Ruff's Den
Death-- The Unanswerable Question
::English essay::
Ryan Strickhouser
Mr. Wing
English 3A, per. 1
October 11, 2002
Death— The Unanswerable Question
Is there nothingness… or do you appear in a beautiful field next to the ocean, trees outlining the horizon with majestic mountains rising behind them, a cool breeze blowing with the clear intensity of a harp’s strum? Or, is everything suddenly engulfed in flame, burning wildly as if a wood-chip thrown into a vat of molten metals? Is it something to dread an entire lifetime, or should you look forward to the day of your death; some believe you may have a choice. Either way, death is the unsolvable question.
Death is a much debated topic and there are many different religions that answer many of the questions one may have; how does one know what is fact, and what is fiction? Is it not impossible to know without experiencing it? Most believe it is not feasible to experience and therefore there are many modern, and ancient, theories on death. I am a Christian, but I heard an idea that really struck me as fascinating and it doesn’t oppose my religion. It is that what you believe in before death is what will happen after death. If you believe in heaven and hell, you will end up in one of them. If you believe in reincarnation, you will be reincarnated. If you believe you simply fade out of existence, then you will.
To those believing in what one thinks in life will determine what happens after death, their only answer lies in their own beliefs, whether it is a comfort or a distress. So why doesn’t someone who has been reincarnated just tell the rest of the world what has happened to them? Here is the answer: The only religion that I know of in which people remain on earth is reincarnation. If one was reincarnated as an animal, one wouldn’t be able to communicate their knowledge to the rest of the world; for aren’t humans the only beings capable of communicating thoughts? Could animals be the speechless philosophers of our world?
So, what if one believes in human reincarnation?
With everyone I’ve ever personally talked to who believes in human reincarnation, there’s always been one similarity in belief: one can’t remember one’s previous life. And what else could one conclude from all the websites out there stating that they can help you find your previous life? It all adds up.
This opens a whole new frame of thought. Was our race decided to be the great wonderers of the world, and once dead be transformed into animals so that we may experience life knowing what this ‘death’ brings but be unable to communicate it? And is our newly ‘morphed’ race then to take pleasure in watching the un-experienced human race in the ways of death try to solve its mysteries? It is a riddle to which there is no answer. Is it impossible to find salvation of any sort? Could there be a God, powerful enough to control the world, the galaxy, and the universe while watching every individual being on the Earth’s surface? And, if there is, does He invite our race into His humble abode after death or does He cast body and soul alike into a furnace beneath to warm His chilled feet? One of them, however, is correct to the one who believes this style of religion.
Death is a topic in which endless thought can be placed. However, if one is seeking a pleasant mind-boggler, there is no greater inquiry in the universe. There is no other topic that is, and always will be, answerless to the entirety of everyone until the day of Armageddon. At this point in time, no matter what the circumstance, it will be too late. For if one is the last person to die, no one else will be around to tell them what happens after death. And, if one was ‘live’ enough to ask others in an afterlife, then they would already know the answer. Death will have come, and the question will have never been answered while one cared for an answer. What happens after death cannot be a question at all, for mustn’t all questions have a solution? But, for those who seek an answer isn’t religion the perfect solution?