Victor Porton's Christian Weblog

Traditionally many scientists deem that there are no life after death. However if think a little it becomes quite evident from the scientific viewpoint that after death remains something (outer space radio waves remaining from electromagnetic activity of a living body, for instance). The question is not whether somethings remains after death but whether this something continues to life (think, take decisions, communicate with others, etc.) or not.

But if to think yet a little it also becomes evident that in the infinitely complex nature at least some of combinations of spectral components of the radio waves, which may remain after death of a man, behave like a living creature. Remember the famous example of 1000000 monkeys randomly pressing keyboard keys? If they would do it unlimited time, they will type something reasonable. That is if we have an unlimited number even of random variants, some of the variants will be reasonable (alive). Likewise because there are infinite number of combinations of spectral components of radio waves, some of them will be alive, as out of infinite number of combinations some will happen to be alive.

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(I do not say that space radio waves are unreasonable, but that even if these would be unreasonable, there would be indeed reasonable combinations of spectral components. Reasonable combinations exist in any case.)

So the question whether there are life after death is meaningless by itself. Some combinations of spectral components will be alive in any case. Whether to count these combinations of components as a real physical object or as our fantasy randomly combining physical objects, is a meaningless question if we have no criterion to differentiate between these two.

Consider a piece of stone. Inside there are a sculpture. Yes, inside there are really a sculpture, otherwise a sculptor would be unable to take it out of there. (I paraphrase saying of one famous sculptor.)

The question is not whether in a piece of stone there are a sculpture, because it is there anyway. The question is instead whether there are a sculptor nearby who can get it out of there, and so whether it makes sense, the sculpture inside a stone.

Just likewise the question is not whether there are life after death, because anyway in infinite nature there is some form of life after death. The question is instead: Are there anybody who can take it out of there and return to the life?

So my conclusion: The concept of life after death has sense only in context when resurrection (returning back to the life) in some form is possible.

Bible (unlike other major religions) teaches not only about life after death but also about eternal resurrection back from the dead. It is a wise teaching, because without resurrection life after death would have no meaning. So we see that Bible tells not a meaningless thing telling about life after death, as it would be if it would stop at the issue of life after death and skip the issue of resurrection.

And Bible teaches about God, the sculptor which sees a sculpture inside of what may look for us as a dead piece of stone, and can get dead back to the life. Bible says that it is God who will accomplish the resurrection. Resurrection is an act of God who shapes the form of life out from the dead.

It doesn't mean that we, Christians, are not alive after the death and can only wait for the resurrection. But it means that we are alive not by ourselves but we are alive by Christ. (And not only after death but in this life also.) The sculpture inside a piece of stone is alive not by itself but by the sculptor. We hope on God who takes us out of stone and this is our life, real life because God himself is alive and we receive life from Him. In hands of a sculptor what has looked like just a stone is not just a stone anymore, it is alive: it moves, changes form, etc. Likewise we are alive because we are in hands of God both in this life and in the next. Without God all is a dead stone.

Final conclusion: It is meaningless to say I believe in life after death, but not in resurrection. This is a meaningless saying. Life after death is defined by resurrection. That is life after death is what returns back in the resurrection and anything other about life after death is meaningless.