A Bottomless Can of Worms

When I attended Catholic school as a youngster, I was, of course, taught all about Heaven and Hell, and what awaited me after death. I remember in particular one teacher who said that there was no way to know that Heaven or Hell awaited us, because no one had ever come back to talk about it. It was just a matter of faith. At the time, I was disturbed by this lack of evidence. If I couldn't be certain, if there was no proof, then I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with this Death thing!

Looking back on it, I am glad to have had teachers like this. Life after death is supernatural by definition - it's not something you see in nature, and so you wouldn't expect to find any evidence in the natural world, which, conveniently enough, is the world in which we live. As I was taught back in parochial school, it's simply a matter of faith. However, there are many who think otherwise - believers in the paranormal, both with and without credentials, tell us that they have objective proof of life after death. That would be nice, but I don't believe it for a second, no matter how many diplomas they have on their wall.

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