Many people believe in an afterlife.  After all, it is the basis of nearly every religion practiced on the planet.  The existence of life after death is generally accepted as being beyond our ability to scientifically prove or disprove.  The belief in an existence beyond our short lives on earth is engrained in every one of us.  Some choose to ignore or reject those feelings while others seek a believable truth that makes sense and contains the best of historical evidence.

The Bible tells us that those who believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God and died for our sins, will be saved and will go to heaven after death.  While it is easy to find contradictions and unbelievable stories in the Bible, there has been ample research and archeological evidence to prove the existence of Jesus and the fact that at least some of the stories are true.  The fact that the Disciples of Jesus went from being a cowardly, hiding group after his death to individuals willing to tell his story openly and without fear of death and torture after witnessing the purported and un-provable resurrection, speaks volumes about the believability of this event.

Some of us have been blessed with the presence of wonderful dogs, cats and other animals in our lives who are no longer with us.  Rest assured that there is sufficient evidence telling us that those animals are already in the after life waiting for us.  Innocent creatures don't have the requirements we humans must meet to find our way to the after life.

Doubters have the rest of their lives to search for the truth and find the way to the afterlife.  Besides researching the historical record (don't worry, others have already done the research, all you have to do is look it up) and understanding the truths in the Holy Bible here are a few sources that will provide some food for thought.

• Testimony of individuals who claim to have experienced first hand facets of the afterlife:
  • by having died and then been resuscitated
  • by having visited the afterlife during a period of unconsciousness
  • by having seen the afterlife during a revelatory vision
  • by a unique personal gift of remembering an afterlife (before-life) existence
  • by having communicated with (or received a message from) someone who has passed away
  • Those working with the sick and dying
    (See life after life by Raymond Moody and similar books)
• Testimony of individuals who are presumed to have special insights into the afterlife
  • holy ones
  • spectacular converts
    (See Holy Bible)
• Claimed testimony of visitors from the afterlife
  • God
  • Angels
  • Spirits
    (See Afterlife Encounters  by Diane Arcangel)
• Human intuitions of goodness assumed to emanate from the afterlife

For those who do believe in life after death and an after life, the various conceptions about it differ and these questions can lead one to the real answers:

• Is the afterlife a normal life, or a different type of existence?
• Are afterlife conditions a consequence of good and bad actions during life?
• Is afterlife eternal?
• Is it possible to reincarnate as a human or other form of life?
• What happens at the moment of death?
• Are ghosts and other undead a proof of life after death?

For an afterlife to exist, there must be something of us that survives the body when physical death occurs. This something is called the soul and the spirit.

This life on earth is relatively unimportant, except that it will determine whether life after death follows, and, if so, what it will be like.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:1)

Jesus made similar statements during his life.  Your fate is up to you.  Find the truth and convince yourself of it or waste away this life and the next.