Does the concept of life after death exist solely in religion, or can it also be found in the mathematical fields of physics? Advancements in quantum mechanics and string theory have turned our understanding of reality upside down and inside out. Parallel universes and extra dimensions beyond our perception are coming into view. Along with that understanding, science and religion are coming closer together regarding the possibility of an afterlife.
The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of conservation of energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can change from one form to another. Our consciousness, emotions, and perception energize our existence on this plane, and that energy doesn’t get to ignore the first law of thermodynamics; rather, it is subject to it. So, what form does our “energy” assume after our eyes shut for the very last time? The skeptic would quickly say there is no scientific proof of existence after death, but in doing so, they are ignoring that science itself holds the potential for life beyond the threshold of death’s gate.
Wernher Von Braun, the famous German rocket engineer who helped America defeat the Soviet Union in the space race, referred to the first law of thermodynamics in this quote –
“In our modern world, many people seem to feel that science has somehow made such ‘religious ideas’ untimely or old-fashioned. “But I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. “If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that He applies it also to the masterpiece of His creation – the human soul?”
Wernher Von Braun isn’t the only example of scientists or physicists believing that our physical demise might not be the end of our experience. Dr. Stuart Hameroff from the University of Arizona and Nobel Laureate physicist Roger Penrose believe that consciousness is merely information stored at a quantum level. Hameroff and Penrose theorize that the protein-based microtubules inside the brain’s neurons carry and store quantum information in a process they call “Orchestrated Objective Reduction.”
Dr. Hameroff explains –
“Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing; the micro-tubules lose their quantum state. The quantum information within the micro-tubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, and it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large. “If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the micro-tubules and the patient says, ‘I had a near-death experience.’ If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”
Researchers from the renowned Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich agree and state that the physical universe that we live in is only our perception, and once our physical bodies die, there is an infinite beyond. Max Planck’s former head commented on the subject-
“What we consider the here and now, this world, it is actually just the material level that is comprehensible. The beyond is an infinite reality that is much bigger which this world is rooted in. In this way, our lives in this plane of existence are encompassed, surrounded, by the afterworld already. The body dies but the spiritual quantum field continues. In this way, I am immortal.”
There are passages in the Bible that speak to concepts of quantum physics. Everything we see is made from invisible matter that combines and time can pass slower or faster depending on the velocity of the observer. Energy isn’t destroyed but changes form consistent with thermodynamics. The following passages are just a few from the Bible that are consistent with these tenets of physics .
Hebrews 11:3 -“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 – “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Peter 3:8 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Those who reject the concept of an afterlife have long said that science supports their position that death is the end of life. However, as Wernher Von Braun so presciently said, “science has a real surprise for the skeptics.” The more we understand the nature of the universe through the lens of science, the more we find the words of Werner Von Braun ringing true.
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