On God Part III- What Happens in the Afterlife?

I don’t know what happens when we die. Darkness? Golden staircases? Elephants with lots of arms? The possibilities are intriguing. Depending on what part of the globe you’re standing on, you’ll get some radically different guesses on what encompasses the afterlife. It’s possible that everything you currently think is correct, and everyone else is wrong. It’s also possible that the way you think the world works is so far off-base that you’re basically just wasting your life being wrong 100% of the time. Exciting, huh?

Oh, this is Part III of my On God series, BTW. You can read Part I  and Part II here.

The point is, nobody really REALLY knows what happens when we die. I distrust people whose pie chart of belief on the afterlife is all one color.

People who don’t leave any room to admit they might be wrong about the afterlife are frustrating. You’re either 100% on board with their religion or you’re a doomed soul. It’s a lot to handle.

To be fair, my guess is most of those people only pretend to be 100% sure. They’re only pretending in order to fit in with the rest of their group, who are also pretending to be 100% sure. It can be a real holy circle-jerk.

Their real probability pie chart probably looks more like this.

Nobody wants to come across as being a doubter, so we all pretend to be 100% sure that our religion is the right one.

Actually, we tend to do this with everything. Humans just like to pretend to be in control. Deep down we all have a little doubt unless we’re real idiots. Idiots don’t seem to have a lot of doubt.

It’s always puzzled me that having doubt is considered a bad thing. What kind of thinking person doesn’t have a little doubt here and there? Doubt should be considered a virtue because it means you’re a person who admits they don’t know everything. You’re a person who understands they MIGHT BE WRONG.

None of us have any idea what will actually happen once we stop breathing, so a little humility is probably warranted. That being said, here’s kind of where I’m at.

 

So, mostly in the camp of nothing will probably happen when we die, but leaving a large swath of possibility that there really is an afterlife.

I assume this pie chart breakdown is befuddling to a lot of people.

How can you be two-thirds sure that God isn’t real?! 

To answer the question you’re probably thinking: I don’t know.

I’m not really two-thirds SURE God isn’t real. This is just my guess.  To be honest, it fluctuates day to day. Even now while I’m editing this post I think 67% is too high. But, I don’t want to redraw the picture. Also, I don’t want to be right that there probably is no God. I’m not 67% hopeful there is no God. I want there to be a God because having God exist leaves open the door to a lot of fun possibilities.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the options for what MIGHT happen in the afterlife.

‘Nothing happens after you die‘ non-afterlife

The reason I lean towards nothing happens after you die is the other options just seem a little too convenient/magical/horrific. Of course, we all want there to be more to life, but we just don’t have much proof that life continues after death. We also don’t have any tangible proof that God exists. The more our scientific understanding improves, the more things that used to be considered divine intervention are easily explained.

Lightning strikes used to happen because God was mad- but now even the most fervent believers recognize that lightning and God’s anger aren’t related. It never goes the opposite way where something we once thought was a natural event we later attribute to God.

We never get to see God- every culture has a different idea of what God is or does or wants from us. For someone who is watching all of us all the time he sure is quiet. So, I’m not strongly in the camp that there is no afterlife, but if I had to just pick one with no strings attached that’s where I’d put my money.

Side Note: Unfortunately, we don't get to guess whether or not God exists with 'no strings attached'. There are massive strings. If you deduce that there probably isn't a God and you're wrong, then it's a huge bummer. Even if you're only 3% sure there is a God it's still safer to bet on God, because betting the other direction has all the risk and zero potential for reward.

I think it would be fun if God added in some type of betting against the house option. Like if he realized he didn't provide nearly enough evidence for people to actually believe in him so the real game is to sniff out who was pretending to be 100% sure about him and who came at it from an intellectually honest pursuit. In this scenario people who wind up on the 'God probably doesn't exist' side of the fence would inherit the golden pavement and all the other fun things espoused to the traditional heaven, whereas the people who swore up and down that they 100% not only believed in God, but were madly in love with him for some reason, got nothing because they weren't being honest with themselves, and God likes honesty. That would be an interesting twist to watch play out.

‘God’s Just Going to Let Everyone Into Heaven’ afterlife

After ‘There is no God’, my second most likely scenario is a real hippie-dippy ‘God’s just going to let everyone into heaven.’ This one is admittedly self-serving and probably super unlikely. It seems like the fairest way to go about things, doesn’t it?

I have no Biblical evidence to back this up- in fact, it goes directly against what the Bible has to say- but thinking about what I would do in God’s shoes, and what I most certainly would NOT do, I think this is a pretty good option. Hell sounds horrific, and try as I might I can’t square a loving God sending folks there. In order to combat this, I’ve compartmentalized my belief into a handy fantasy land where God just lets everyone into heaven- because he’s not a dick.

If I had my choice I would wake up after dying to find myself in heaven with a bunch of Muslims, Christians, Hindus, atheists and maybe even a few Mormons. I don’t think the possibility that all religions could be true should so easily be thrown out as hogwash. If God is real, then he could have chosen to reveal himself to different cultures in different ways. It would be a little weird if he only really revealed himself to one culture, at one point in time, several thousand years before the internet, and just let everyone else fend for themselves.

So even though my pie chart of probability currently looks like this…

I WANT it to look like this…

The difference between what I think will happen and what I want to happen is an interesting distinction. A lot of people explain they believe what they believe because it gives them hope for the future.  They just wouldn’t want to live in a world without God. In other words, they believe what they want to be true. Which always makes me wonder if people are basing their beliefs on what they want to happen why not want for everyone to be let in?

