The Soul Is Immortal
When the physical body wears out, it dies. When it dies, the tissues, organs, nerves, fluids, etc., rapidly disintegrate. Left alone, in time, the physical body completely disappears…with, perhaps, only a few bone fragments to indicate that it was ever a body at all. Since there are no functioning bodily elements remaining, it is a stretch to believe that the body itself, after death, can experience pleasure or pain.
However, most religions teach that there is another component to existence…an immortal or eternal soul (or spirit). We can logically assume if they are correct, I think, that the soul must leave the body sometime near the time of death, certainly before the body decays to nothingness. That soul goes out into an ethereal, unseen, but completely imaginable spiritual realm where it completes its raison d’etre (reason for being) in the first place.
Of course, it is entirely possible that the philosophers, theologians, religious and/or spiritual leaders throughout the ages have been wrong…that there is no soul or spirit. In that case when a person dies, they are gone forever, except in the memories of those friends, family, acquaintances they leave behind, and, in whatever legacy they leave behind.
Walk through the cemeteries of the world,
And you will discover nothing beneath the sod.
They are empty fields,
Solely dedicated to the memory of those
Who have died.
Do their souls still survive in the spiritual world
An ethereal place of mystery with or without a god?
Who can authoritatively inform us?
Or, is the soul (or spirit) now merely the memory of those
Who have died?
I choose to believe the soul (spirit) is immortal, indestructible—
That it leaves the physical body at the time of death
And goes to reside in the vast spiritual realm
Where it continues the work the eternal spirit was meant to do
Joining the souls of untold trillions throughout time
Who have died.
written July 18, 2021
especially for "Immortality Yes or No" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Chantelle Anne Cooke
Copyright © L Milton Hankins | Year Posted 2021
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