1.

Hello. Good afternoon. We're going to make a presentation about ‘Why are humans obsessed
with the afterlife’.

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2.

“Death is a dept we all must pay.” It's a famous quote from Euripides. Like this, death comes
equally to everyone. Humankind has always struggled to get its head around this concept.

Instead, we commomly default to belief in an ‘afterlife’

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According to the dictionary, afterlife is the life, for example in heaven, that some people
believe begins after death. Free from the constraints of your fallible, meat-based body. So why
does coming to our natural end feel very unnatural?

Let’s find out

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3.

Humankind’s obsession with the afterlife has taken many forms throughout history. Especially
with regard to religion. We have prepared one short Korean movie trailer. Let’s have a look first
and we’ll introduce some forms to you.(영상 재생)

"Along with the Gods," a movie based on Korea's popular webtoon, is about the Buddhist view
of the afterlife, "49th Jae." The term "49th Jae" means 49 days that a person is judged seven
times every seven days to decide to go to hell or to heaven after his/her death. Only those
who pass the 49-day judgment in seven hells of “murder, indolence, falsehood, injustice,
betrayal, violence, and moral laws of family relationships” can reborn.

This can be seen as similar to upcoming history, “MEDIVAL CHRISTIANITY DOOMSDAY

PAINTINGS.”

The Ancient Egyptian Underworld

Egyptian religious doctrines included three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, eternal
life, and rebirth of the soul.

The natural mummification of bodies buried in the desert has installed a strong faith in the
afterlife in Egyptians. At the same time, it led to believe that the human soul could not enter
the underworld, unless it was with the body when it lived in the world.

MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY DOOMSDAY PAINTINGS

A "Doom painting" or "Doom" is a traditional English term for a wall-painting of the Last
Judgment in a medieval church. This is the moment in Christian eschatology when Christ
judges souls to send them to either Heaven or Hell
Victorian Seance

It is a meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, especially through the
agency of a medium. Most often, this was led by woman. Spiritualism was one of the only
professions in Victorian London in which women were more highly respected than men.
Because It was believed that a woman’s passivity, femininity, and intuition allowed her to
access otherworldly realms more easily than a man.

Modern

A recent study found that even in modern secular society, around one third of atheists still
believe in the continuation of consciousness after death.

There remains a strong commitment to the idea of one soul living on for eternity.

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Why do so many people believe that the afterlife exists? (표)

There are a number of hypotheses that contend that belief in the afterlife is a result of our
evolution.

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A popular one is called ‘terror management theory’ (TMT)

It’s presented by psycologist Jeff Greenberg , Sheldon Solomon on 1986 It’s a simple enough
premise ; humans, like most animals are hard-wired to really, really not want to die. But at
some point in our ancestry, our brains grew rapidly in size and complexity. And as a result, we
also developed self-awareness. We get to know that we exist and we’re eventually gonna
disappear. This had the adverse effect of drawing attention to our own mortality, thus creating
perhaps the first ever existential crisis.

On the one hand, we were desperate to not die.

On the other, we now knew that death was inescapable.

We became massively freaked out by this paradox, our ancestors created the afterlife as a
means of soothing their frightened, overdeveloped minds.

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Another explanation can be found in the research of Professor Jesse Berling, who claims our
predisposition to belief in the afterlife is the result of something called ‘innate dualism’

In 2005, Berling’s team had a group of children watch a puppet show in which an alligator
gobbled up a mouse. After viewing this act of cruel show, the children were asked about what
just happened. Bering found that they were likely to claim that although dead, the mouse
retained mental states such as knowledge and emotions, but not physical states such as
hunger and pain.

Interestingly, the youngest members were most likely to describe the mouse as having a
psycological experience post-death, despite having the least exposure to the religious or
cultural teachings of their community.

This may suggest the belief in the afterlife is not learned, but an inherent part of the human
mental.

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Advances in science and technology have also led scientists to pursue new models for
immortality. ‘Mind uploading’ is a proposed technology that would allow for the structures
of your brain to be effectively mapped, rendered and uploaded onto a digital cloud.

By uploading your brain, you would, be able to live forever, exploring the infinite experiences
and realities of your new virtual world. The claim is that there’s a ‘you’ that exists in some
pattern of information, something that equivalent of your genome for your thoughts and
memories. And so the theory is that you scan your brain and you could upload your brain
file into the cloud and you would go with it.

You’re also being information or your memories or whatever. But it’s still that you get to live
forever.

Now, it’s important to mention that this technology is nothing more than a dream at the this
moment. But let’s imagine that at some point in the future we can accurately scan and upload
the human mind. Would this finally afford us the afterlife that we so desperately crave?

What are you? Who is yourself?

몸으로도 설명하면서->>

The me standing here looking at you through my eyes, experiencing what we’re doing here,
moment to moment to moment to moment - that, you can’t copy,

Because by definition, the moment you copy it, you’ve stopped the moment.

Let’s say we copied yourself and uploaded it to the cloud and turn it onto the little computer
here and you’re looking at the computer, you wouldn’t go “oh, well, there I am” /// you’d be
going “no,no,no, I’m here”“That that is just a copy of me “

And the moment the split is made, now you and the copy are starting to live different
lives. Like,,,, you know, he’ll turn left, you’ll turn right. So if i’m dead, I’m dead. And the copy
of me continues. But I’m not there. That’s a different person!!!!!!

The thoughts, feelings and perspectives that are indescribable formation you, simply cannot
be transposed onto another. It’s a tricky business being human. You’re born, spend your
whole life fearing death.

But! if we take a step back, it becomes clear we’re forgetting to ask a fundamental question.

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Would eternal life actually be a good thing?

According to professor Leon Kass, knowledge and acceptance of our own mortality brings with
benefits. Knowing that our time is limited means not only are we more likely to appreciate
our experiences, but that we’re also motivated to try and improve them.

And perhaps the true beauty of life can only be appreciated through death itself?

Like there’s an end to the journey. So that makes the journey itself more meaningful?

If we are given unlimited time, we don't have to choose. It may be hard to say a life without
restrictions and choices is a human life. Having a purpose, having friends, having a social
circle, a family, having a loving relationship of any kind - all that makes a massive and
difference.

And that’s it. Why do you need more? /Why does this have to go on forever?/ Why not just
enjoy it now, today?

It's scary to die. But it's clear that because you die, you can live in the present more precious
and valuable. Also, rather than live forever as a soulless digital doppelganger, We’ll be happy
as we are.

Thank you.