There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both the of the just and unjust. -- Acts 24:15

"Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." -- John 3: 3-9

Among all biblical teachings, resurrection from the dead is probably the most difficult to accept. Everyone knows that, after death, the body will decompose into molecules and NEVER recombine to form the original body. Then, how could there be "life after death"? How could anyone be "born from above"? What does the resurrected body look like? Will it include anything that represents the person before he dies?

According to the string theory, we are confined in a three dimensional braneworld that is embedded in a ten dimensional space. We have assumed that the higher dimensional world could be the "Kingdom of God". There is a natural mechanism that prevents us from seeing anything outside the braneworld. This agrees with Jesus' teaching that we cannot see the Kingdom of God while we still live in the terrestrial world. However, Jesus went a big step further to tell us that we may enter and see the Kingdom of God after we are dead and "born from above".

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul spent quite a few words to explain "how are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?". He said "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." Thus, the natural (physical) body does not go to Heaven. When a person is raised to Heaven, it will be in the form of a spiritual body.

Which part of the person will be included in the spiritual body? According to the string theory, all matter that constitute our body cannot leave our braneworld. Therefore, your legs, your heart and your brain cannot go to "Heaven" (the higher dimensional world). Some people may say "the soul can go to Heaven". However, what is the soul? what is the physical definition of the soul?

Based on the string theory, the soul must be composed of only gravitational waves because they are the only thing that can go to the 10D space. The gravitational wave is a ripple in space, generated by any accelerating object. If you suddenly move your hand, the accelerated motion of your hand will generate a gravitational wave. An apple falling from a tree to the ground will also generate a gravitational wave. Then, what kind of movement can possibly create the soul?

I had been thinking that the soul might be created by brain activity which involves the movement of a huge number of ions across the nerve membrane. The jump of each ion across the membrane will generate a gravitational wave. Thus, the brain activity will produce a very large number of gravitational waves that could constitute the soul. An essential feature of the soul is a person's most autobiographical memories (life history). The Bible says that we will have a judgement when we go to Heaven. The judgement would be meaningless if a person does not remember his or her past. The autobiographical memories can be encoded in the gravitational wave pattern, similar to the TV content encoded in the electromagnetic wave pattern. Such brain activity should be created when a person is nearly dead, because one of near-death experiences is panoramic life review, in which a person rapidly sees most of his or her life history in chronological sequence and in extreme detail (reference).

The end-of-life brain activity has recently been observed (more info).

Last updated: May 24, 2011.