The Truth About Death

Death is absence of life and this is the definition I will work with in the entire article. Though many people; Christians, Philosophers, and other religions, believe that there exist some kind of life after death; examining this from the origin of life either biblically or by evolution theory do seem to suggest any of such claims.

The theory of evolution has its roots on the assumption that the earth originated as a result of some big bung from the sun due to excessive heat. When the earth had cooled down, then there reached a point where organic material assembled together to form complex proteins leading to the formation of amino acids, the DNA and the first cell organism. Over the years, the cell differentiated and developed to other complex forms ending with the evolution of apes to man. The whole process is said to have taken more the four billion years.

Consider the point where the earth started cooling, and there were elements as single elements whereas others grouped as compounds. Up to this stage, there was no life which would imply that everything that existed were dead. After a few millions years, due to environmental changes influenced by the changing climate, organic substances grouped together to form proteins such as amino acids and at which point life was still not in existence (amino acid is the building block of a protein and we cannot say that protein in itself is life, especially now that we eat proteins from dead sources-you have to kill an animal first before you eat it!).

But when the proteins through complex interactions with one another formed the first DNA, the ability for self reproduction of the DNA containing material enclosed within a complex layer of proteins, carbohydrates and fats generally regarded as the cell membrane, the cell here described was said to have life (able to move, feed and reproduce). If the components of the cell are separated back to proteins and then the proteins are broken down to the constituents such as the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and maybe phosphorous, then we would understand that the cell is dead which means the cell is not able to reproduce, feed, and move.

Looking at the explanation of creation, especially creation well enumerated in the bible when God decided to create man, it is said that the raw material used in making man came from the soil. Thus, to be scientifically correct, implication is made of the fact that the soil provided the basic elements that form the man which include carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, and other elements (there has never been found any element in organic life absent in the soil).

To make it a little bit complicated, it is said that for this kind of being to have life, then God breathed into man the breath of life. This sound more logical since a man who has just died out of heart attach or otherwise not physically deformed has all the elements of life in the same proportion that a living man has, though it is said that he is dead. The man who has 'naturally' died is then said to have lost the breath of life.

It is the breath of life that has caused a lot of controversy in both the Christian world and other religions including the philosophers. Since they can't actually know that the breath of life in itself is not life, they have called it the human soul and claimed that this soul does not die. But for those who are familiar with the bible, they should have read a verse in the book of Ezekiel which says that the soul that sins shall die! The soul therefore has the potentially of dieing which implies that the soul has life and is not life in itself.

The bible defines the soul as spirit or breath of life, or otherwise power of life. It is this power or vigor that comes from God which makes our dependency on him, of which ones he takes, we cease to live. Death does not therefore mean transformation into another form of life other than ceasing to live altogether.