Is There Life After Death?

One of the key tenants of Christianity is the belief in an afterlife. But after thousands of years of human existence, is there any evidence that some part of us continues on after death? The scientist in me wants to see some proof.

Over the past 40 years, the occurrence of near-death experiences (NDEs) has increased due to higher heart-attack survival rates. This has driven more interest in the subject within scientific circles. Two studies published in Europe over the past 10 years suggest that consciousness does continue to exist after the body dies.

In 2001, The Lancet, published the results of a 13-year study of near-death experiences (NDE's) observed in 10 different Dutch hospitals. They found that 18% of the 344 patients who died reported experiencing consciousness and out-of-body experiences after they were clinically dead. And, more importantly, they were able to rule out as the source of NDEs some of the physical mechanisms that have been thought to cause these experiences -- like loss of oxygen to the brain (anoxia) or drugs being used.

A second, study conducted at the University of Southampton in the UK and published in Resuscitation in 2007, also concluded that 10-20% of cardiac arrest survivors experienced NDEs where their consciousness continued on after death. The lead researcher in this study, Dr. Sam Parnia, has kicked off a larger and longer term study into the phenomenon called the AWARE study that includes hospitals all around the world, including two here locally in Atlanta. The first results of that study should be published next year.

So while still preliminary, science does seem to be providing evidence that our consciousness continues on after our deaths. What does that mean from a religious standpoint?

Christianity tells us that our spirit is unique - that is was created at the time of our conception and that after death it goes to either Heaven or Hell based upon our actions here on Earth. Further, many believe that our spirits end up in a kind of holding pattern until the end times when Jesus returns. The experiences described during near-death experiences all point to our spirits going someplace which is peaceful and full of light. Stories of ghost sightings and the ability for psychics to "commune with dead spirits" would also suggest that our spirits are unique forms of energy that retain their separate existence after death.

But the scientist in me cannot fully buy the concept of energy constantly being created out of nothing and then taken out of the universe's pool of energy after we die to go somewhere else. Science has shown that energy is the foundation of everything. The physical mass of the universe was created out of energy during the big bang, and (as Einstein proved) can be converted back into energy under the right conditions - like over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More recent theories state that time is just another form of energy as well. So it makes more sense to me that some part of the universe's existing energy is collected into our bodies at birth and is then released back into the universal energy supply after our deaths. Following this line of thought, "God" is really the energy of the Universe and we are "made in God's image" by taking some of that energy in to form our physical bodies at the time of our birth.

Or maybe I've just been watching too much History International.