Immortality Without God

After you die, your life cannot continue in any way. Sorry, you're dead. Although your life cannot continue after death, it can be repeated. After you die, another body can live your life - as in the eternal return of the same. But repetition is pointless. A better idea is that, after you die, your life is revised. After you die, another body can live an improved version of your life. If the life of some other body is an improved version of your life, then that other body is one of your improved counterparts. It is one of your better selves.

Immortality Without God argues for the revision theory of resurrection (the RTR). The RTR says that, for every way your life can be improved, you have a better self whose life is improved in exactly that way. You will be resurrected. Of course, you won't be resurrected in our universe - that's not consistent with the laws of nature. On the contrary, you'll be resurrected elsewhere - in another universe. The RTR entails the existence of a multiverse structured by creatively effective ethical principles. According to the RTR, for every way any universe can be improved, there exists another universe that is improved in exactly that way. And every way to improve your life is one of the ways to improve our universe.

Your earthly self is followed by a plurality of better selves. Each of your better selves lives out, from birth to death, a revised and more perfect version of your life. For any negativity that you suffer in your earthly life, you have a better self who does not suffer from that negativity. And yet your better selves may still suffer from some negativities of their own. Some of their positive potentials may be unrealized. Their lives can also be improved. Your better selves have better selves of their own. They too are resurrected and improved. From revision to revision, your counterparts grow more and more excellent. All their positive potentials are eventually realized. They approach and achieve infinite excellence. But not alone. Each of your better selves lives its life in another and more excellent version of our society, in another and more excellent version of our universe.

The RTR is logical - it is based on recent work in modal logic and temporal logic. It is based on counterpart theory. The RTR is consistent with our best science - it requires no modifications of the laws of nature. It involves neither miracles nor ghosts. It does not involve any speculative physics. But it is more than merely scientifically possible. The RTR is supported by empirical arguments. It is scientifically plausible. The RTR is a part of the best explanation for why there is something rather than nothing and for why our universe has certain unusual features. The RTR is ethically sound. It entails that all positive potentials of all possible living things will ultimately be realized somewhere in the system of existing things. The RTR makes a serious effort to clearly and precisely describe the afterlife. The RTR defines, with biological precision, a sequence of types of increasingly powerful resurrection bodies. It shows how our bodies and lives will reach infinite excellence. Finally, the RTR is an atheistic theory of life after death. The RTR does not depend on the existence of any theistic deity. The RTR is God-free.

By developing the RTR, Immortality Without God develops an atheistic theory of life after death. And the RTR is an infinitely positive theory of life after death. Since it argues for a positive theory of life after death, Immortality Without God is positive atheism. It is constructive atheism. Atheism is not a philosophy of despair. On the contrary, atheistic theories of life after death are superior to religious theories of life after death. Atheism is a philosophy of greater hope, of greater affirmation.