Would you plan your death to minimize the risk of a tormented afterlife?
"Have A Nice Eternity™" by Ville V. Kokko
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Would you plan your death to minimize the risk of a tormented afterlife?
"Have A Nice Eternity™" by Ville V. Kokko
Have A Nice Eternity™ by Ville V. Kokko
“There it is,” Pasi said. Tuomi felt a lurch of anxiety in her stomach. She craned to see better and saw the holographic logo floating over the front door of the gleaming white building: a stylized bridge leading to fluffy clouds with the sun shining behind them.
“Are there protestors again?” Tuomi asked.
“Oh, there always are. Some people have nothing better to do. But the security keeps them at bay.”
It was true. As Tuomi and Pasi arrived at the square in front of the temple-like building, they immediately saw the crowd of protestors behind a fence—and the group of nearly as many security guards making sure they stayed there.
Tuomi and Pasi walked carefully in the middle of the square, as far away from the protestors as possible. Tuomi pressed against Pasi and squeezed his hand. She immediately felt safer.
“That’s quite a wall of people,” she said in a low voice.
“Mustn’t scare away customers,” Pasi muttered back. “There’s a lot of money in euthanasia.”
“Don’t do it! Repent for your sins!”
“For your own sakes! Don’t do it!”
Tuomi glance nervously to her side at the protestors, avoiding making eye contact. She saw the writing on a couple of the larger placards:
The only true gate to Heaven (There was a picture of a glowing cross underneath the text.)
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)
She turned away and sighed. She had been raised Christian too, but... This was science. You had to trust it. Besides, that kind of proselytizing was really annoying.
Still, she had to admit that she didn’t like this. Something about it was bothering her.
She glanced at Pasi by her side. He held his chin up and was not looking to the sides. He certainly had no doubts. But something about that bothered her, too.
Tuomi looked up when she saw that they were now in front of the building. Painted gleaming white, it looked like an exaggeratedly modern version of a church or a temple; even its windows were a more angular and shiny version of the church’s stained-glass windows. It didn’t take much imagination to see that the impression aimed at combined modernity and science with spirituality. The sign above the entrance boldly displayed the cloud logo and underneath it the name of the company, in English, and its tagline translated into Finnish:
GATES OF HEAVEN
Have a nice eternity!™
Pasi and Tuomi had both taken the day off work in order to visit Gates of Heaven on a weekday afternoon when there was not much of a queue. In the evenings and the weekends, the queue often reached a long way into the square before the building. Very many people wanted to use “eternity services,” as the company itself called them, and they had not been available in Finland for long yet.
Fortunately, at this hour, Pasi and Tuomi got straight in through the gate-like door. They came to a broad hallway ruled by white, light blue, and light green colors. Hidden loudspeakers emitted birdsong, the gentle sound of running water, and a distant, unearthly hum. There were no light fixtures in sight; instead, the misty but bright light appeared to be coming through the translucent walls. Smiling customer servants clad in white greeted people who entered and guided them ahead.
There was a bit of a queue inside, but Pasi and Tuomi didn’t have to wait for long. Pasi’s thick bank account had helped them get an audience directly with the head of the Finnish branch of Gates of Heaven. In a few minutes, they were directed into the office of Matthew Marshall.
Marshall was a fatherly, middle-aged man whose gray hair matched his silvery suit. His handshake was powerful and soft, and seemed to embrace your hand and your whole person.
“Welcome, welcome,” Marshall said heartily. His Finnish was flawless, but it still had some kind of American tone. “Pasi Kallio and Tuomi Virtanen, correct? I’m so glad you’re both here.”
“Yes,” Pasi said. “So, we’ve come to sign the contract.”
“If you could first tell us a little more about what it entails,” Tuomi interrupted.
“Of course! That’s what I’m here for. You know the basic idea of our service, of course. When your time comes, you’ll get to come to stay here in our very comfortable facility, and we’ll take care of you from there onwards. Our methods are of course scientific and reliable. You won’t need to worry about anything anymore—just close your eyes and move on to eternity. I can show you around our facilities, if you like.”
“And we’ll be able to come here well in advance, so there won’t be any surprises?” Pasi asked.
“Yes, exactly. That’s naturally very important. You can come here as you please to spend your final days well in advance. And of course you’ve noticed that the city hospital is less than a block away?”
“Yes.”
Marshall went on for another moment in the same vein, and soon Tuomi noticed that she had a euthanasia contract in front of her. She felt a cold shiver as she signed her name on the paper, but really, was that a surprise? It was never nice to think of your own death, even if you knew there was something good coming afterwards.
Pasi wrote his name quickly, but he seemed to hesitate after doing so. Marshall noticed this.
“So, did you have something else to say, Pasi?”
