Immortality

For the truth seems to me that happiness or misery beyond death, simply in themselves, are not even religious subjects at all. A man who believes in them will of course be prudent to seek the one, and avoid the other. But that seems to have no more to do with religion than looking after one's health or saving money for one's old age. The only difference is that that stakes are so very much higher. And this means that, granted a real and steady conviction, the hopes and anxieties aroused are overwhelming. But they are not on that account the more religious. They are hopes for oneself, anxieties for oneself. God is not in the centre. His is still important only for the sake of something else. Indeed such a belief can exist without a belief in God at all. Buddhists are much concerned with what will happen to them after death, but are not in any true sense, Theists.


                              -- C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms