harvard, wrote: “Neuroscience shows that the ‘soul’ is the activity of the brain. People naturally believe in the Ghost in the Machine: that we have bodies made of matter and spirits made of an ethereal something. People acknowledge that the brain is involved in mental life. But they still think of the brain as a personal computer for the soul, managing information at the behest of a ghostly user. Modern science has shown that there is no user. The ‘soul’ is, in fact, the information-processing activity of the brain.

“Turning back the clock on the ultimate form of self-knowledge is neither possible nor desirable. We can live with the new challenges from brain science. But it will require setting aside traditional dogmas.”