The Afterlife Might be Real, and I can Prove it to you Mathematically
A few years ago, I heard a secular humanist argument that disproved the afterlife, and at the time I honestly found it rather convincing, and a bit disturbing.
So before I prove the afterlife might exist, let’s see what we’re up against.
Here’s the secular humanist proof that there is no afterlife:
A Secular Humanist Proof That Disproves the Afterlife
The smallest of changes in brain chemistry will change your existence.
If you drink alcohol, a small, small change in brain chemistry alters your personality and decision making.
If you take Mushrooms or LSD, a slightly stronger — but still small — change in brain chemistry changes not only your perception, but your entire being.
Alter your brain chemistry a bit more, and you become schizophrenic, and your entire personality changes.
Alter your brain chemistry just a bit more than that, and you lapse into a catatonic state, and your whole self disappears.
So if slight changes in brain chemistry can alter who you are, or even erase you, how can who you are survive a complete shutdown in brain chemistry?
The answer is: it can’t. When your brain chemistry vanishes, who you are vanishes with it. Your entire self is gone.
Yikes! That’s a pretty strong argument, and not a lot of fun.
Fortunately, I’m a contrarian, and I love going against strong arguments.
It took a few years of thinking, of letting this one sit at the back of my mind while my subconscious looked for counterarguments –
But I finally found a proof that the afterlife might exist, and it started with a quote from Elon Musk.
Elon Musk and the theory that we are living in a computer simulation
Though this theory had been going around for a while, it caught my attention when Elon Musk said we’re probably living in a computer simulation.
It’s an abstract line of thinking, but I’ve read quite a bit about it, and here’s how I can explain it:
A Proof that we Might be Living in a Simulation
As it stands now, humanity can make rudimentary simulations of an existence with our own computers.
We could conceive of our current computing power as in the stone age when comparing it to our potential.
In fact, with the advent of quantum computing, our computing potential might be infinite.
So if we extrapolate our current simulations out to our extraordinary potential, we could quite conceivably make a simulation of a universe, with real, sentient characters in it.
And if that is a possibility, that suggests that it is also a possibility that another set of beings may have done that same thing to us.
In short, since it’s possible that we could make a simulation, it’s also possible that we could be in another simulation, made by some other beings.
We can’t necessarily prove that this happened, but it might have. It’s a possibility.
Let’s take that percentage, and call it X. X could be .00000001% or 74%, but we know that it is positive.
Now let’s explore that assumption — what if we are in a simulation?
If we are in a simulation, that means that everything, including our entire consciousness, is a set of data.
Now this data might be made by creatures on a higher plane of existence, creatures we couldn’t even begin to fathom, so it might be more than just 1s and 0s.
But still, if we are living in a simulation, that means that our entire selves — our bodies, our minds, our consciousnesses, our experience in this world and everything else — could be described as some sort of data.
And if it is data, this means:
Our consciousnesses could be copied.
Our consciousnesses could be saved.
Our consciousnesses could be restored.
Whatever that means, it means that our consciousness can survive beyond our earthly experience, in some shape or form, which is some sort of the afterlife.
We don’t know for sure that this is happening of course, but let’s call the chance of our life-data being able to survive our earthly experience Y.
Y could be .00000001% or 74%, but we know that it is positive.
Now let’s wrap this up into a final equation, one that proves the afterlife might be real.
Proof that the afterlife might be real
X is the chance that we might be living in a simulation. X is positive.
Y is the chance that if we are living in a simulation, that our consciousnesses can be reduced to data, data that somehow survives our mortal lives. Y is positive.
Positive X * Positive Y = Positive chance that there might be an afterlife
That means there might be an afterlife.
But wait — there’s more!
Let’s sweeten the pot.
We’re just seeing this through the lens of a possible computer simulation.
What about the other possibilities?
We could all be members of a higher consciousness sharing a collective dream.
Perhaps religion is real — from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism!
There are probably hundreds of other possibilities, many of which might be beyond our understanding.
We don’t know the exact number of these possibilities, let alone what their percentages are, so let’s just add all those possibilities up, and call them Z.
Z could be .00000001% or 74%, but we know that it is positive.
(Positive X * Positive Y) + Positive Z = Positive Chance that there might be an Afterlife
The chance that there might be an afterlife has increased a bit, and whatever the case, it is still positive.
In conclusion, the afterlife might be real
This is not a proof that the afterlife is real.
But next time you’re at a dinner party, and a non-believing member tells you that this life is all there is — drop the above equation on them.
You might not always pry them away from their preconceived notions.
But there’s a chance that you might, and it’s a positive one.
Jonathan Maas has a few books on Amazon, and can also be found at Goodreads.com/JMaas .