{"id":86379,"date":"2022-12-13T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=86379"},"modified":"2022-12-14T15:48:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T19:48:27","slug":"we-are-immortal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/we-are-immortal\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Immortal: Mo Gawdat&#8217;s Argument That Death Isn&#8217;t the End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why do some people believe that we are immortal? Should this remove any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-conquer-the-fear-of-death\/\">fear of death<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Citing the double-slit experiment, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-the-universe-began\/\">Big Bang theory<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/theory-of-relativity-explained\/\">theory of relativity<\/a>, Mo Gawdat argues that death isn&#8217;t the end of us. Thus, we shouldn&#8217;t let a fear of death interfere with our happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading for a discussion of Gawdat&#8217;s ideas about death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-we-are-immortal-according-to-mo-gawdat\"><strong>We Are Immorta<\/strong>l (According to Mo Gawdat)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Gawdat\u2019s assertion that death isn\u2019t the end complements his other claim that, rather than being identical to our physical bodies, we\u2019re actually immaterial beings observing the physical world. Because we\u2019re immaterial, Gawdat argues that <strong>the death of our bodies does not end our lives; death is impermanent<\/strong>. Essentially, we are immortal. (Shortform note: Although Gawdat\u2019s description of immaterial beings could be likened to a soul, he doesn\u2019t use the word \u201csoul\u201d\u2014or any other term that has particularly religious connotations\u2014instead using terms like non-physical \u201cobservers.\u201d We\u2019ll follow suit and refrain from using the term \u201csoul.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To defend this pillar, Gawdat first cites the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovery.com\/science\/Double-Slit-Experiment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">double-slit experiment <\/a>in quantum physics, in which subatomic particles are fired at a wall with two parallel slits in it. When a single particle is shot, it passes through both slits at once, thus ceasing to be a single particle. Rather, it becomes a <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/a-brief-history-of-time\/question-2#the-limitations-of-general-relativity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>probability wave function<\/em><\/a>\u2014basically, a wave <em>capable <\/em>of passing through both slits simultaneously. The wave reverts back to only a single particle, passing through one slit, when we observe it. The implication, Gawdat asserts, is that <strong>the physical world exists only when it\u2019s observed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Although Gawdat claims the double-slit experiment reveals that the physical world only exists when it\u2019s observed, <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/qm-bohm\/#TwoSlitExpe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bohmian mechanics dictates that the particle\u2019s path is predetermined<\/a>, despite initial appearances to the contrary. According to this interpretation, human observation only <em>appears <\/em>to cause the particle to pass through one slit or the other because we don\u2019t understand the underlying mechanisms governing the quantum level\u2014the scale of atomic and subatomic particles. Thus, Bohmian mechanics dictates that events at the quantum level proceed independently of observation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gawdat also appeals to the Big Bang theory, which holds that the universe expanded rapidly from a hyper-dense mass to create the universe as we know it today. Because the Big Bang theory implies the universe had a beginning, while the double-slit experiment implies the universe could exist only if it were observed, Gawdat reasons that life must have preceded the Big Bang to observe it unfolding.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Gawdat\u2019s claim that life exists independently of the physical universe and sustains it via observation, is tantamount to <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/idealism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>philosophical idealism<\/em><\/a>, the view that consciousness is the foundation of reality. The progenitor of this view, George Berkeley, famously argued that <a href=\"https:\/\/iep.utm.edu\/george-berkeley-british-empiricist\/#H4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>esse <\/em>is <em>percipi<\/em>\u2014to be is to be perceived<\/a>. And although his view was traditionally accompanied by belief in God, who sustained the entire universe by perceiving it, contemporary philosophers have likewise defended an <a href=\"https:\/\/philpapers.org\/rec\/YETIWG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">atheistic account of idealism<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, because Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity shows that our perception of time is illusory, Gawdat argues that <strong>life must exist outside of time<\/strong>, in four-dimensional spacetime. So, although birth and death <em>appear <\/em>to mark the beginning and end of our life, we actually transcend time. Death, therefore, simply returns us to our home outside of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By recognizing that the physical world is temporary and death is impermanent, we can shape our perceptions to better align with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/happiness-formula\/\">happiness formula<\/a>. For example, we\u2019ll no longer view death as a fearful process but rather as a return to our natural, timeless state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/happy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Happy<\/em><\/a>, Derren Brown proposes a different approach to death. Because he assumes that death is permanent, Brown instead argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/happy#lessons-of-mortality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">happiness requires us to accept death and face it head-on<\/a>. In particular, he suggests that by decreasing our attachment to the future, we can alleviate our fear of death and become happy. Thus, unlike Gawdat, Brown doesn\u2019t rely on the alleged impermanence of death to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cultivate-happiness\/\">cultivate happiness<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do some people believe that we are immortal? Should this remove any fear of death? Citing the double-slit experiment, the Big Bang theory, and the theory of relativity, Mo Gawdat argues that death isn&#8217;t the end of us. Thus, we shouldn&#8217;t let a fear of death interfere with our happiness. Continue reading for a discussion of Gawdat&#8217;s ideas about death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":86382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,6],"tags":[828],"class_list":["post-86379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-spiritual","tag-solve-for-happy","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>We Are Immortal: Mo Gawdat&#039;s Argument That Death Isn&#039;t the End - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since we\u2019re immaterial, Mo Gawdat argues, the death of our body doesn&#039;t end our life. Death isn&#039;t the end of us; we are immortal. Learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/we-are-immortal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Are Immortal: Mo Gawdat&#039;s Argument That Death Isn&#039;t the End\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since we\u2019re immaterial, Mo Gawdat argues, the death of our body doesn&#039;t end our life. Death isn&#039;t the end of us; we are immortal. 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