On the Question of Death

I have never thought much of death, perhaps a bit cold-hearted about it. Early man must have recognized the not getting up, lack of warmth, and decomposition as signs of death, and eventually started customs of burying those who have passed on...

Passed on where? This question comes up often, and I find it to be a legitimate and honest question from religious people. What happens when we die? In Jon Lindgren's recent blog post, a question caught my attention:

What do most Agnostics believe happens to people when their physical Life is over, i.e. death? What was the purpose, reasoning for that belief. 

As to the answer, I don't know. Neither does anyone, and thus we must take a look at what we do know. As a mammal, descended from a common ancestor of every other species on this planet, I feel safe to assume we simply cease to be, stop existing similarly to every animal.

Answer aside, I prefer to answer this with other questions. Such as where did you come from before you were born? Or what was the purpose of not being born yet? How about: was there something immaterial before your conception?

By flipping these questions around, and asking about before life rather than after life, we may see how arbitrary the questions are. Humans, like most mammals, have evolved to fear death, to do anything in our power in order to protect the passing of genetics into the next generations. Isn't instinct enough to explain our obsession with the after life?