One of the oldest ideas that has captivated humanity is the notion of an afterlife, the existence an immortal part of us has after our physical bodies cease to work. Throughout history people have gone to tremendous lengths to prepare themselves to step into this mysterious world or have attempted to avoid it completely.
It is more often than not a central part to any decent religion and it has been proposed in many different forms. Everyone's familiar with the generally monotheistic heaven and hell, where the people who have been good in this life (or have properly believed in the appropriate deity/savior) go to an eternal paradise while those who have been naughty (or have not properly believed in the appropriate deity/savior) spend eternity suffering. There's also reincarnation, where after death one is reborn into a new life, whether as another human or as some other organism or being. Other versions of the afterlife include having a never-ending feast in a large hall or becoming an ectoplasmic ghost.
For some reason the afterlife seems to exist specifically for human beings. There's never much consideration on whether or not animals share an afterlife with people, have their own, or even go anywhere at all. Considering that they're living, feeling creatures, it kind of makes sense for them to have somewhere to go. On the other hand, maybe their sub-human level of consciousness doesn't warrant them a place. On a larger scale, one has to wonder whether or not intelligent extraterrestrials would experience some afterlife. Would all the sentient beings in the cosmos congregate in one big afterlife party or would there be separate ones for different planets? Could a Martian be reincarnated into the next president of the United States? One also has to wonder whether or not the afterlife for this life would have its own eventual afterlife. Could there be a pattern to how long each consecutive one lasts?1
Let's briefly take a look at reincarnation. From an evolutionary perspective, it doesn't really make much sense. As time goes on, more and more individual organisms, including humans, come into being. That would leave an ever increasing surplus of bodies that don't contain reincarnated souls. Of course, a corollary to this idea could be constant generation of new souls, but then there wouldn't be much need for a reincarnation afterlife if the new body could be occupied by a new soul. Despite this predicament, reincarnation can be a very appealing idea. It's nigh impossible for us to comprehend the often presumed nothingness that comes after death. Every perception we ever have is through the framework of our consciousness and it feels right for the mind to continue to exist this way after we kick the bucket. We won't remember our previous life (unless you're into that whole déjà vu thing) and we'll more than likely have totally different personalities and will hold opinions that we never would have even considered believing previously. It would presumably be an instant transfer of the soul from a freshly dead body to a developing one in a womb.
Then there's heaven and hell. Without a God that has the same morality as us humans, it's an incredibly unlikely scenario. What is there to judge who gets a pleasant afterlife (a pleasant one from the perspective of a human being) and who gets an unhappy one? It would be nice, of course, for those really bad people out there to receive some sort of post-death punishment for their actions, but it seems unlikely to be what will really come (infinite punishment for even the worst crimes is, of course, unethical, and a stint in hell should be followed by an upgrade into heaven). It would also be nice for every human soul to be treated to a nice long, or even infinite, stay in some sort of paradise.
Apparently the majority of activity that goes on in heaven for the undead consist of worshiping God right there next to him. If you ask me, that's pretty boring (not to mention narcissistic on God's part).2 My idea of heaven, and what I personally would like to see when I finally croak, would be a place where life is basically perfect. You're always enjoying your afterlife, everything always goes well, and there's a perpetual feeling of 100% satisfaction with yourself. You eat your favorite foods without any ill-effects on your health, you see all your friends and family whenever you like, you wake up looking like the people in the Lunesta commercials, and you do all the fun stuff you'd like to have done in real life. There's one thing that this heaven would require to make it truly perfect, though: there would be no getting "used to" all the wonderful things you experience. In real life, if you do or have something you enjoy too much, then it'll begin to grow unexceptional. But in heaven, that 800th bite of chocolate brownie should taste as awesome as the first and that beautiful view you see at the top of the hike you always go on will look as breathtaking as when you first saw it.
