He is risen! Therefore, you will too. If you believe He rose, that is

THOSE three sentences encapsulate the crux of Christian theology, and its deep appeal to 2.4 billion souls on the planet. In contrast, the Prophet Muhammad of Islam (1.8 billion adherents) ascended to heaven on a winged horse, and we don’t hear him going back to earth. One would have to be a mujahideen martyr to enjoy 72 virgins in the afterlife. The Buddha dissolved into emptiness, whatever that is, while Hindu’s Krishna and his gang of 300 million gods still live in Svar-Loka. Christianity indeed is more clever than the other world religions.

Popular Christianity says that upon dying, our souls will travel via a different dimension to enter pearl-decorated gates to the Good Place. Contrary to this widespread belief, however, nowhere in the Bible does it say that a good person (or a good dog, for dog lovers) will live in a heaven after dying. Indeed, all of the four Gospel accounts of people being brought back to life were intended to be demonstrations of Jesus’ divine power in Lazarus’ case and that of three of his apostles, in which the dead, being prepared for burial, were awakened into a kind of zombie-like existence.

The Bible’s notion of an afterlife is when everyone who has ever lived will be resurrected and will walk the earth at the “end of time,” with the righteous entering eternal life and the unrighteous facing judgment (John 5:28-29, Revelation 20:12-13).

For Jesus and his first disciples, though, the “end of time” will happen in their generation, which will be in the first century AD, at Jesus Second Coming when he massacres the Romans and drives them out of Jerusalem. On the other hand, astrophysicists estimate that earth’s end of time will happen after 7.5 billion years when our sun becomes a supernova — unless, of course, a nuclear war happens.

Paradoxically, Christianity’s promise of immediate post-death existence has become more attractive in the modern age for unexpected reasons.

Resuscitated

Because of medical science, more and more people have been resuscitated from a clinically dead condition, with a significant number of survivors reporting that they were still conscious, saw what seemed to be an abstract God, or even talked to long-dead relatives at the time when they were, by all medical definitions, dead.

From 2008 to 2014, a landmark study called Aware (AWAreness during REsuscitation documented 330 revivals from cardiac arrest with 39 percent (129) of survivors reporting awareness and 2 percent describing verified out-of-body experience. The study suggests consciousness may persist briefly after clinical death, but it does not support supernatural claims like reincarnation or an afterlife. There has been a plethora of books in the past two decades that are supposedly eyewitness accounts of people having experiences after being clinically dead. While several were by credible people — even a neuroscientist — a few were proven to be fake accounts, as one written by a 10-year-old child who, six years later, admitted he made it all up to gain attention.

While we may never be certain if there is or there is not some kind of individual consciousness after death, one thing is certain: the fear of dying has, paradoxically, been an engine of civilization.

Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “The Denial of Death,” published in 1973, expounds in detail his view that humans are unique in their self-awareness. Unlike other animals, humans know that they are going to die. This knowledge creates a deep and ever-present existential anxiety. Humans are physical beings, subject to decay, disease and death — but they are also symbolic creatures, capable of imagination, self-reflection and abstraction. This dual nature creates a fundamental tension.

To be fully aware of our eventual annihilation would be emotionally paralyzing. According to Becker, if we confronted the reality of our death head-on every moment, we would be unable to function. This fear is so overwhelming that we instinctively repress it. Instead of living in conscious dread, we construct psychological defenses — often unconsciously — that shield us from the terror of nonexistence.

Heroism

Becker explains that human beings, as serious beings, strive for what he calls “heroism.” We all want to feel significant, to believe that our lives matter in the grand scheme of things. This desire for heroism is a way to symbolically transcend death. Through creativity, achievement, moral virtue or religious faith, people seek to create a lasting legacy or to attach themselves to something they view are eternal.

Becker calls this a person’s “heroic project.” It’s the basis for much of what we consider human greatness: art, science, religion and nation-building. These are symbolic systems that allow us to feel like we are participating in something larger than ourselves, something that will endure beyond our physical demise.

This heroism, Becker argues, is not just a personal matter but is culturally reinforced. Societies provide structures and myths that channel this striving. Nations, religions and ideologies offer individuals a path to meaning. When people feel that they are valuable participants in these systems, their fear of death is muted. They become “immortality projects” — ways of denying death by embedding oneself in something that seems timeless.

Amazingly, 40 years later, in 2012, Cambridge philosopher Stephen Cave published a much-acclaimed book “Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization,” that basically expounds and strengthens the ideas of the 1973 book. Cave argues that our fear of mortality and inability to imagine nonexistence drive cultural, scientific and religious developments. He introduces the “mortality paradox”: humans have a biological will to survive but are uniquely aware of inevitable death, creating existential tension.

Cave argues that the best approach to death is having a “wisdom narrative,” an acceptance of mortality to live meaningfully. By embracing the reality of death, cultivating selflessness, presence and gratitude, individuals can find purpose without immortality illusions. He argues that a meaningful life requires limitations, as infinite time would render decisions and resources meaningless that mortality, rather than being a curse, gives life value and urgency.

Immortality

As a business reporter during much of my career, I’ve seen for myself how tycoons, even in their 80s, continuously embark on some new grandiose project that they’ll never see completed. Their conglomerates are what Cave calls their “immortality projects.” Atheists like Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai must have viewed a prosperous People’s Republic of China as a superpower as their immortality projects.

A common immortality project among the rich is having more and more mistresses, with one famous formerly tobacco-tycoon building mansions for each of his women in Forbes Park, and not too far from each other and from his own residence, for his convenience. He is said to have said, “This, having young women, is the secret of my eternal youth,” a belief that had been common among the Chinese.

For most people, though, there aren’t such heroic ideas. For the poor, especially those who have lived miserable lives, death is moving to the Good Place, which will finally be a respite from the sufferings of this world. All they need to do in this life is to believe in Jesus Christ.

I have my own “immortality projects,” one of which is named Ocean, but at the same time I believe in the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus’ insight: “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And once it does come, we no longer exist.” And I take consolation in actor Keanu Reeves’ response when he was asked by comedian Stephen Colbert: “I know that the ones who love us will miss us.”

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He is risen! Therefore, you will too. If you believe He rose, that is
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