Hereafter : Searching for Immortality

by Richard Schweid

As long as people have been on earth, they have constructed various explanations of what happens after death. Hereafter combines an overview of the history of these theories and a survey of the current attitudes toward immortality. Other than physical form and genetic structure, we hold little in common with our earliest ancestors in terms of how we live, but one thing we do share is fear and helplessness in the face of the fact that this self, which takes so much effort to construct and inhabit and nurture, is likely to last considerably less than a century. Responses to the prospect of dying can be organized into three main categories: those who believe that somehow we shall be resurrected to pass eternity with intact bodies as the same people we were during our earthly sojourns; those who believe that what survives is a "soul", or essence, which leaves behind forever the dead and decomposing receptacle in which it resided to move on in some fashion; and those who believe that death erases our lives entirely. Schweid augments his research with interviews with Yale Divinity School theologians, biotechnologists, farmers, garbage collectors, bail bondsmen, preachers, rabbis, imams and soldiers.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schweid takes on "different" subjects, conducts extensive research and then writes a book about that subject for the simple layperson. He has written on Cuban dictator cars, eels, cockroaches, hot peppers and farming in the Mississippi Delta. Compared to his other subjects, this book on immortality is a much weightier topic.

What happens when we die? Schweid breaks it down into 3 basic forms. One is we die and then are resurrected to spend eternity with our intact bodies. Or, the variations of this form involving reincarnation. Two is that we die and what survives is a soul. Lastly, we die and that's it.

World religions (and atheism) believe in any one of the above or some combination of many of them. There are several levels - and rites- that accompany each belief as the dead pass through into eternity. There are heaven, hell, Dante's levels of hell, purgatory, nirvana, temporary and permanent steps to the final paradise.