I’m fairly agnostic about anything other than the Here-and-Now Life. Recently on NPR, All Things Considered ran a series on what people believe about the Afterlife. I listened to the installments with interest but also a heavy dose of skepticism. Nonetheless, it set me thinking: If I did believe in the Afterlife, what would it be? Well, here’s what I came up with:
I believe in reincarnation. Now I don’t literally believe that after we die we come back in another form – as an insect, or a cow, or Mitch McConnell, or David Ortiz. But I do believe in reincarnation – that is, I believe it should be true. Why? Well, of all the world’s major religious ideas, it’s the one I find most appealing and most fair. It’s not so much the idea of an actual, terrestrial immortality that attracts me, though that’s certainly a plus. Rather, it’s the idea that we inherit the earth we leave that I find so appealing. I believe that most of our destructive and unjust behavior, individually and as a society, stems from the assumption that whatever we do while we’re alive on this planet, we won’t have to be around to answer for it or clean it up after we die.
I believe in reincarnation. I just wish to God it were true.
This is an excerpt from this week's Cape Cod Notebook. Audio of the full essay is posted above. Give it a listen.