What is Death?

IB Class: English

As an introduction to Philip Larkin's poem Aubade, Ms. MacArthur gave us all a slip of paper to write down what we we think will happen to us when we die. I wrote something like this: "When we die, those who are satisfied with their life will be reborn to a new life. Those who are unsatisfied with their life can choose to remain in the world as spirits." This is what I think could happen, but I have absolutely no confidence or proof that this is true.

Then, Ms. MacArthur collected our responses and gave us other people's response to reply with. The one that I received stated something along the lines like: "When I die, nothing is left. I will fertilize the earth and people will slowly forget me." Because there isn't any proof  of heaven/hell/spirit/reincarnation, I felt as if what the person said was most probably going to be true. Yet, I still want to believe that reincarnation exists. In Buddhism, reincarnation is actually a form of suffering, because we have to go through the pains of birth, growing old, sickness, and death. I, however, do not think that living as a human being is suffering, because why would I want to be dead when I could live to experience the pleasures of life?

In the end, no matter what we believe in, we will not know what will truly happen to us after we die and when we die, we cannot return to tell the living about how death is. How do people predict how death is? What do they base their beliefs on? How reliable and valid their beliefs and their evidence? Can we ever know about something that cannot be proven? Even with our four ways of knowing and different areas of knowledge, death remains as an enigma to us.