A scientific exploration into humanity's obsession with the afterlife & the quest for immortality from the bestselling author & sceptic Michael Shermer In his most ambitious work yet Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death For millennia the awareness of our own mortality & failings has led to religions concocting comforting notions of an afterlife of heaven & hell utopias & dystopias & of the perfectibility of human nature Heavens on Earth explores the numerous manifestations of the afterlife
- a place where souls might go after the death of the physical body Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprisingly high percentage of people believe exists but from which no one has ever returned to report what it is really like This is one of the most profound questions of the human condition & has long driven philosophers & theologians to try to understand the meaning & purpose of life for mortal beings & how we can transcend mortality Shermer details recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists extropians transhumanists cryonicists & mind-uploaders along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose & progress & what we can do in the here-&-now whether or not there is a hereafter