Resolving One’s Mortality
Because I could not stop for death—
He kindly stopped for me.
Emily Dickinson (1830–86)
The pain in her chest was crushing; sweat poured off her as she gasped for each breath. Her hands shook, waves of nausea rolled over her, and she was light-headed. She knew she was going to die. She was terrified, and she was in my office. The panic attacks had begun two months earlier—the day her father died in a car accident—and they had gotten worse with each passing day. She was consumed with fear—fear of death. She was a Christian and attended church each week, yet she was still afraid. And she is not alone; many of my patients, from all backgrounds, present to my office afraid of dying—worried, anxious, and insecure—desperate for some answer to bring them peace.
In his book Existential Psychotherapy, renowned professor of psychiatry Irvin Yalom writes:
“Don’t scratch where it doesn’t itch,” the great Adolph Meyer counseled a generation of student psychiatrists. Is that adage not an excellent argument against investigating patients’ attitudes toward death? Do not patients have quite enough fear and quite enough dread without the therapist reminding them of the grimmest of life’s horrors? Why focus on bitter and immutable reality? If the goal of therapy is to instill hope, why invoke hope-defeating death?1
Yet how can we have a book on aging without considering the reality of our own mortality and the end of life as we know it? Yalom goes on to describe that the fear of death is universal, something with which all humans, from all backgrounds, struggle—a fundamental human reality: “The terror of death is ubiquitous and of such magnitude that a considerable portion of one’s life energy is consumed in the denial of death.”2 And as we have discussed in previous chapters, unresolved fear from any cause increases activation of our stress circuitry with subsequent inflammatory cascades and accelerated aging. Further, if the fear of dying is significantly distressing it could lead to unhealthy coping, such as using alcohol or drugs, which would only accelerate decline. Therefore, for the healthiest aging we need to address the universal fear of dying.
Yalom is not the first to realize this universal fear of death. Almost two thousand years ago the writer of Hebrews wrote that one of the primary purposes of Christ’s mission to earth was to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:15). Christianity is not the only religion in which addressing concerns about death is integral. The ancient Egyptians were perhaps extreme in their concerns with death and the afterlife. They not only had an entire holy book focused on the mysteries of death but also spent vast fortunes in this life building incredible burial vaults (pyramids) and setting aside riches for the afterlife.
Nearly 30 percent of the world’s population adheres to a religion that was founded because of one person’s fear of death and his attempt to resolve that fear. Gautama Buddha lived between 563 and 483 BCE in the foothills of the southern Himalaya Mountains. As a young man, he left the confines of his luxurious apartments and encountered for the first time in his life a decrepit old man, a severely ill man, and a corpse being carried to the funeral pyre by mourners. Buddha realized that he was mortal, experienced fear of dying, and began a search to resolve his fear, which resulted in Eastern meditation practices and the development of Eastern philosophical explanations about life and death. These practices have continued and been developed and expanded by adherents over the millennia since Buddha died.
Most cultures of the world have faced the question of death and brought forth various beliefs to overcome and mitigate fears about it. Eastern religions address the fear of death through the recycling of life energy in a series of new lives (reincarnation), but most world religions have some form of heaven and hell. The Norse people believed that at death a person went to be with the various gods. If one died in battle one went to be with Odin, if drowned in the sea one went to be with the sea god, and so on.3
Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion from the Middle East, believes that at death each person must cross the Bridge of Judgment and is met by either a beautiful, sweet-smelling maiden or an ugly, foul-smelling old woman. If met by the young maiden one is taken to paradise; if met by the old woman one is taken to hell.4
Hinduism also believes in an afterlife, in the rebirth of souls into various planes of existence.5 And within Islam the belief in both heaven and hell is accepted across all sects. The Koran has many texts that refer to the rewards in heaven for the faithful.6
Within Judaism there has been a historic divide, which became a point of great dissension during the time of Jesus Christ and in the first century following his crucifixion. The Pharisee sect (of which the apostle Paul was a member) believed in the resurrection of the dead, but the Sadducee sect did not. (Some remember the difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees on this issue by this mental witticism: the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection so they were sad—you—see.) This divide in Judaism became a point on which the Sadducees famously sought to expose Jesus as ignorant and foolish. We have the encounter recorded in the book of Matthew:
Later that day, the lawyers and theology professors from the school of the Sadducees—those who teach that there is no resurrection—came to question Jesus. They asked: “Wise Teacher, Moses instructed us that if a man dies without having children, then his brother is to marry the widow and have children for him. Well, we recently had a situation involving seven brothers: The oldest married and died without having children, so his brother married the widow. But he also died without having children, as did the third brother who married her, and the rest of them—right down to the seventh. Eventually, the woman herself died. Can you tell us, when the dead awaken to live again, whose wife will she be since she was married to all seven?”
