afterlife

Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says his belief in some form of life after death flows from the persistence of injustice on earth. If there were no afterlife, he says, "it would mean that Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank had the same fate."

Samuel Scheffler, a philosophy professor at New York University, presents a secular interpretation of life after death. In his book Death and the Afterlife, Scheffler argues that our belief that humanity will outlive us — our faith in the existence of future generations — gives meaning to our lives.

Humans have debated the concept of an afterlife for millennia. But ultimately, each individual's view on life after death is a personal one. For his part, the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, sees eternity as a place where people cast aside the differences that divided them on earth.