What separates us from animals is the ability to reason. Even though they also have a brain and can express sentiments such as loyalty and love, they are limited in lacking the “nous” the reasoning spirit. That this is so, is not in question. Our reasoning mind has given us primacy over all living beings on this earth. Where other animals may be stronger physically, we make it up through intellect. We have conquered them and put them to work for us. We have put so much power to our elbow that no lion stands a chance against a hunter with a rifle.
The question that arises then is, why are we so special? Reason is the prerogative of a higher order, and that order is the Man that has evolved on this earth.We reproduce in the same way, but it doesn’t take us long to stand on two feet and free our selves - free our hands. Our empty brain at birth quickly fills up with the ability to reason, to speak and to create, but the paradox is that having built up a lot of experience we die and it seems that a lot goes to waste.
This is a key question that humans have wrestled with ever since the ancients.What is it all about? Why do we come and go, like actors moving across the stage? Maybe we’re only meant to add our small contribution to mankind, and then expire. Others, come after us and continue the process. The ability to reason, makes us reject the possibility that we don't matter as individuals. Granted, we cannot know for certain what comes after discarding our body, but nothing stops us from speculating, from reasoning as has been done by philosophers throughout the ages. We reason that we are unique persons, all discrete and separate entities just like the atoms that make up our cells in our bodies and just as with our body cells, we all make up the whole of mankind. But this merging of bodies that makes up humanity is the physical part. Mentally, no two humans are the same. Not even the offspring thinks like its parents.
Physically we may well pass on some characteristics, but then the physical body is temporary, it doesn’t survive long, and is returned to dust.
The question that arises now is what happens to this reasoning ability, this spirit after death? If it is also destroyed together with the body then the whole exercise of existence is rather pointless which does not stand to reason. Might it not simply cycle back to the source from which it came? There may well be a common eternal pool of knowledge that predates us as Plato suggested. This return to Source is also suggested by ancient philosophers, those that followed Plato, the Neo-Platonists. There are some things that we know but cannot say where the knowledge came from; this is the innate knowledge of humans, a knowledge that is passed on to them. The neo-Platonists such as Plotinus claim that there are different levels of soul and the higher level returns at death to the Source. If it has not fully achieved its mission it may well be sent back to work through another body (not an animal as some suggest) and then ultimately rests in the presence of this Ultimate Wisdom from which all reason emanates. Something like the Eastern beliefs where the ultimate state is the perfection.
Man has always been curious, and has allowed his mind to wander and wonder. His ability to reason has led him to take different paths in searching for the ultimate truth. The philosophers as lovers of wisdom have led the way that has been in turn followed by the world’s different religions. Where innate knowledge is concerned science has no part to play since this is a given and not something that can be proved by experiment. What happens immediately after death? We can only speculate. Our reasoning ability suggests that our spirit, our nous, that higher soul is detached from our body at death and survives in some form. The Church claims that immediately after this detachment from the body it remains close to us in a sort of half way house and eventually moves on to its new environment, in another dimension wherever that maybe.
The physical body left without this spirit is now nothing but scrap. This body is now no different than a piece of wood or stone such as a sculpture that may look like the previous person when he was alive. Where then can we pay homage and try to stay in contact? For those who have faith, this is the memorial service that maybe offered by churches that try to intercede on behalf of the departed spirit in the other environment.
