Sebastian Junger

So if you sort of knew for sure, like we could, if the scientists could prove, right, if the nerds could prove that there was an afterlife and what you got to do was just more of the same, except it's a lot more pleasant for eternity.

If we could prove that it would strip the value out of these precious decades that we are allotted, right?

One of the reasons that life is so precious because it's so finite.

So if you could prove there was an afterlife, don't worry about it.

Like, okay, your wife dumped you and blah, blah, blah.

But don't worry about it because soon the afterlife is going to start and then you're good forever.

So just don't sweat it.

In fact, why don't you just kill yourself right now and just get on to it because that's when the good part starts.

It would ruin what life is.

It would strip it of value.

On the other hand –

Like the two other guys in Dostoevsky's group of friends, if we could prove, like literally prove scientifically that there is no afterlife, and you can't prove a negative, but somehow if we could prove there was no afterlife whatsoever, we're biological beings.

When we die, that's it.

We rot.

We return to the soil.

That's it.

Done.

If we could prove that, that might be so psychologically devastating that it would be actually quite hard to lead a meaningful life because in your mind you're thinking, well, what's the frigging point?

Right.

So where we're at right now, there's the perfect level of ambiguity.