Jesus answered without hesitation, “Your entire question is flawed, because you understand neither what Scripture teaches nor God’s power and methods. When those who sleep in the grave arise to life, it will be into God’s heavenly kingdom, and they will be like the angels in heaven who neither marry nor are given in marriage. Regarding your speculation about the resurrection, you would have better conclusions if you remembered what God has said to you. God says: “I am”—not “I was”—“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead—those who no longer exist—but the God of the living. (Matt. 22:23–32)7
Since recorded history, humankind has faced death, and every culture of the world has developed beliefs about what happens after death. In fact, the victory over death is perhaps one of the most crucial theological beliefs within Christianity. The apostle Paul makes this point central:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. (1 Cor. 15:13–17)
I think Paul was right about the futility of life here on earth if there is nothing beyond this current existence. For the Sadducees and the modern humanist who believe there is only this life and nothing beyond, there is little hope to offer when dealing with death and the loss of loved ones. But with so many divergent teachings about death and the afterlife, including the belief in no afterlife, things can be confusing. Does any evidence exist to support a belief in an afterlife? And is there any rational reason to believe that one view on what happens at death is any more reliable than any other view? Amazingly, our modern information science and our understanding of the difference between matter, energy, and information—material, power, and data—make one view much more likely than all the others.
According to the Bible human beings are tripartite: “Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23 NET, emphasis added). Interestingly, computers are also tripartite and can serve as a very poignant object lesson. In order to have an operational computer, one needs hardware, software, and an energy source. Having only two of the three results in a computer that will not operate. All three are required for actual functioning.
Living (operational) human beings are composed of three parts—body, soul, and spirit—and all three components are needed for an operational or functional human being. The reason many people misunderstand this is because some biblical words have taken on magical or mystical meaning—for example, soul and spirit. Let’s reexamine the New Testament Greek origins of these words and see if our understanding improves.
The Greek word for body is σῶ��α, soma, from which the word somatic is derived. People who have mental stress that manifests in their bodies, such as stress ulcers, are said to have psychosomatic illness. Soma is our body, including our brain, and is analogous to a computer’s hardware—the physical machine.
The Greek word for soul is ψυχή, psuche, from which we get psyche as in psychiatry and psychology. The Greek word means our unique individuality, personhood, and identity and is analogous to a computer’s software.
And the Greek word for spirit is πνεῦμα, pneuma, from which we get pneumonia or pneumatic and which means wind, air, or breath—as in the breath of life. This is our energy source, the life energy originating from God.
To be operational a computer must have all three components—hardware, software, and an energy source. Likewise, to be operational a human being must have all three components—body (hardware), soul (software), and spirit (life energy).
When a computer runs out of power, into what state does it go? It “sleeps.” Amazingly, this is the exact language the Bible uses for human beings who run out of power: they “sleep” (Pss. 7:5; 13:3; Matt. 9:24; John 11:12–13; 1 Thess. 4:13). And when our computer is “asleep” it is not dead; likewise, persons who enter this state that the Bible calls sleep are not dead. This is how Jesus could say that those who believe in him will never die—they may sleep, but they won’t die (John 11:26).
What if someone were to take your computer and smash it into pieces and melt those pieces in a fire. You could at that point say they have “killed” or destroyed your machine. But what if your computer was backed up on the cloud? If that were the case, you could obtain a new piece of hardware and download the software from the cloud. What have you just done? You have resurrected your computer!
Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body [soma/hardware] but cannot kill the soul [psyche/software]” (Matt. 10:28). Jesus is saying exactly what you would say to a friend whose computer is in the hands of an enemy threatening to destroy it but who knows a complete and perfect backup of their data is secure on the cloud. You would say, “Don’t worry about those who can destroy the hardware but cannot destroy the software.” Why? Because you can get new hardware (a hardware upgrade even) and download your software onto it; in the end, with the hardware upgrade, you will be in a better position.
This is what the Bible teaches: at the second coming of Christ the mortal puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruption—we get hardware upgrades at the second coming (1 Cor. 15:42)! And our unique individualities, personhoods, and identities—our souls—are downloaded from God’s heavenly servers (the Lamb’s Book of Life) into our new bodies (hardware), and we become operational again!