Pasi hesitated for yet another moment. Then he looked Marshall back in the eye again and said: “I heard you also offer acceleration of death. Is that true?”
“Yes, accelerating death… you probably know where the word ‘euthanasia’ comes from?”
“It means good death,” Tuomi said, a little coldly.
“Yes, and that’s of course why it’s used to refer to our eternity services. But originally it was used to mean the quickening of the end of life to bring an end to suffering in, say, the case of a seriously ill older person. This kind of euthanasia had just become legalized in many countries when science solved the mysteries of life after death. Well, accelerating death to ensure a good eternity, that’s a bit different...”
“Is it even allowed?” Tuomi asked. Pasi glanced at her and got an angry glare back.
“That’s still a legally gray area in Finland as well. I’m sure it will soon be allowed universally, as long as there are good enough reasons. But it’s true that we are already willing to offer such services... in some cases.”
“Thank you,” Pasi said, getting up to leave. “I was just curious.”
That’s also what he told Tuomi later when she asked why he had asked about such a thing.
Tuomi and Pasi were spending a lazy Saturday afternoon at their home. Their neighbor and Tuomi’s co-worker Mika was also visiting. Right now, Pasi was busy with something in the kitchen, while the other two were relaxing on the sofa. Mika was getting acquainted with a bottle of beer and staring passively as Tuomi shuffled through channels aimlessly.
A passing program caught Tuomi’s attention, and she switched back to it.
“Hey, Pasi,” she called out into the next room. “Your friend’s here on TV.”
“Huh? Hold on, phone.”
Tuomi left the show on. Mika snorted a little but didn’t openly object. The show that was just beginning was apparently called “A discussion evening about life after death.” The interviewees were Matthew Marshall and three other experts. The first one Tuomi recognized was Riikka Enkvist, neurobiologist and well-known science popularizer. Right at the beginning of the show, Enkvist said that the title should have been “experience after death” rather than “life.” Next to her sat a middle-aged, bespectacled man whom Tuomi didn’t recognize, but who was identified on the show as philosopher Olli Lavapuro. The last one, sitting by Matthew Marshall, was the priest Timo Koivula. Tuomi wondered for a moment whether he would be arguing against the scientific view, but then she remembered seeing the youngish, neatly dressed, long-haired man before, and that he expressed rather liberal views.
The smiling female host had just asked Lavapuro to start the discussion with an introduction to the topic. The philosopher went on for a while, so that Pasi had time to finish his phone call and come back to the TV during the speech. Pasi was frowning, but he said nothing, just waved a hand in answer to Tuomi’s questioning look, and sat down silently to watch the show.
“Yes,” Lavapuro explained on the television, “the question of life or experience after death naturally has to do with the question of the soul. The relationship between the soul or the mind with the body was a puzzle for science for a long time. An idea often connected with the name of René Descartes was that they were two separate substances, and the soul could exist without the body, but this raised almost as many questions as it answered. In any case, the idea was largely abandoned when the development of brain science showed that mental phenomena were intimately linked with brain events. Many thought this solved the question of the link between body and mind, but philosophers also recognized the so-called hard problem of consciousness. It meant that there was no explanation for how physical events in the brain could be accompanied by subjective, phenomenal experiences. As everybody knows, this all changed with Chakramurti’s computational theory of the mind and the founding of the field of phenomenometry...”
At this point, the priest Timo Koivula spoke up. “I think this is a good example of what someone said a long time ago: when the scientists finally reach the top of the mountain, priests and mystics will be there waiting for them and extend them a hand for the final step.”
Lavapuro looked a little confused. Neurobiologist Riikka Enkvist looked annoyed. “That’s not very impartial, is it? Religions and mystics have said all kinds of things. That you can go to heaven if you behave well, or only if you believe in a certain god. The ancient Greeks believed at first that all souls go to the same dismal afterlife, but later, they invented Hades and Tartaros as punishments for the wicked and the Fields of Elysium as a reward for the virtuous. Of course, it’s understandable that they wanted a more comforting fantasy of what comes after death. Science, however, has only come to this conclusion based on the evidence...”
“And yet it’s the same conclusion.”
“Only if you’re very selective. What about punishment and reward? What about faith in a specific religion? This isn’t what religions...”
“I think that he’s right,” Matthew Marshall said. “Science has now revealed that which has been surmised by religions for a long time. Now we just know it much better, much more scientifically. And we also know what a person can do to affect their eternal existence. That is just why we have founded Gates of Heaven: to offer people the greatest possible service.”
“Actually, I think your...”
“I don’t think it’s the best...”
“Is that really your...”
“Hold on, one at a time, please. Timo, you were first.”
“Thank you. Yes, I don’t think your approach is the best one. I think we should learn from what religions have always said. If you want a good afterlife, you should love God, and love your neighbor like yourself.”
