Life and Death, what happens?

Hi readers!

Today I want to delve into a slightly deeper subject.  The idea of a soul.

Traditionally in western culture, we accosiate the word soul with christianity, and the idea that our bodies are just a confinement in which our true spirit reside, before moving on to a secondary life in another plane of excistense after our mortal shell have outlived it's purpose, and we die.

I'm not much of a christian, and I'm not a very religious man.  I respect all religions equal, and I understand the need many people have for religions, so I'm not interested in attacking anyones beliefs, believe whatever you want, and aslong as that makes you happy, and enables you to make other people happy I will not interfer with your believes.  However, when it comes down to what I believe, I think religions are short-sighted, and often twist and turn the truth.  Again, this serves a purpose for those who don't care for philosophy and deep thought, as it will still provide them with the essence of what logical reasoning will tell you, and give the society a moral standard.  (Be good, treat other people well, take care of yourself, be hygienic, etc...)  This is the essence of every religion, even though when misinterpreted religions can also be used with malicious intent to lead people astray, and cause wars and conflicts.

Back to the idea of a soul however, in what I'd like to call the scientific era (1800-Present) such ideas has been more and more abolished, as men and women have sought to free themselves from the confinements of religion, and thus also abandoned many of our religious traditional ideas.  Instead we've been taking on a similar perspective to that of David Humes, that only what we can sense, and scientifically prove, is real.
Logic and reasoning has been abandoned for a world where only mathematics and physics count.

At this point the scientific world has failed to compromise, there should be a little bit of Decartes in us all, and reasoning through logic should be our primary research tool, aided by mathematics and physics.

I cannot tell whether there is life after death, yet it would seem illogical as then death would not be what we define as death, as much as a transition phase to the next life, which it might very well be.
However, I do know as much as this.  When a man dies in his sleep, if his heart just stops overnight(This has happened to perfectly healthy people, without any sign of illness being shown in advance.), then his biological composure is practically identical from the moment he was alive, to the moment he is dead.  In a matter of mere milliseconds a person has done what should be physically impossible.  I say it's impossible because of one of the most natural laws of physics, energy is constant.  Energy can not be generated from nothing, and energy can not become nothing.  Energy can move from one object to another, or to several, but the amount of energy in the universe will always be constant.

So in the beat of a heart, a man has gone from being full of energy, to having none.  That is why I believe some sort of soul, some sort of Life Energy has to be present in a man who is alive, and be what seperates that man from the person you know, to the familiar stranger laying in the coffin.  Whether this life energy disintegrates into the air around a dying person I do not know, but that's what I would consider a soul, a mind, a person.  The difference between the living and the dead.

But, where does it all go in the end?

- Phillip O. Sauffer