[ WP ] It is confirmed once and for all that the afterlife does not exist . How does humanity react ?

So it was all a hoax then, huh? I figured as much. It seemed unlikely at best that the `` big guy upstairs'' was waiting to damn us all to hell or welcome us into his kingdom. There were too many variables involved for this to be some massive cosmic experiment, too many traits to account for. It's all just as well this way. 
 
 The first day, the day truth revealed herself to humanity, was uncomfortable for most people. We learned for certain that death was really death, and that once life was over, that was truly the end. For 150,000 people that day, it was the end, and for many days after, the deaths continued. 
 
 But slowly, as people shed their faith in falsity, their bank accounts followed suit. Those Southern Texas mega-church cattle ranchers suddenly had a much larger disposable income after they tossed the preacher out of their back pocket. So the money spent on tithes and offerings to fictional gods soon started going to cure disease, or to sending kids to college. Charities flourished; well, they did for a time, until they dropped off, one by one, as there was no need for them anymore. ( TOMS Shoes, for example, had to retire after everyone on earth had either bought or received a pair of recycled loafers ). 
 
 Thus, by reappropriating the billions of dollars that used to fund the multifaceted masochistic culture of religion, humanity finally gave itself the greatest gift of all, the gift it had been looking for in the stars, the sea, and in the spiritual hallucinations of old writers: the gift of eternal life. 
 
 That's right. Some thought it impossible. They argued that disease would always adapt and find a way to get past the new protections we place inside our bodies. What they ( and, admittedly me at the time ) failed to realize was that we simply needed to develop cures at a quicker rate than the existing diseased could evolve. By examining their DNA, we began to understand what their next steps might be. Thus, AIDS was virtually wiped out. Malaria? Gone. Cancer? We now use cancer cells ( or the engineered offspring of cancer cells ) to quickly grow replacement organs for those that need them. 
 
 I could go on and on about the ways in which humanity was better off after we received the news that the afterlife did n't exist, but I'd rather live it than talk to you about it. 
 
 One last thing: after everything settled down after the announcement, no one seemed to remember that day. We all just kind of moved on, because we had better things to do. But for some reason I ca n't shake the feeling that the only way we can be sure there is no afterlife, and no God, is if we send up a message to the universe around us. This message might say `` Is there something more out there?'' or `` God? Are you real?'' These questions have perplexed people for centuries, and I fear I will be perplexed by them until the end of... well I do n't know. All I know is that it is terrifying to think that the only way we can be sure that God is not real is by knocking on the great locked door separating our known universe from the unknown, and hearing a voice on the other side that tells us `` Sorry, nobody is home''. 

