The brain

[Angrboda]

Schwartz devotes the entirety of chapter 18 of The Afterlife Experiments to “How Our Lives Might Change” if “science proves human souls live forever.” He claims that “if you knew, once and for all, that consciousness stayed with us forever,” then “you would realize and believe that … your time here on the earth is for the purpose of learning advance lessons of love and compassion, and for you to honor the many gifts you have received by learning how to give to your family, friends, community, and the world as a whole” (238).

Thus far, believing in the living soul hypothesis hasn’t led to a widespread adherence to the noble values he lists. Why would scientific proof make things any different? It’s not like the believers in spirits doubt that they will live forever or be reincarnated, so why would these data change things? For example, Schwartz seems to think that if we had scientific proof of the afterlife, we wouldn’t exploit the earth’s resources with abandon (241). Yet, thousands of years of very strong belief in the afterlife by the majority of our species has not produced a very loving attitude towards the planet. We can’t blame the atheistic materialist for destroying our environment. The vast majority of the destroyers are strong believers in the afterlife hypothesis. The vast majority of those who are raping the earth and exploiting our natural resources to the detriment of humankind believe in spirits and do not doubt that they will live forever. Why would they stop being selfish and destructive once the scientific proof is in that there is an afterlife? The destroyers now rationalize their behavior to justify it. Even if they had scientific proof of the afterlife, it is likely that they would find a way to justify continuing their current behaviors, lifestyles, and values.

. . . . . .

Finally, Schwartz is hopeful that scientific proof of the afterlife might bring religious institutions together. However, strong belief in the spirit world hasn’t united religions in the past. Schwartz offers no reason to think that having scientific proof of the spirit world will have a significant effect on institutional harmony among Muslims and Christians, or Jews and Muslims, or Hindus and Sikhs, or Muslims and Baha’i, or Hindus and Muslims. In short, if Schwartz is right, nothing will be any different than it is now. How much more useless could a discovery be than one that will probably go by unnoticed?

What if Gary Schwartz is right?