958- Why are human beings instinctively horrified of nothingness?
“Because there is no such thing as nothingness.”
959- Where does our instinctive sentiment of a future life come from?
“We have already told you: prior to its incarnation, the spirit knows all these things and the soul retains a vague memory of what it knows and of what it saw in its spirit state.” (See no. 393)
In all ages, people have occupied themselves with the future beyond the grave. This is very natural. Whatever importance they may give to the present life, they cannot help but consider how brief, and especially, how precarious it is since it can be cut short at any moment; hence, they can never be sure of tomorrow. What becomes of them after the fatal instant? This is a serious question, for it does not deal with a few years, but with eternity. Those who will have to spend many years in a foreign country concern themselves with the situation in which they will find themselves. So why do we not concern ourselves with the situation we will face when we leave this world behind since it will be forever?
The idea of nothingness is repugnant to reason. When those who are the most unconcerned in this life arrive at the final moment, they ask themselves what will become of them and they wait for it against their will.
To believe in God without accepting a future life would be nonsense. The sentiment of a better life is to be found in the inner being of all and God did not place it there needlessly.
The future life implies the preservation of our individuality after death. What good would it do to survive the body if our moral essence must be lost in the ocean of the infinite? The consequences of that would be the same as nothingness.
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