Life After Death - The Evidence by Dinesh D'Souza

Life After Death: The Evidence by Dinesh D’Souza is an intriguing book for anyone interested in the subject of possible life after death.

It doesn’t prove its case. It does show — conclusively, so far as I’m concerned — that modern science does not rule out the possibility of life after death. Rather, the reverse is the case. Modern science from physics to neurobiology opens up the possibility and possibly helps to explain it.

That many people, including scientists, continue to believe that disbelieving in life after death is unscientific, is a way of thinking from the past. Yes, years ago, scientists and others believed wholeheartedly in strict materialism and that science had disproved all religion, including the existence of God and the afterlife.

However, this is an immature way of thinking. Science has learned a lot about the universe since then, but proven nothing that is beyond this universe. Indeed, what they have learned is that this universe is a lot stranger and less “rational” than previous generations of “rationalists” believed.

For about the first ninety percent of this book, D’Souza carefully goes through the science. He covers how quantum physics has proven that the universe is not rational, but very weird. He goes through the science of consciousness. Scientists do not agree that consciousness arises simply from the chemical and electrical connections between brain cells.

He takes a good look at Near Death Experiences. He uses medical science to debunk all the theories given to “explain” them in physical terms. He does admit, however, that people who have come back from these experiences were not fully dead in the sense of those who don’t come back. This is the frustration of this area.

He also takes a look at the issue of reincarnation, and here is Christian background begins to assert itself. He does point out that almost all of the children who allegedly remember their past lives are from India (as I did myself many years ago), where reincarnation is taught by Hindus. As an Indian himself, he knows that such children receive financial benefit, and carefully implies (without accusing anyone directly), that therefore they may all be scams. (Which I didn’t know enough to suspect.) However, most of his reasoning on reincarnation is based on his inclination to accept the Christian version of one life.

And toward the end, when he discusses how the physical body of Jesus rose from the dead, and therefore maybe we all will… the book devolves totally into his own version of Christianity.

Of course he has a right to believe what he believes and to write about it, but as someone who wants to believe in an afterlife, but based on credible evidence not sectarian dogma, I was not happy about the final chapters.

Most of the book is extremely well-researched and thought out. Not many non-scientists could explain both modern physics and biology as well as he does, nor relate them. (Some scientists believe that the quantum nature of the brain could explain consciousness.)

In the end, I was left with my initial belief — the possible existence of life after death is meant to be an impenetrable mystery. We’ll never know for certain.

However, it is comforting to know that the more science learns about the universe and how our bodies and minds work, the more evidence points toward life after death.

Life After Death - The Evidence by Dinesh D'Souza