Death: Thinking about it during the holidays

Death is a topic that everyone thinks about. But why write about it during the holiday season?

Once my siblings and I had moved out of the house, my mother would always say, “this may be the last time we’re together for Christmas.” For her, and many others, the holidays are a time to reflect on who is no longer with us, our health, and in short, it’s a time of year when we take stock of our lives. Therefore, it’s no surprise that several interesting articles and books have recently appeared.

Many of us fear death. We believe in death because we have been told we will die. We associate ourselves with the body, and we know that bodies die. But a new scientific theory suggests that death is not the terminal event we think. Thus begins an interesting article by Robert Lanza M.D. entitled “Does Death Exist? New Theory Says No.” Dr. Lanza is Chief Scientific Officer at Advanced Cell Technology, and a professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and has several hundred publications and inventions, and over 20 scientific books.

Dinesh D’Souza, a policy analyst in the Reagan White House, is the bestselling author of many books about politics, patriotism, and religion. His latest book is “Life After Death: The Evidence.” In an article about his new book he writes, In my research I also explored evidence from physics, biology, and brain science to see if life after death is consistent with or even corroborated by these fields of study…. In considering the question of life after death, I moved from why it's possible to why it's probable to why we should embrace the idea. Since we are dealing with a future event, I acknowledge that we cannot have certainty. I don't claim to prove my case beyond a reasonable doubt, but I do claim to prove it by a preponderance of the evidence. In the end, we have to resolve this residual uncertainty by asking a practical question, "Is it good for me to believe?"