Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

by David Eagleman

humans could be good in many ways and simultaneously corrupt and mean-spirited in other ways.

Everyone is a brother to all, and for the first time an idea has been realized that never came to fruition on Earth: true equality.

The religious counter that God’s greatest gift to them is the ability to look beyond what their eyes can see and have faith in something grander. That’s not a gift, that’s a trap, the Company retorts. It’s like having a wonderful lover available but desiring an unattainable movie star instead.

Each day She welcomes new Loyals from two thousand religions. She watches them study the Book of Truth and waits for it to sink in with a delicious thrill. But something has gone terribly wrong with Her plan. The truth does not convince. The newly arrived Loyals have an imperturbable capacity to hold the beliefs with which they arrived, a deep reluctance to consider evidence that separates them from their lifelong context. So She finds Herself unappreciated and lonely,