“And that guarantees a good eternity, does it?” Marshall asked.
“Yes, I think it’s the best way to achieve peace in death. After all, phenomenometry tells us that a sense of peace, acceptance, and meaning are important.”
“It’s absolutely important to live a good life, just for the sake of that life itself. And it may help after death too, sure. But if we look at the matter scientifically, there’s absolutely no guarantee that you won’t fall into a negative state at the moment of death. Only scientifically precise methods can guarantee bliss instead of suffering.”
“I beg your pardon, but you keep talking about how scientific neo-euthanasia is,” Enkvist interrupted. “The thing that bothers me about this paid service of yours is precisely that it’s not really based on scientific evidence. Phenomenometry is a far too new science for anyone to be able to promise a good experience after death. Your interventions are entirely uncertain—it’s even possible they may make things worse.”
“I beg your pardon, but that is highly unlikely.”
“It’s well within possibility. You shouldn’t be making promises you can’t keep.”
“We promise people hope...”
“I’m sure that sells well.”
“Please, don’t be so cynical. We offer the most valuable thing a person can gain: a good eternity. Our methods are based on the latest research. I could even say that our service is more than vitally important.”
“Actually, many people suspect that focusing on euthanasia may compromise a person’s experience of living,” Lavapuro said. “Rockmore writes that the important thing in life is to live, and thoughts about one’s fate after death and focusing on it distort a person’s attitude to life...”
“Of course it’s important to live life to the fullest. But since the state after death is eternal, it’s definitely worth investing in that, isn’t it?”
“Well...”
“Yes, at an exorbitant price and with uncertain results,” Enkvist said sharply.
“Please don’t keep attacking everything I say. Have you got a better alternative? What do you think science says about this?”
“Well, as you know, the message of science is actually quite encouraging. According to near-death research, most individuals spontaneously experience bliss at death, as their brains flood with neurotransmitters. That means we don’t have to do anything, and we’re still likely to end up in a blissful state after death. There’s no need to pay you for that.”
“Yes, most people. About 87%, correct? But what if you’re in that other thirteen per cent?”
“Well...”
“Is a 13% chance of eternal suffering really acceptable?”
“You have no evidence that you’re offering better odds.”
“We have plenty of evidence. And if you do end up in eternal suffering, what then? What does science have to say about that?”
“This is not a scientific question. But I think we should just live our lives in the here and now and not worry about what comes after. We just have to accept what happens.”
“No, I disagree,” Marshall said. “We should not accept something... worse than we can even imagine. That is why Gates of Heaven offers hope and certainty to all who approach that final shore.”
Enkvist started arguing again, but at this point, Pasi dug out his phone, activated the remote-control application, and after a few attempts managed to tap the television off.
“Can’t stand that kind of...” he muttered. Tuomi looked at him quizzically, but Mika snorted a laugh.
“Some people sure can go on about stuff like that.”
Tuomi noticed Pasi looking irritated for a moment, but he hid it quickly and looked at Mika with a small ironic smile. “Don’t you think this is an important topic, then?”
Mika shrugged, his grin growing a little uncertain. “Well, I know I don’t want to listen to philosophizing like that.”
“But you’re going to get a euthanasia contract, right?”
“Sure, sure, it can’t hurt, can it?”
“You should, it’s really worth it,” Tuomi said. “It’s a bit like insurance. Just in case, when the worst happens... then things are taken care of.”
She was surprised at how uncertain her voice sounded. This was what she thought. It was only sensible. So why did the thought make her throat constrict?
“Sure, sure, already.”
“But you haven’t yet...?” Pasi said.
“Ugh. What’s the rush, we’re still young.”
Pasi’s face was starting to look a bit stony. “It’s always better to be careful.”
“Why are you worrying so much about a thing like that? Besides, you heard them—we don’t even know whether those eternity services work.”
“I think that they do. I’ve done quite a lot of research on it.”
“Well, maybe so, then. But I’m not going to bother to worry about it, anyway. I’ll live when I live, and then whatever happens, happens.” Mika poured the rest of the beer down his throat.
After Mika had left, Tuomi turned to Pasi, who was looking tense.
“Pasi, is everything all right? Who was on the phone?”
“Ugh. It was Fatima. She said that Kalle is in the hospital.”
“What happened? Is it serious?”
“He was in a car accident. Broke his leg, but really, he got off with a scare. It could have gone a lot worse. Car’s AI saved him, naturally.”
“Good thing it wasn’t worse. That really sucks anyway, of course. We should...”
“What if he had died?”
Pasi looked at Tuomi, and Tuomi didn’t understand the look, but it raised a lump of fear into her throat.
“Well, but he didn’t. What...?”
