beyond the grave they will find only death. But we will keep the secret, and for their own happiness we will entice them with a heavenly and eternal reward.
It's true that we all doubt, and many doubt hypocritically. But if this man really doesn't believe in an afterlife, then he can't believe that he's speaking to Jesus. He must disbelieve the miracle of the prior day that he witnessed himself. And he cannot believe that Jesus ever had the power, for example, to convert those stones into bread. This leaves his angry accusations against Jesus gutted, converting them into mere philosophical reflections in the company of a nobody. But he gives many signs otherwise, throughout the conversation: he's angry at Jesus for appearing; tells him never to appear again; needs him to reply to the accusations, etc.
He's been calling Jesus' tempter an intelligent spirit, but that belief, too, must go, if he believes in no spirit world.
However, Ivan says himself that this whole story could be the old priest's dream merely, and that Alyosha can take it as such if he wishes, since it ultimately doesn't matter. That story logic, per Ivan, is just not important: what's important is "that the old man needs to speak out, that finally after all his ninety years, he speaks out, and says aloud all that he has been silent about for ninety years." That's how the parable needs to be engaged, on that level -- the content of his views.
