As for all vertebrate animals, human existence can be viewed as three states or events: Birth, Life, Death. We are born, we live for varying amounts of time, then we die. The state of being alive, obviously has greater significance for us as a species, as we are constantly and intimately aware of our existence. We have memory and imagination, so we can look both backwards and forwards in our lives. And our psychological and physical needs have led to humans creating a complex web of beliefs and behaviours which often persist for many generations.

But, back to basics, we are born, we live, we die. There is nothing outside of this. No one has ever proved that humans, alone of all the many animal species, has an existence before birth or after death. There are no fairies, ghosts, demons, lost souls, gods or angels; no reincarnation, no second life, no essence of any kind that persists after a human dies and her/his body recombines with the world.

This is not to ignore or overlook the many beliefs, both religious and non-scientific which have arisen over many millennia in attempts to understand, explain and control human lives. They have functioned and, for many millions, still function to give meaning to their lives and provide frameworks for human behaviour. However, given that there is nothing outside our existence between birth and death, all religions, cults and other beliefs are the products of human imagination. It’s all fantasy. As one example of many, Ancient Egyptians believed that the Sun goes into another place after it sets, and that the Pharaoh had the divine power to bring it back at sunrise. Hence the elaborate structures, pyramids etc., provided by the whole population for the dead pharaohs to protect them while carrying out this role. It is surprising that no one, over thousands of years, realised that the sun does not set but that Egypt rotates away from it.

However, if one accepts our basic animal existence, that all we have is one life, and that all beliefs and strictures on human behaviour are the varied products of our imagination, where do we find our values and guidance on how to behave?