Life After Death: The Evidence

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A brilliant investigation of the fascinating and crucial issue of what happens when we die. It is an inquiry conducted on the basis of scholarship and reason and it provides a convincing answer that is explosive in its impact.”
--RICK WARREN, author of The Purpose Driven® Life

Product Description

Unlike many books about the afterlife, Life after Death makes no appeal to religious faith, divine revelation, or sacred texts. Drawing on some of the most powerful theories and trends in physics, evolutionary biology, science, philosophy, and psychology, D Souza shows why the atheist critique of immortality is irrational and draws the striking conclusion that it is reasonable to believe in life after death. He concludes by showing how life after death can give depth and significance to this life, a path to happiness, and reason for hope. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Press (November 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596980990
• ISBN-13: 978-1596980990
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,554 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 182 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Book and Re-Think Your Life & Your Afterlife, November 4, 2009

By	M.X. Venugopal "M.X. Venugopal" (Texas) - See all my reviews

In all his previous books, Dinesh D'Souza has typically challenged long-held assumptions in order to find, or get closer, to the truth. "Life After Death: The Evidence," however, examines a question most of us ask ourselves and one which all of us should be asking: what comes after we "die"? And by using this method, he helps us question how we may get closer to the truth about life and mortality, which leads logically to the question of immortality. Atheists frothing at the mouth to belittle a book based on faith in God and immortality (hey Boston College - why not release the debate tape between Alan Wolfe and D'Souza if Wolfe is as bright as he claims?) rushed in typical fashion to write simple-minded reviews blasting this book for doing what D'Souza does best: tackle tough questions that atheists cannot answer. But D'Souza confuses the nonbelievers in his new book by providing evidence for life after death by employing the scientific method - the same logic atheists claim eliminates any possibility of an afterlife. What do we "know"? We are "born," we hopefully live a fruitful life, and we "die." What happened before we were "born"? What happens after we "die"? D'Souza is one of the best analysts of qualitative and quantitative data and a first-rate researcher and author, and "Life After Death" is a gift to all of us. If we value our lives and those of others, there are no other issues more important than the one D'Souza brings to life in his new book. As usual, is it clearly written and logical. Buy this book and re-think your life. Then re-think your afterlife. This book belongs on everyone's bookshelf.

50 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and well researched, November 13, 2009

By	S. Wolgemuth (Orange County, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Like an extended conversation with a generous and likable friend, this is a book to treasure, and read more than once. I applaud D'Sousa's strategy of not using the often irrational, emotional and highly personal accounts of people who testify to NDEs. Nor does he engage in the circular arguments of the devout who use scripture to prove their points. There are many fine books that do both of these.

Life After Death stands apart from them by marching smartly into the teeth of the strongest arguments atheists can muster for a materialistic worldview. The author kindly takes them on, point by point, to show their arguments as superficial and inadequate to answer the larger questions posed by astrophysics, philosophy, sociology and psychology. He does not play the triumphalist who loudly proclaims victory over his foes, rather with humor and kindness gently leads the reader into the deeper waters of his arguments and makes his points one-by-one, piling up strong, if not overwhelming, evidence to support his thesis.

This is an ideal read for a layperson who is smart and curious but not expert in the various disciplines D'Souza explores. I recommend it highly.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment, January 19, 2010

By	G. Fear "Tiomo" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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For one of the best books on the topic see Spook by Mary Roach.

D'sousa's book would be a great Philosophy 101 primer on the topic. It skims over some scientific gaps ( however, none of which science does not ask of itself), it introduces some of the great ideas of philosophy through the ages such as Socrates, Kant, Schopenhauer,( though I think Nietzche is misrepresented), as well as some criticism of modern scientists such as Dawkins and Gribbins and others atheists which, not surprisongly, are misrepresented. But from the beginning, though, it is clear that this will be another christian tract rehashing the same old stuff with not much new, though, giving credit where due,he had a few intersting slants...but slanted it ,indeed, was.

A few of my gripes were:
1. Presentation of Pascal's Wager as if it had any meaning. The idea that if you believe and are wrong you lose nothing but if you dont believe and are wrong you lose everything, is only valid when Christianity v. Atheism are the only options. But if the Muslims are right Christians will burn for their heresy; if Buddhists are right they will still be caught in the wheel of samsara; if hindus are right they might still take birth as a cockroach,etc. Other views are not adequatly covered because of its Christian slant which at least is NOT a HIDDEN agenda.

2. No new ideas are really present. The title claims that evidence will presented but there is none. Sure, it is an interesting survey of past ideas of philosophy and that science does not rule out an afterlife, but no evidence that there is an afterlife is presented.Though I credit him for his chapter on NDE, not because it was informative but rather that this is territory not often tread upon by Christians.Would have really been interesting if he touched on remote viewing.

I want an afterlife as much as anyone and I'm open to hear any new evidence but this book contains none.

3. It is a book intended to win souls and the author makes no secret of this. Therefore, he makes the standard christian blunder of jumping from " science has gaps" to " therefore the Bible must be true". HELLO...science KNOWS it has gaps.Guess what, so does religion and he does absolutly nothing to fill them.He points out that science may not be the only way of knowing and that the standards of reason and truth change over time. But the same is true of religion and faith is by definition not a way of knowing. So we're still left with nothing remotely resembling evidence for an afterlife.

4. He makes the standard arguments for the ressurection of Christ found in standard apologetic works none of which are logical or solid enough to convince anyone except those already convinced and I'm not." Will people die for a lie?". I refer you to 911. "There were eyewitnesses", just as there were when Ganesha was reported around the world to be drinking milk offerings in...oh, I forget the year, etc.

5. It presents the nonsensical view that morality has no real meaning outside of religon and belief in God.

Three stars because, while it is a very good presentation of the topic there is no evidence as promised in the title and I found it , on those grounds to be deceptive, nor was there even a solid argument for the afterlife.It still comes down to faith.


I'd love some evidence. Youre preaching to the choir when you tell me that science does not have all the answers and there are many gaps. I already know this. But there are no answers, no evidence to be found here, just a fairly decent philosophy review.