Right or Wrong
John Herlihy
On the question
of life after death,
Somebody is wrong
and
Somebody is right.
Does it matter?
Who knows!
Some say
We will sing an eternal song.
Some say
We will enter the oblivion of night.
In the end
We follow our own way.
In the end
We instinctively pursue the light.
Instinctively,
Some say we know without knowing.
Ignorantly,
Some say we ignore our knowing.
On this question,
Thinking rightly may prove to be wrong.
On this question,
Thinking wrongly may prove to be right.
Am I wrong or right,
A thing only to wonder.
Am I right or wrong,
It all feels like thunder.
Ultimately, we will come to know,
Who was wrong
and
who was right.
By then, it won’t matter.
Everyone will know.
- - - - -
Copyright ©John Herlihy
Saturday 1 March 2025
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While it is clear that what everyone calls the soul or our thought process resides only in the human brain and when that brain is dead, so is the soul, most men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation (Henry David Thoreau).
For various reasons, this life is unsettling to them and they seek something greater or higher… often offered by one religion or another in various forms ranging from rebirth to reincarnation. While this is scientifically true based on the reuse of DNA in passing on the genes or passing on the molecules that originally made up the brain of deceased to be reused again in another intelligent creature, it is only by blind faith that a soul would continue to benefit from life after death, not by reality.
Your last line is unsettling because if the brain dies and all semblance of the soul dies with it, there is no knowing anymore. Why everyone doesn't know now. In spite of all those that claim to have died and come back from the dreams they had of the glory they really want in their next life because they are so miserable in this one.
Ron