What is the significance of death

Lowrie, Princeton, Margolis, Joseph, Negativities , Columbus, Ohio, Nietzsche, Friedrich, The Geneology of Morals , tr.

New York, Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus Spake Zarathustra , tr. Kaufmann, New York, Henry Stories , New York, Sartre, Jean-Paul, Being and Nothingness , tr. Sartre, Jean-Paul, Nausea , tr. Alexander, New York, Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus , tr. Pears and B. McGuinness, New York, Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Reprints and Permissions. Cebik, L. Skip to content.

Weather Lab. Cenla Weather Roundup. Lakes and Rivers Report. Local Scores. Francis Cabrini 5th Quarter. Election Results. National Results Map. Inside Education. Legal Advocate. Great Health Divide. Good Day Cenla Legal Difference. Protemp Staffing Segments. Contact Us. Station Bios. Submit Photos and Videos. This is an understandable reaction, given the fact that so many people think of life as nothing more than a state in which the human body is biologically active.

But it is time to ask ourselves: What happens after death, if anything? What does death really mean? How should the surviving loved ones react? The mystery of death is part of the enigma of the soul and of life itself; understanding death really means understanding life. During life as we know it, the body is vitalized by the soul; upon death, there is a separation between body and soul. But the soul continues to live on as it always has, now unfettered by the physical constraints of the body.

Modern physics has taught us that no substance truly disappears, that it only changes form. A tree, for instance, might be cut down and used to build a house, or a table, or a chair. Regardless of how the form changes, the wood remains wood. And when that same wood is burned in a furnace, it again changes form, becoming an energy that gives off heat and gas. The tree, the chair, and the fire are all merely different forms of the same substance. If this is the case with a material substance, it is even more so with a spiritual substance.

The spiritual life force in man, the soul, never disappears; upon death, it simply changes from one form to another, higher form.

This may be difficult to comprehend at first, since we are so dependent on using our sensory tools to get through life. With wood, for example, it is easier to hold a chair in our hands than to hold fire; and yet, anyone who has ever seen or felt a fire cannot doubt for a moment that it exists.

No matter what physical ailments might befall a person, they are just that: physical ailments. Yet a person can be biologically alive but not alive at all; breathing and walking and talking are only the manifestations of what we call life. The true source of life, the energy that allows the body to function, is the soul. And the soul, because it is connected to G-d, the giver of life, is immortal.

While the manifestations of life may cease upon death, the soul lives on, only in a different form. How can a mortal human being connect to eternal life?

By living a material life that fuses body and soul, thereby connecting to G-d. A person who transforms his or her body into a vehicle for love and generosity is a person who nurtures his or her eternal soul.

It is by giving life to others that one becomes truly alive. To a person for whom life consists of material gains, death indeed represents the end. It is the time when fleeting achievements come to a halt. But to a person for whom life consists of spiritual gains, life never ends. The soul is fueled by the inexhaustible energy of the good deeds a person performed on Earth, and it lives on materially through his or her children and the others who perpetuate his or her spiritual vitality.

We often have a hard time distinguishing between biological life and spiritual life, or true life.