Mrs.

Alstrom HZT4U0 June 4th, 2012

The Game of Death

[Three people, Katie, Moe and Ray, lay on the ground, asleep. There are books scattered around the room and a tape recorder of some sort in the middle.] [Everyone wakes up] Katie: Ugh, my head! Moe: Where am I? Ray: Who are you people? [Tape recorder starts to play] Welcome to the Game of Death. You each have been brought here based on your differing opinions on what happens after you die. One of you believes in the concept of Heaven and Hell Moe: Well, yeah, of course. [Tape recorder continues] that after you die, based on your actions and your faith, you will either receive divine retribution or be condemned. One of you believes in reincarnation Katie: Because its right. [Cont.] after you die, you will be reborn into another life; youll become a new person, or animal, or other sentient entity. The last person believes that nothing happens after death Ray: The most logical option, naturally. [Cont.] Your consciousness ends, you body stops functioning, and you become nothing more than dead weight. You each have ten minutes to prepare your arguments before you present them to me. Whoever is the most convincing shall be spared, the other two shall die. Your time starts now. [Everyone starts shouting their opinions over each other. Theyre all superficial and basic]

[The recorder interrupts them] There are resources available in the room. [Everyone looks to each other and then dashes towards the books around the room] Moe: Its just as the tape recorder said, after you die, you will either ascend to heaven and live for eternity or be condemned to the fiery pits of hell. Its all dependant on your faith and your actions. If you are a Good Samaritan and pray and repent and do good deeds, God will accept you into His domain. If you are the opposite of that, then you shall be tormented for the rest of your existence by the Devil himself. Katie: No, no, thats not it. Dont you guys think that reincarnation makes the most sense? Look, in your self you have your body and you have your essenceyour soul, if you will. Your body is material and can be cut, hurt, bruised, and so on. Your soul is immaterialyou cant touch it nor see it, however after your body dies your soul carries on. Moreover, after we die, our soul finds a new vessel to inhabit. Thus, our essence carries on. Ray: Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Look, lets be real here: its the 21st century and science has debunked all of your religious/magical garbage. Your consciousness lies in your brain. After your body dies, your brain stops working and you cease to be. The only thing that happens to you after you die is that you decay. See? Weve actually got proof of that; wheres your proof? Moe: Ah, right here! Ive got it! For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, From John 3:16. Katie: Thats just some passage out of the bible; whats your point? Moe: What do you mean? Ray: You dont even know what youre reading! And, please, the bible is hardly a reliable resource. Moe: Yes it is! The bible is full of great stories about Our Lord! And my point wasbefore I got so rudely interruptedthat here it says that, if you are a good and faithful person, you will live eternally in heaven. Ray: Heaven doesnt exist! Katie: Yeah, you cant live eternallywell, I mean, you can but you cant Ray: Beg pardon? Katie: I mean, you will live eternally, but at the same time you wont. Moe: Thats what I was saying, wasnt it? Katie: No, no, its different!

Moe: Well, excuse me, do you have any proof that Im wrong? Katie: Well, no, I cant prove what happens after you die. Moe: Whys that? Katie: Because Im not dead yet. Moe: Exactly. God exists, and to think otherwise is blasphemy. You both will go to Hell for not believing. Myself, even if I do die, Ill just live eternally in Heaven, so theres no need to worry! Katie: Ah, wait, no! Ive got it! Ray: Please, enlighten us. Katie: Right, here it goes: In his book, The Republic, the early Greek philosopher, Plato, describes what happens to the soul after death. He says that we are either rewarded or punished after we die Moe: Thats exactly what I was saying! Katie: Shut up and listen! After we die, we are either rewarded or punished for one thousand years. At the end of that time, thats when we get to make the choice of what kind of life we wish to be born into next. Ray: That still makes no sense. The worlds population is at an all-time high; therere more people on the world right now than there has ever been before, meaning that there are more people than there are souls. Are soulless people being born? Katie: No, no. There is no finite number of souls. New ones are constantly being created or formed. As I mentioned earlier, souls are immaterial and created in the spiritual realm. Eventually, they find their way into the material realm to inhabit living things. Likewise, some souls leave the material realm to return to the spiritual realm. Moe: Ohh Katie: So, I think that we should all take a moment and calm down; were going to be reincarnated anyway, so theres no need to worry. Moe: Well, hold on second, it said that we might also get punishment! Katie: Oh, right. Well, either way, itll only last one thousand years. Ray: Are you guys serious? Two of us are going to DIE; why are you so relaxed? Moe: Because I am going to Heaven. Katie: And I am shall be reborn into a beautiful butterfly.

Ray: No, thats all wrong. Nothing happens after death. You cant experience what happens after death any more than you can experience pre-life. You just cease to be. Dont get me wrong, I would love to live forever, but its a myth, at best. The mind exists as a result of our brains functionality. There is no soul or supernatural quality that continues after you die. Its science, man. Katie: Hold on a second, theres some scientific proof of life after death, too. As we have learned from ancient sources, we lose our memories of our earlier lives. If we dont know where we have been, how can we know if we have existed before? One scientist, Dr. Ian Stevenson, spent years documenting cases of children that could recall their last life here on Earth. With over 3000 case files, his work is the best collection of data that reincarnation is real. Ray: Those could have easily been faked. All these superstitious theories like God and reincarnation are ridiculous. I believe in science, and the Big Bang Theory, and-Katie: Well I believe that something happens to your soul, if you will, after you die. Its too complicated for it to just disappear, just like how the universe is too complicated for it to have just been created by a big bang. Ray: Look, Carl Sagan once said: it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, no matter how satisfying and reassuring. There is no after death. You are dead, and you continue to be that way. [The tape recorder interrupts] Your time is now up. Please present your argument. Moe: [moe I dont really know what youre arguing so you can fill this in] Katie: [you too katers] Ray: Ahem. Over the years, science has progressed immensely. We know more about the universe and our world than we have ever known before. As such, we are now aware that religious beliefs dont hold much weight. These beliefs were originally put into place because we were ignorant and afraid of the unknown. We tried to justify whatever we did not know by attributing it to God, saying that it was all the workings of a higher power. So, if we know that so much of the religious doctrine is false, why do we still believe in Heaven and Hell? To be frank, its no more real than a bed time story. After we die, our body ceases to function and our consciousness ends. Nothing happens after we die. [Everyone looks at each other with uncertainty. Moe and Katie drop dead simultaneously.] Ray: So, that means I won! I won! I was right! Haha [Ray drops dead. There is a pause, then Moe rises from the dead with angel wings and a baby is heard off stage to signify Katies reincarnation. Ray stays dead.]