Do you ever wonder if the relationships you’ve cultivated, the knowledge you’ve attained, the experiences you’ve racked up, and the memories you’ve acquired have an ultimate purpose that transcends physical death? Those of you who possess an undaunted faith in a personal, benevolent God and concomitant belief in an afterlife will respond in the affirmative. Atheists who try to see the glass half-full, given the unsavory truth that consciousness ceases with the expiration of our physical bodies, would argue that life, though short-term for you as an individual, offers opportunities to make a difference in the lives around you and live on in the memories of subsequent generations. You contribute in a small way to the advancement and propagation of the human species. The latter is an admirable attempt to make the best of a somber and depressing prospect—our ultimate demise—but it offers little consolation. I have not relinquished a belief in God, though I no longer make claims about his, her, or its attributes and ontology. Darwinists have a Darwinian account of our belief in, and longing for, a life beyond this one. Fine. But I still cling to the hope that something after death will vindicate all of our struggles, dreams, and longings. Such thought puzzles the will.
