The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Why I Believe There’s an Afterlife

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Bruce Gerencser

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is there an afterlife

As an atheist, I believe in the afterlife. Yes sir, I sure do. Not in Christian sense of spending eternity in Heaven or Hell. That sort of thinking is nonsense. I have yet to have a Christian successfully defend their afterlife beliefs. There’s no scientific or empirical evidence for its existence. All Christians have is the Bible, with its contradictory pronouncements about the afterlife. Belief in the Christian afterlife requires faith; a faith I do not have. That said, I do believe in the afterlife, just not the Christian kind.

Someday soon, I will die. Maybe today, tomorrow, or two years from now, but there’s no question that I will someday soon cease to exist. So, then what? Nothing. When you are dead, you’re dead. I will one day go the way of all people.

What a minute, Bruce, I thought you said you believe in the afterlife. I do, but the afterlife is for the living. After-my-life-ends, my partner, children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren will live on. That’s the afterlife I speak of. The life that is lived by everyone but you after you die. That’s why it is important to leave behind good memories for family and friends to remember. Long after you are buried or cremated, those who matter to you will have pictures and memories to remember you by. I don’t know about you, but I want those I love and behind to have a good afterlife.

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Comments

11 responses to “Why I Believe There’s an Afterlife”

  1. Avatar
    Karen the rock whisperer

    Marcus Aurelius (pagan Roman emperor and philosopher) pretty much said the same thing.

    I joke that I want my body cremated and the ashes dropped into an active geologic subduction zone, because some of the downgoing tectonic plate eventually becomes volcanic material. In other words, I want, on some far future day, to come back as a volcano. 🙂

    But the true afterlife is the effect we have on those who live on, that might change their lives for the better, and be something they themselves will propagate. I’m thinking about the accumulation of small kindnesses and the sharing of ordinary wisdom that don’t require holding some great public position, but that can spread outward, and forward in time. Ultimately they matter a great deal.

    Reply
    1. BJW

      Hey, if you come back as a volcano you will also be a real ROCK star!

      Reply
  2. Avatar
    Revival “I Lie for Jesus” Fires

    Read Luke 16:19-31

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      Are you really this stupid? Once again, your lack of theological understanding is beyond belief. You should refrain from talking about the Bible until you graduate from elementary school.

      Reply
  3. Avatar
    Environmental Scientist

    I’m happier believing in an afterlife. I’ve decided what’s the harm? If I’m wrong it’s not like I’ll be disappointed.

    I try to make sure to leave no “I love you”‘s unsaid while I’m here.

    Reply
  4. Avatar
    GeoffT

    I often wonder if our consciousness might somehow return in some way? I have no idea how this might work, and of course it would have no memory of our present life, but who knows? It might be that it happens somewhere else in the universe, not in the form we presently exist in, and perhaps has already happened countless times previously. Do I actually believe this? No, but it’s part of the speculation that crosses my mind when I ponder the subject.

    Reply
  5. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    I feel bad for people who are hoping they themselves will have some sort of amazing conscious experience after their life here ends. Generally, I recall growing up hearing some version of “when I get to heaven” such and such great thing will be or happen to a person who is otherwise disappointed or unhappy with how their life turned out. As a kid, I hoped never to be that person. As I got older, I realized I had to find a way to make some things that I wanted to happen. Not everything is possible or achievable yet, but I’m still working on it.

    Hopefully I have made a positive impact on the people around me. They’re the ones who will remain after my life ends. There will come a point in time where I am just a name on a family tree to someone who cares to look into that.

    Reply
  6. Avatar
    Karuna Gal

    The “afterlife” subject, Bruce, reminded me of an interesting take on karma. Not the karma of popular lore, but Carl Jung’s. He talked about karma we can actually see and experience in our present day family and in our family’s history. “I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors.It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma, which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions that fate had posed to my forefathers, which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished.” We see this karma in families where alcoholism, domestic violence, and so on, continues through generations; when a particular family talent,such as musical ability, may or may not be encouraged or cultivated. This is not the type of karma that talks about endless rebirths, hells and heavens after death. That’s all useless speculation, according to the Buddha. It’s better to focus on facing our family’s real life karma and our own while we are still alive. That way we can improve our lives and the “afterlives” of our families. And maybe even of our society.

    Reply
  7. Avatar
    Karuna Gal

    P.S.: In my opinion, Bruce, you and Polly have done a lot of good work on improving your personal and your families’ karma. And the world’s. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Avatar
    John S.

    This definitely falls in the “faith/intuition” category. The word “believe” is always a loaded term. You “believe” based on what? Someone who makes the claim has the burden of proof. The more definitive and abstract the claim the heavier the need for evidence.
    I personally think there is an afterlife, as well as a time of existential evaluation of how you lived this life. That is just something I intuitively think. I have no evidence other than the folks who claim to have had NDEs. And those are just a collection of claims as well, albeit with some interesting details given sometimes.
    Various religious texts give an idea of how we will be “evaluated” and what possible outcomes might be in store for us. How much weight one puts into these claims depends on whether one is religiously inclined. Even then I would argue the Bible is very vague and ambiguous on who may or may not be condemned, saved or in my case given a period of time in Purgatory. Don’t believe me? How many denominations of Christianity are there, hmmm?
    I don’t feel my own thoughts and intuitions are any better or worse than anyone else’s. I give these emotions the weight they’re due. I think Bruce Almighty himself has wrote about times where he was very certain God was directing him to do something, only later discerning that “God” was really, like the song, “Just My Imagination”. I always keep this is in mind. I want to be honest with everyone about my own feelings, but also mindful that “feelings” are just that. Not evidence.

    Reply
  9. MJ Lisbeth

    I think the afterlife Bruce mentions could be called “legacy.” What effect did we have on people? How did we treat animals? What in our milieu is better or worse for our part in it?

    I love Karen’s idea of having her ashes dropped into a volcano.

    I must admit that when I saw the title, I thought this article was an April Fool’s joke. Could the fact that it wasn’t be the real joke?

    Reply

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