A majority of the American public believe that although Osama bin Laden was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head, snuffing out his life, that somehow he lives on. The US Government has advised that they disposed of the body in the sea in keeping with Islamic tradition.

“A weight is tied to the feet of the body, and the body is lowered into the water. This would preferably occur in an area where the remains are not immediately eaten by scavengers.”

• Rules about Burial of the Dead Body

So how could Osama bin Laden still be “alive?” Over 60% of the American public believe Osama bin Laden is in Hell. This position requires one to assume that although shot in the head and chest and dumped into the ocean with weights tied around one’s feet, some part of the person lives on and has been transported to another plane of existence. This plane of existence has a name, Hell, and presumably has substance and form. Its location is unknown and apparently unknowable.

What rational and thinking person could believe such drivel without a single shred of evidence? One would think that without evidence of any kind a concept of such ridiculous magnitude could be dismissed rather easily, but it is telling of the human psyche that many of us cannot. Or perhaps it is more aptly described as will not. What drives the belief in some kind of existence after the human body has died? Obviously religions push a life after death concept, but these fantasies were concocted ages ago when humans were even unaware of the existence of germs that caused disease, thinking instead demons and witches brought on their ills. In today’s day, why do these beliefs persist?

Perhaps facing one’s demise is so frightful that clinging to the idea of continued life is the only way to face the Grim Reaper. It is a childish approach to life’s one certainty, understandable though it may be. But I don’t see how inventing a magical place of torment, where a disembodied consciousness is trapped for billions of billions of millennia, somehow “feeling” the torment even though it has no nerve endings, brain or physical matter of any kind, as being helpful to our mental health. Living our lives convinced of the existence of fantastical spirit kings and demons, residing in spirit lands of clouds or fire, in spite of all we’ve learned about the natural world in which we have the pleasure of existing for a short time seems to me a waste of the precious power of rational thinking, reason and honesty. Delusional is a horrible way to spend your time on earth.