Why the Afterlife is an Absolute Must to Make the Creation of the Universe Seem Worth It

By Precilla

In the known universe, there are billions upon billions of galaxies, with each galaxy possibly containing billions upon billions of ‘heavenly bodies’, including stars and planets. As far as scientists have been able to discover, our own tiny little planet, Earth (which, in terms of size, is an almost invisible dot compared to the rest of the universe), is the only place in the whole universe that hosts life. Further, among the hundreds of thousands of life-forms that exist on Earth, human beings are the only species that have been created in the image and likeness of the Creator, because of which mankind is referred to as ‘The Crown of Creation’. Thus, it might be that one of the purposes for which the Creator has made the entire universe is to provide a temporary abode for a unique species as human beings, on a unique planet as Earth. It could even be that the whole vast universe came into being principally for human beings.

If it is indeed true that, in a sense, the universe has been made specially for human beings, someone might retort, “Was this exercise really been worth it? Given all the evil that humans have produced (which, as even a cursory glance at the news shows, only seems to becoming more vile by the day), if God did indeed create the entire vast universe for the sake of man, I can’t understand what the point of it was, given man’s horrific record of evil. With all the evil that humans have indulged in possibly from the very moment they appeared on Earth, I can’t see how the creation of the universe for the sake of man could at all have been a sensible decision on God’s part. If you ask me, it seems such a horrible waste—bringing into being the whole universe for the sake of a species such as man!”

*

This response would be perfectly valid if man’s short stay on Earth were the only phase of his life, if his existence were limited only to his sojourn on Earth, which is a matter of only a few decades at most. In that case, all the evil that human beings engaged in during the period they were allotted on Earth would not be avenged and complete justice would not prevail. Truly, then, the creation of the entire universe specially for man, as a realm where he could do evil and escape all its consequences, would be absolutely pointless. In fact, it would be a very perverse decision, for it would have meant bringing the universe into existence specially to host a species capable of doing horrific evil and simply get away with it.

The situation would be entirely different, however, if human beings continued to live, in some other realm, after death, and were there judged for how they behaved and lived while they were on Earth. In this realm beyond the present one to which humans would go after exiting the earthly plane, evil would be adequately punished (and goodness would be suitably rewarded). Only in such a scenario would the evil that human beings are responsible for be fully avenged and perfect justice prevail. And only then might the claim that the Creator brought the entire universe for the sake of man appear to make sense.

Thus, it can be said that the afterlife, when human beings must face judgment for the evil (and the good) they have done while on Earth, is an absolute must in order for the very creation and continued existence of the entire universe to be truly worth it. This itself can be said to be strong evidence for the existence of the afterlife, a realm or plane we go to after we die and where we face the consequences for the evil and the good that we have done while on Earth, for without it, bringing the vast universe into being would be an exercise in complete futility.