Religious people are really not into the idea that everyone gets to be let in. I don’t know why, but it’s a real irksome idea that someone with a completely different view of God- and maybe even an entirely different holy book- might possibly also get into heaven. I think also they’re bitter about attending so many church services.

‘Christianity is Right’ Afterlife

The third most likely scenario is the ‘Christianity is right- and everyone else is screwed’-afterlife. The reason I think Christianity is most likely the correct religion (if there is one and only one correct religion) is that I was raised in the Christianity bubble. The evidence for the Christian God isn’t any more believable, I’ve just been programmed to more readily accept it.

I know that creates a lot of push-back in the minds of readers who feel like there is an overabundance of evidence for Christianity. I think a lot of the evidence is circumstantial, and it has more to do with the time and place we happen to reside in.

Mr. Burrito Bowl India Circa 1100 AD

If I happened to be born in India in 1100 AD I would probably put the likelihood of Christianity being the one true religion somewhere around 1%. If I lived in ancient Greece I would put the probability that Zeus was the one true God up somewhere near 98%. So just because we happen to live in America in 2019, where everyone is running around eating Chic-fil-A and praising Jesus, doesn’t make it the most likely scenario.

 

So, yeah. I don’t have an airtight case for Christianity.

Readable material:

These are some books I've read, some multiple times, that caused me to take a closer look at what I believe. These are all affiliate links which means if you buy any of these through me I get a small commission. I think. I've never done affiliate links. 

Anyway.

Nailed- David Fitzgerald

Jesus Mything in Action- David Fitzgerald

God is Not Great- Christopher Hitchens

Waking Up- Sam Harris

The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins

The Bravest Boy- Mr. Burrito Bowl

Okay,that last one is mine and unrelated to religion. Still, it's a fun read if you're into kid books.

Hedging Your Bet

Despite not being convinced that Christianity is the one true religion, it makes sense to hedge my bet with what my family members are most likely to believe. If everyone I knew and loved happened to be Muslim I’d probably throw my hat into that camp.

I think this is actually what most religious people do. They grow up in a certain religion and they just keep believing it because it’s easiest to go with the flow. I know very few people who really deliberated on which religion to be. At most, they deliberated on whether or not to be religious, but the religion they would inevitably pick was already arranged.

‘Some Other Religion is Right’ afterlife

Dead last in my ‘afterlife probability pie chart’ is the possibility that a different religion might be right. The audacity of this would be hilarious to any of the 5.2 billion people worldwide who aren’t Christian. If you did a worldwide poll you’d find approximately 2.3 billion people thought Christianity was the right religion, while the other 5.2 billion people were pretty sure it wasn’t the right religion at all. Also, good news, those 5.2 billion people happen to know which of the other religions is right. Unfortunately, the answers vary from region to region.

Since I grew up in Montana, USA I’m pretty sure if any religion is the most right it’s probably Christianity. It would be a great plot twist if we get to heaven and it turns out Hinduism was the one true religion, or Zeus is super annoyed that we all stopped believing in him.

One thing that’s always interesting to me is how highly we tend to rate the likelihood of our own religion being true, and how low we rate the likelihood of any other religion being true.  For a lot of us the choice is either a) our religion is true or b) there is no God. We don’t seriously give much probability that a different religion is true.

But like I mentioned earlier if you lived and died in ancient Greece you’d probably spend your last earthly moments wondering what it was going to be like to finally meet Zeus. Imagine your bewilderment when you woke up only to find out Brahma is actually the one true God. Would be weird.

A Real Choice- Let’s get weird.

None of us really know if any God exists, much less which God. We’re just guessing which religion to pick and most of us just go with the most prevalent religion wherever we happen to live. It seems like it would make more sense for God to wait until we die and then let us decide. At least that way we would have it narrowed down to one God.

If you look at it from God’s standpoint it makes a lot of sense. The way the current structure is set up a lot of people will be missing out on heaven, not because they aren’t kind, loving, caring people, but because they just didn’t think God was actually real.

People in the atheist camp aren’t rejecting God, they just place him in the same group as Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Thor.

Side Note: Another fun switcharoo God could pull is if it turned out everyone who follows God actually goes to hell WITH GOD. God has to suspect a lot of people don't really love him and are just in it for the sweet heaven action. If you ask believers whether they love God for the reward the answer is a resounding "No!" 

So, I think it would be interesting to see who would choose to follow God- and live out eternity in hell with him- and who would choose to not follow God, but live out eternity in heaven. God could really have some fun with social experiments while he's parsing out who does and doesn't make the cut.

One True God

I was raised to believe the God of the Bible is the one true God. Either you accept Jesus as your savior, or you’ll spend eternity in hell. To me, that doesn’t compute with a loving God, especially since there is so much uncertainty about what God actually wants from us.

Then again, I’m not God. Maybe he wants a bunch of people who believe without a lot of evidence. He might just really love the concept of faith. I guess we’ll find out.

So, those are my thoughts on what happens when we die. In Part IV we’ll discuss God sending Jesus to take care of our sins so a few of us can make it to heaven. Alternatively,we might discuss something entirely different because Part IV hasn’t been written yet. How’s that for transparency?

If you enjoyed this article please share it with folks of various religions. They’ll probably be really open to it. 

Next: On God Part IV- God Sends Jesus to Die for Our Sins

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