“It could happen to anyone. Of course, it’s less likely these days, but still, it happens to quite a few people.”
“Well, not that many, it’s pretty unlikely...”
“But what if? Or what if you die otherwise accidentally?”
“Pasi, what do you mean?”
“What if it happens to me? Or you? Suddenly, you just die.”
“Well... I suppose there’s nothing we can do about that...? Are you thinking about that euthanasia thing?”
“That’s right! What if you suddenly just die? Then what’s the point of having a euthanasia contract? Those Gates of Heaven people won’t jump suddenly out of some bush and... do their job.”
Tuomi put her arms around Pasi’s shoulders and leaned towards him, worried. “Well, we can’t help that, then. But didn’t you hear, there’s an eighty-seven per cent chance anyway to get a good experience after death...”
“But what if not? What about that thirteen per cent?”
“Pasi...”
“What if you get a bad trip at the moment of death? Or you get no trip at all—you just die feeling how you’re in pain from being crushed inside your car? And then that moment goes on forever? That would be worse than anything else.”
She hugged him more tightly. “But, Pasi, that’s not something you could help. What are you thinking of doing?”
Pasi stayed quiet.
Discussion Questions (Leave a comment!)
How would you live your life differently if you knew that there was a happy eternity waiting for you after death?
According to the story, the services offered by “Gates Of Heaven” increase your chances of successfully passing into a blissful afterlife. If that is so, what price (if any) would you pay for their service?
Assuming that being in the “Gates Of Heaven” facility at the moment would improve your chances of a blissful afterlife, at what point in your life would you want to be admitted to their facility?
Knowing that an unplanned death might increase your chances of failing to have a successful afterlife, would you change the way you live your life at all to minimize that risk?
Are the services offered by “Gates Of Heaven” any different than the argument made in “Pascal’s Bargain?” If you would pay for “Gates Of Heaven’s” service, then why wouldn’t you also go to church?
Well, I haven't had the pleasure to read the story "Would you plan your death to minimize the..."but I will for sure. I will comment anyway until I do.
First over all, humanity is not responsible for the birth of their person, so the question begs why would an individual suffer an eternity of hell after death. I doubt the creator would destroy anyone perhaps improve the bad guy/gal's creation upon the conscience returning to the pure light of love.
Biblical scriptures state, "Let us make man from our own image" well, the way I see it is since the creator created humanity from "our own image" then if I'm a sinner then so is my creator. But, I'm no sinner nor would think to lower myself to wrong myself or anyone. It's no fault of mine my vulgar mouth resembles my arsehole both spew shit, and considering I was experimented on and now suffer with the mouth of Tourettes syndrome. Aimed only at one person who taught me the word hate, to experience hatred of him, to feel hated by him. The worst experience ever among many health detriments suffering a daily death sentence. No one had my consent. The least these conspiring fools could do if thoughtful at all but not even an apology although empty words, the most they should have thought to do was start-up a fund-raising so I could pay for my own funeral. I've been suffering since January 2016 after the initial injection into my right arm. I blame myself for ignoring my intuition to run-like-heck out of that office knowing full well something was up. I am enraged for several years, cry almost daily. This is not living, it is merely surviving an existence I don't want. Who the heck would want to live an eternity this way? One good thing that came out-of-these-many-health-detriments is it brought me closer to my creator as a woman-of-the-cloth. Huh, what a laugh that is a sewer-mouth Christian raised in the church. I won't ever call myself a Christian again--as tears flow down my cheeks in massive depressive state-of-mind. All I want is to be prevented from verbally slaughtering daily, the culprit who threw me to the wolves and likely paid to do so. Oh, and another good thing is I now have a good singing voice not sounding like a "howling cat" as he so mean-spirited said to me. The massive hurt I've experienced for the past 10 years at the hands of a small-minded psychopath suffering developmental arrest--immature stunted brain growth so no fault of his, and suffering a brain issue of Tinnitus too. So try to imagine the serious frustration of him not able to feel responsible for all the wrong he's down to an innocent person.
Pascal's wager has to do with belief
If you believe in God you're not taking the chance of going to hell. People often talk at the religions they have seen, where people are judgmental and unkind instead of loving.
Deep within everyman is the idea of God and this idea has been intimately tied to the Great beyond or eternity. A person cannot have any idea of the day and time he will die. This was a dilemma pointed to in the story. Anyone trying to plan that lacks common sense.
So, the only assurance of the afterlife seems inextricably linked to God. That is, a close relationship with the force behind all life. I happen to believe that Jesus has assured us a place in the heavenly realms. Maybe if you seek him you will find him.
BTW modern science has many ways of preventing pain including pain leading to death, probably. It's called palliative care
Thanks for the story. I'm part Finnish and it was fun to read.