Death and Afterlife: A Theological Introduction

by Terence Nichols

Naturalism has gradually displaced the older Christian worldview, with its confidence in God and in a sacramental universe that exists in and expresses God. Instead, according to Sagan, we now live in a naturalistic, self-sufficient universe that is all that is and in which God is otiose-a vestigial memory.'

There is no physical space for heaven (or hell) in today's universe. This makes it hard to believe in the resurrection of the body and in traditional teachings about heaven and hell. Nonetheless, many religious persons-Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and others-continue to believe that the souls of their loved ones go to be with God.