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There is one matter about which all human beings can be assured: physical death is inevitable. Regardless of whether one is a religious devotee or an ardent atheist, and regardless of one's conception of what constitutes the human person, mortality confronts us all. Our physical bodies will die and decay. But is that the end? Does consciousness cease to exist when the body, or at least the brain, dies? Or do we, in some sense, survive physical death? Does the soul, if there exists such a thing, continue beyond the cessation of the body? It is not uncommon to desire to live forever, but is such a longing mere wishful thinking—a hope unfulfilled? Among the major world religions, physical death is not the end. There is hope for continuation, though for some traditions what such a "continuation" after death is like far transcends anything we can now conceive or imagine. But hope for some form of continuation beyond the grave is not limited to religious adherents. Atheists too may wish that consciousness continues after physical death. If so, as we will see, such hope may not be a mere flight of fancy.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137314758_7

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