God Arises
Argument for the Life Hereafter
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activity involved is far more subtle and complex
than the instincts which move animals, birds and
insects to be provident—for example, the ant
storing food for the winter and the weaver bird
weaving a nest in time for the arrival of her
offspring. These activities take place, not as the
result of forethought, but as the result of instinctive
compulsions. There is no conscious, intellectual
effort on their part. To keep ‘tomorrow’ in mind
and then think about it and plan for it requires the
capacity for conceptual thought—the privilege of
man alone. No other living organism is known to
have been endowed with such a capacity.
Had there been no ‘tomorrow’ for mankind,
civilisation could never have developed in the way
it has, for the concept of ‘tomorrow’ is inextricably
linked with the desire for an improved, future life.
The absence of this concept would have been a
contradiction in the face of nature. The desire for a
better life is often equated with the desire to escape
the unpleasant consequences of failure or from
general conditions of adversity, and that once a
society becomes stable and prosperous, this
yearning simply disappears. Roman slaves, for