But heaven is supposed to be a place where all the deceased congregate, and unless it's really just a different paradise for each individual, there are going to be some problems. For example, while alive, Bob is in love with Sue, but Sue hates Bob. In a collective heaven where everything's perfect for everyone, does Bob get to hook up with Sue or does Sue get to never see Bob again? Either one of them would have to have a change of heart (making their heavenly desires different from their earthly ones) or there's some sort of transcendental solution to the paradox that can't be comprehended by the human mind. There will be conflicting interests all over the place that would need some sort of major reckoning factor to make this ideal collective paradise work.
Probably the bleakest possibility, and the one that I'd guess is probably the most likely, is no afterlife at all. You bite the dust and that's it. If you break it down enough, you can begin to see how the different pieces in the brain give rise to human consciousness with the way the pieces function. All the emotions, thoughts, reasoning, and sensations we experience have acquired this feeling of a separate soul through billions of years of gradual increases in complexity. It's this complexity of the brain and profundity of the mind that allows us to be aware of our consciousness which in turn allows for the concept and consideration of the soul and its immortality. When the brain shuts down, it makes sense that all those emotions, thoughts, reasoning, and sensations shut down as well. With the basis for everything that's possible for us to comprehend experienced from our consciousness, we cannot imagine this possibly inevitable end to the mind.
If we dig even deeper into this, however, we can't even be sure of "facts," such as the biology of our brains, since we can't objectively view the processes in action.3 For all we know we could be duped by some higher force into thinking that consciousness can end. It's easy to let ourselves think that way from our highly subjective perspective, but some philosophical ideas can make some compelling points. Anyway, if we can trust the world around us to be true outside our minds and that the totality of reality isn't limited to our minds, then it seems quite likely that there isn't an afterlife. Depressing, but hey, it gives you a better reason to have fun now.
So what could be the chances that various forms of the afterlife could be the real deal? As I've already stated, no afterlife seems to be most likely. A heaven and hell that happens to be based on the morality of living human beings seems incredibly remote. As ideal as it would be (without the whole 24/7 God worshiping stuff, of course4), ideas like reincarnation and becoming a ghost make more sense because they're not based on non-transcendental ambiguities. Your soul would be transferred to some other kind of existence only, not arbitrarily rewarded or punished as well. Or maybe when we die, we're just waking up from a long dream into a higher reality. It seems to me, however, that the most likely afterlife, if there is one, isn't going to be anything we come up with (or even can come up with). If all else fails, we can just remain on the physical earth after we die.
But why and how did humanity come up with (or, if you're religious, realize) the concept of the afterlife in the first place? At some point thousands of years ago, people would've finally started wondering about their deceased tribesmen. They would've realized that their friends and family were alive and conscious just like them and wondered what their friends' and family's consciousnesses would do when they finally stop moving and breathing. Ancient people probably wouldn't have been considering materialism so it would have made sense that the dead's consciousness just existed elsewhere, on another plane of reality. What happens after death is such a fundamental concept that the idea of the afterlife, which would have been the first popular solution to this mystery, has been kept throughout history, evolving and refining itself to conform to various religions and philosophies. It is so fundamental that it is more often than not unquestioningly believed in.
Whether you unquestioningly believe in the afterlife or find it preposterous, it does make sense that ancient or primitive people came up with it in an attempt to satisfy the mysteries of death. If our ancestors did come up with it, as it appears they would have, it makes a decent case against any post-mortem life.
As skeptical or utterly unsure I can be at times, all I can say is it'll be interesting finding out. I'm definitely in no rush to find out, but when my foot's ready to kick over that metaphorical bucket and I've satisfactorily said all my bon voyages, I'll hopefully be excited to finally get the answer.5
1 This, of course, is all in the framework of familiar, Earthly afterlife, and under the presumption that some form of it exists.
2 Pardon the blasphemy.
3 And by "objectively," I mean outside our own consciousness (because that would be impossible). If we found ourselves observing these "facts" "objectively," then we couldn't be sure our own mind's not tricking us into thinking we're seeing it objectively.
4 Again, pardon the blasphemy.
5 A morbid kind of excitement, the only kind you can have when you know you're about to keel over.
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