Heavens on Earth : The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality and Utopia – Shermer Michael (2018)

In this scientific exploration of humanity’s obsession with the afterlife and the quest for immortality, Michael Shermer examines what drives people to believe in life after death. For millennia, awareness of mortality and human failings has inspired religions to create comforting ideas of an afterlife, heaven and hell, utopias and dystopias, and the perfectibility of human nature. The book explores the many manifestations of the afterlife, imagined as a place where souls go after the physical body dies. Religious leaders have tried to explain this realm, which a surprisingly high percentage of people believe exists, although no one has ever returned to report what it is really like. Shermer considers one of the most profound questions of the human condition and the efforts of philosophers and theologians to understand the meaning and purpose of life and transcend mortality. He also details scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extensionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists and mind-uploaders, as well as the efforts of utopians who have tried to create heaven on earth. The book concludes with an uplifting reflection on purpose, progress and what we can do here and now, whether or not there is an afterlife.