OUTLINE:

I.     DOES THE FEAR OF DEATH GIVE RISE TO RELIGION? 

II.    THE MOST COMMON FORMS OF BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH

        A. Immortality. 
        B. Resurrection. 
        C. Reincarnation.

III.   DO THESE BELIEFS HAVE ANY FOUNDATIONS?

IV.   SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
            ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH

        A. Sense Perception—Can We See without Eyes? 
        B. Consciousness—Can We Think without Brains? 
        C. Memory—Can We Remember 
                without a Place to Keep Our Memories? 
        D. Communicating and Relating—Can We Interact without Bodies? 
        E. Conclusion: If We Lack Experience, Awareness, Memory, & Action, 
                How Does 'Life After Death' Differ from Death?

V.   NEVERTHELESS, CONFRONTING OUR DEATHS 
          CAN MAKE OUR LIVES REMARKABLY BETTER

    From the dawn of human self-awareness, 
we human beings have been concerned about death. 
In fact, it makes sense to date the beginning of the human race 
from that time in pre-history when our ancestors
first became concerned about death.

    When our ancestors began to bury their dead, 
they were already speculating about life after death. 
Often they buried tools with their dead—for the next life.

    However, just because most human beings 
have wished and hoped for life beyond the grave 
does not mean that these dreams will come true.

    Perhaps our desire to transcend death is mainly a wish. 
And wishing does not make it so.

I.  DOES THE FEAR OF DEATH GIVE RISE TO RELIGION? 

    Thus, perhaps the title of this cyber-sermon 
should be broadened from: 
"No Gods Can Save Us from Death" 
to "No Religious Beliefs Can Save Us from Death".

    We should also acknowledge that many human beings 
who are not religious in any conventional sense 
still believe in life after death in some form. 
So for them, the title should be even broader: 
"Nothing Can Save Us from Death".

II.  THE MOST COMMON FORMS OF BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH

        A. Immortality.

    The ancient Greeks believed everyone 
had a part of his or her being that could not die—an immortal soul. 
This was not specifically a religious belief. 
Rather, it was more philosophical, 
maintained by such people as Socrates and Plato.

    They also believed in the pre-existence of the immortal soul. 
Socrates argued that if a child could be led by careful questioning 
to 'recall' a mathematical truth, 
this proved that he had lived before 
—in the world of perfect forms. 
And therefore, after he died, his soul would return to that world.

    This belief in immortality has been adopted by many religions, 
including popular forms of Christianity, Judaism, & Islam. 
And many people who have no religious connections 
nevertheless believe that they have immortal souls.

        B. Resurrection.

    A different form of religious belief holds that 
after death the individual person will be resurrected. 
This means that some supernatural power 
will bring this same person into a new existence 
in a different realm—often called heaven.

    Some forms of Judaism and Christianity 
hold that God can bring a dead person 
back to life in a different dimension of existence.

        C. Reincarnation.

    A large part of the human race believes in reincarnation. 
This belief finds expression mostly in Eastern religions, 
but many people in the West also believe that 
after their present bodies have died, 
they—as the same persons—will be born into new bodies. 
Some religions believe that the next incarnation 
could be living as an animal. 
But most who believe in reincarnation 
expect that they will be reborn into new human bodies.

III.  DO THESE BELIEFS HAVE ANY FOUNDATIONS?

    Even if 90% of the human race has believed and will believe 
in some form of life after death, what bases could be offered 
for believing in immortality, resurrection, or reincarnation?

    Because claims of life after death are so extraordinary 
and so beyond anything we can observe in life, 
such beliefs require a very high level of proof.

    The most causal observation shows that all living organisms die. 
And no similar observation has ever shown 
dead individuals coming back to life in any form.

    The burden of proof rests on those who believe in life after death.
And any who wish to defend such beliefs 
might take the following questions into account.

IV.  SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
          ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH

        A. Sense Perception—Can We See without Eyes?

    All five of our senses—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, & tasting— 
depend on sense-organs within living bodies. 
After our bodies are completely dead and buried or cremated, 
how could we have any sense experience at all?

    Those who believe in reincarnation will say 
that their new bodies have all the needed sense-organs. 
But everyone who believes in a new life in heaven 
will have to explain how life is possible without sense-organs.

         B. Consciousness—Can We Think without Brains?

    Even more troubling should be the prospect of 'living' without brains. 
We know that the human brain is a living organ of the human body
—located inside the skull of each living person. 
When that person dies, all brain-functions cease.

    Those who believe in some form of consciousness after death 
have the burden of explaining how thought takes place without a brain 
—and then giving some plausible account of how 
any such new consciousness connects with 
the consciousness we had as fully-alive human beings.

         C. Memory—Can We Remember 
                    without a Place to Keep Our Memories?

    Likewise, we know that human memories reside in our brains, 
in living organs that can (and often do) deteriorate before death 
so that we begin to lose our memories even before we are dead.

    Those who believe in some form of life after death 
will surely be required to show how memory can persist 
even when the organ of memory
—the living human brain—has been completely destroyed.

    And if there is no memory of the life we are now living, 
in what sense are we alive in the new existence?
Without our memories, wouldn't any such living person or animal 
be a completely different individual?

         D. Communicating and Relating—Can We Interact without Bodies?

    Now, in our earthly life, we communicate and relate 
with other living human beings using several parts of our bodies: 
We speak with our lungs and voice-boxes. 
We gesture with our hands. 
We hug other people with our arms. 
We write and use other physical means of communicating.

    All forms of communication and relationship 
depend on having physical bodies. 
How, then, might we communicate and relate with others 
after we are dead—and our bodies have been buried or cremated?

        E. Conclusion: If We Lack Experience, Awareness, Memory, & Action, 
                How Does 'Life After Death' Differ from Death?

    Given these questions, will believers in life after death 
be able to give a coherent account of any such new life?
They might appeal to mystery, 
saying that they know there is life after death.
But they cannot explain how these bodily capacities 
will be recreated in their new existence.

    As said before, the burden of proof rests with those
who wish to affirm something that is not obviously real.
Without persuasive evidence to the contrary, 
we must conclude that nothing can save us from death.

    However, just as most of the religions of the planet Earth 
began with the denial of death, 
perhaps intelligent spirituality will begin 
by embracing the reality of death.

V.  NEVERTHELESS, CONFRONTING OUR DEATHS 
          CAN MAKE OUR LIVES REMARKABLY BETTER

    These possible benefits of confronting death 
without the illusions of life after death
remain to be explored in the next centuries of spiritual development.
How shall we human beings deal with death?

An Existential Understanding of Death:
A Phenomenology of Ontological Anxiety 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/UD.html

    This philosophical analysis of the deeper dimensions of death 
first explores our denial of death, 
our methods of avoiding and concealing our fear of ceasing-to-be, 
and our ways of repressing our even deeper ontological anxiety. 
Then it opens the question of life without ontological anxiety.

Becoming More Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/AU.html

    This small book explores the possibility 
of transforming the threat of death into Authentic Existence. 
(Besides death, it also discusses other manifestations 
of our Existential Predicament 
such as absurdity, meaninglessness, & guilt.) 
An Authenticity Test is included, 
by which we can measure our own degrees of Authenticity. 
And Authentic Existence is described by five existential thinkers 
—Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, & Maslow.

    The possibility of life after death is explored 
from several difference perspectives in a bibliography called 
"Is there Life after Death?—The Best Books":

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/B-LIFE.html

    The secular sermon above, "No Gods Can Save Us from Death" 
has become Chapter 5 of 
Spirituality without Gods:
Developing our Capacities of Spirit