Death? That’s Heavy
One of the greatest fears related to death is fear of nothing. Literally, we fear becoming nothing. A complete cease of existence. Many people fear this even more than they fear the torture of the biblical eternal damnation.
The idea that death is the absolute end of consciousness frightens even the most stalwart of hearts. This fear is exacerbated by the position of science which supports it. Science maintains that all the functions of the human body can be explained by chemical, electrical and physical reactions. In fact, it is difficult to find those in the science fields to present irrefutable evidence that any portion of the entity known as a human is capable of existing beyond the death of the physical body.
However, we can find some interesting explorations made by Dr. Duncan MacDougal. In the early 1900’s the good Dr. conducted some fascinating experiments. These experiments may have indicated something existed beyond the observable physical body. He said, the soul was real and therefor it had mass. So, to prove his position he began carefully weighing those of his patients who were about to expire.
By placing the beds on a minutely balanced beam scale the good Dr. measured a consistent loss of weight of the expiring patients at 21 grams. This, he maintained, was the change of the body as the weight of the soul left and ascended (descended) beyond our mortal realm.
A weighty question indeed.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
as a young girl in a catholic school environment I shared that I felt we didn’t end, and exclaimed instead that I felt we perpetuated. I surmised that we were just tooooo amazing to end - I was in second grade. The nun gasped and told me I didn’t know what I was talking about - I beg to differ. My fear at the end is of being alone and that maybe the before perpetuity it might hurt.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Pretty weighty thought for a second grader.