Do we Survive our Biological Death? A Rational Examination

Do we indeed survive bodily death?That is the big question, succinctly put, and this book promises a rational examination, and therefore one hopes a rational answer.Prof. Yew-Kwang Ng would appear to be a Renaissance man, given the scope of his interests and qualifications.Initially trained as an economist, he is now a distinguished fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.However, Ng is also a philosopher, arguing for 'hedonistic altruism'.In addition, he has studied physics.Ng has published some 30 books and 300 papers on subjects besides economics and philosophy, including mathematics, psychology, and biology.This book is just 180 pages long, including appendices and references, so one can expect a degree of succinctness, which I believe may be a good sign, indicating a mind that can rapidly sort the wheat from the chaff.The chapter headings, and the useful summaries that head them, indicate that many if not all conceivable fields of survival research have been considered.Ng methodically numbers and subdivides paragraphs.He presents the countervailing materialist arguments in a fair-minded way but arguably sometimes incompletely.Unusually for a book on this subject, but as befits a philosopher, he also discusses the consequences of his conclusions.Ng presents his own theory of not only what underlies psychic phenomena and which he believes may explain satisfactorily at least some of the evidence he presents, but also the origins of the universe and its development.His theory attempts to fuse religion and science, aptly named 'Evolved-God Creationism'.This, of course, by its nature is highly speculative, and Ng gives the impression that he is, modestly, not entirely convinced by his own logic.His philosophical flair, though, is refreshing and indeed necessary, particularly when he discusses epistemology.He presents ideas that capture one's attention but, as with much philosophical discourse, might seem too speculative for those who focus on a purely scientific theorizing.Ng's starting point is that, though death is conclusive, this does not rule out the continuation of a postulated spirit.He regards spirit as being formed of the mind, rather than the personality, although he does not immediately define the concept of 'mind'.Instead, he goes on to challenge the opinion that