Chicken Soup for the Risen Soul

I saw a recent article in Newsweek about how Americans view life after death (see here). And that got me thinking...

(and no, this isn't anti-religion blog. I do have some thoughts on human nature and history)

Since our beginning there has been a need for humans to think that there is something more. I think this need is a prime cause of our tendency to believe in God(s) and the afterlife. But beyond that I think it really saddens people to think that this is all that there is. Despite the fact that we are just one of millions of mammals that have lived on this planet, we seem to think that we are something special on this planet.

Anyway, back to the article. Here are some of the highlights along with my thoughts:

80% of Americans believe in some kind of heaven.

I do too - it is called a full keg.

In the last decade, the percentage of Americans that believe Jesus was resurrected slid from 80% to 70%.

You can guess what I think about this.

While the percentage of people that are cremated is on the rise, many still believe that they will need their whole body in the afterlife.

This is the start of what I find really interesting. And once again, let me say that I am not commenting on the validity of religious belief.

First, the idea of heaven is almost completely man-made. Even if you do believe in the stories of the Bible, it says very little about what heaven really is. Just about everything that we think we know about it came out of literature, holy men and the like.

Continuing with the theme of ideas come up with by man, the idea of burying people is actually a recent one in human history. Many of our ancestors were in the practice of burning the dead so this rise in cremations is actually a return to what came naturally to us.

So why is this an issue? Because people can't decide what their heaven is like. Some believe that they will need their bodies in the best shape possible because their heavenly body will be just like their last human form (and this bothers the hell out of me because perfectly good organs are being kept from sick people because of these kinds of beliefs). Others think that you get an ideal body that is free of disease and deformity (which begs the question why you weren't given this body in the first place, but I digress). Others think that there isn't a real body.

So at the end of the day not only do we plan for an afterlife that we can not know, we have to take it a step further to define the fine points of the big cloud in the sky so that we can be best prepared for it. Ugh. As with everything else, our beliefs in these kinds of things seem to always coincide with how we would like them to be.

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Anyway, I have a special easter message for you and yours.


On this weekend we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord after three days of death. We celebrate his birth on December 25th from a virgin mother. He is known as the Good Shepherd and is the son of God. We celebrate him on his sacred day (Sunday). He is the giver of all life.

So, 2600 years ago we give thanks for the resurrection of.... Mithra.

(you were expecting someone else? ;-))