In Defense of Immortality

Abstract

Abstract Not a ringing endorsement perhaps, but James was sure of one thing: that the common arguments against immortality need not deter us. In his 1898 Ingersoll Lecture on the Immortality of Man, James set out with his usual relish to kick over the obstacles to belief. Chief among those obstacles was a general climate of learned doubt. Our situation today is not so different. Although social surveys indicate that roughly 80% of Americans believe in life after death, it is a belief cherished against the grain of perceived official skepticism. Therefore it is a belief riddled with anxiety and doubt. While our ancestors worried about their fate at the seat of judgment and hun¬ gered for assurance that their sins would be dissolved, we moderns worry about our fate at the hands of death and hunger for assurance that our personalities will remain intact. To this worry and this hunger one can attribute much of the current fascination not only with life extension but also with personal transcendence of death.