In the history of religion, which predates any written record of humanity, life after death has been a global constant. It seemed one way, and a quite consoling one, to explain the phenomena that were experienced by every human alive. That doesn't make it fact however. With the ascent of psychological research, starting with Freud, explanations for those core human phenomena have been researched.
- dreams
- reason
- self-awareness
- culture
- art
- déja-vues
- aggression
- love
- familiy hierarchy
- social networks
- religion
The list is literally endless thanks to subdivision. For thousands of years, progressive steps towards insight into these phenomena have been few. But with the first picture of a neuron to modern day fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), humankind has made huge steps forward.
Considering these advances, and considering the lack of evidence for any kind of afterlife, applying Occam's razor (that the simplest explanation is often the correct one), every scientist aware of what we know must conclude with overwhelming certainty that there is no afterlife. Because, let's face it, no matter how unique, intelligent, inexplicably marvellous and of divine origin we feel we are - our consciousness, that is to say, we have been explained. We are advanced, reasoning, abstraction-capable primates.
It is a wonderful thing to feel connected to nature as a part of it and not elevated above. It doesn't devalue anything our cultures have achieved. We are great, and only in knowing how great, and why, and in what way exactly have we the capacity to grow.