Notice Paul’s description and how he puts it all together:
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. . . . For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thess. 4:13–14, 16–17, emphasis added)
This is an incredible passage; here we have the dead in Christ coming down from heaven and at the same time coming up out of the graves. How is this possible? Because we are tripartite, at death the hardware/body (soma) returns to dust (Gen. 3:19; Job 34:15; Pss. 90:3; 104:29; Eccles. 3:20), the energy (spirit) returns to God (Eccles. 12:7), and the software/individuality (soul) is secure with Christ in heaven, safely stored on the heavenly servers—the Lamb’s Book of Life—awaiting the day our software (souls) gets downloaded into perfect hardware (bodies) and God breathes in the breath of life and the dead live again!
This is how Jesus could say, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25–26).
Jesus had to speak a language they could understand. He had just told his disciples that Lazarus was asleep, but because they didn’t understand he told them Lazarus was dead. Then Jesus says though a person dies they will never die. This could sound like a contradiction, unless one understands there are two deaths—one that we humans call death but God calls sleep and the other that God calls death and is the cessation of one’s existence. Thus, Jesus is saying those who die (sleep) but trust in him will never die (cease to exist).
This is a great distinction between what Jesus taught and what Buddha taught. Jesus saw life energy (spirit/pneuma) and individuality (soul/psyche/software) as different. While energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transferred (in harmony with the first law of thermodynamics), information/data can be created and destroyed. Eastern religions merge life energy and individuality into one and teach that when life energy continues on in various forms so does the individuality that was using that energy. This teaching, however, is not consistent with either physics or information science. Incredibly, what the Bible writers describe is in complete harmony with modern science!
The entire emphasis of the Bible is that we are to receive new software here and now—we don’t get new hardware until the second coming! The metaphors used in Scripture all teach this:
Christianity teaches that those who trust Jesus also open their hearts, and the Spirit comes in and transforms their souls/psyche (software), instilling new desires, motives, and methods of love while cutting out the ways of fear, selfishness, and evil. But all this happens in a defective and fallen body, which is slowly aging and decaying and will eventually wear out. When our bodies fail, the power runs down and they “fall asleep.” But those who have trusted Jesus have their souls (individualities), which have been renewed to be like Jesus in character, safely secured with Christ in heaven, awaiting download into new bodies at the second coming!
We don’t have to live in fear of death because our souls, our individualities, our software cannot be destroyed by any evil power on earth. Our souls—individual characters—can only be corrupted by us: by willfully participating in evil, by rejecting truth, by rejecting love, by choosing selfishness. But for those who choose Christ, who surrender self in trust to him, nothing can touch their software—their souls; their hearts are reshaped to be like God and are secure with him in heaven!
Unfortunately, for the good-hearted scientist who has rejected the dictator view of God and chosen to believe in a universe in which there is no afterlife, there is no protection from the fear of dying. Such people often try to offset their fear of no longer existing by having children (continuing to exist in their offspring), creating art or books that will continue to exist after they are gone, or leaving legacies (endowments, having buildings named after them, etc.). But all such attempts ultimately fail to bring genuine peace.
I would like to offer the open-minded scientist an alternative view—the belief in an intelligence who is perfectly kind, benevolent, and merciful and who constructed the very laws on which all the universe operates. Such a being desires thinking, inquiry, and forming of beliefs based on evidence, and for all who trust him he will secure their individuality for download into perfected hardware for eternity.
For the scientist who struggles with the language of the Bible, one could easily reword Genesis 1:1 from “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” to “Earth began when an extraterrestrial Intelligence came and terraformed it, establishing a viable atmosphere and a stable planet.” Belief in a supreme intelligence who is love, who seeks to heal and restore, and whose laws are design parameters on which life is built allows for the integration of science and Scripture and provides a platform for refining our beliefs to conform ever more closely to how reality works. It also provides hope in a life to come that frees us from our fear of death. Such a belief reduces the firing of fear circuits and decreases inflammatory cascades, resulting in a healthier life here and now and a reduced risk of disability and dementia as we age. I invite you to consider this evidence for yourself.
LEARNING POINTS
ACTION PLAN: THINGS TO DO
1. Take a moment and answer the following questions:
a. What do you believe will happen to you when you die?
b. On what evidence do you base your answer?
c. Does your answer bring peace or incite fear?
2. Formulate a belief system that is evidence-based and reduces anxiety and fear.
3. Choose to engage in activities that are altruistic, compassionate, and helpful to others.
4. In good conscience, refuse to engage in activities you know are harmful or that you would be ashamed of should they become public.