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Health & Fitness

Steve Jobs and Life after Death

Steve Jobs is one of the most brilliant innovators of all time. His quest for perfection has left a mark on our lives with the devices he produced. This is a reflection on his view of the afterlife.

Why there are no on/off switches on Apple Devices!

I watched the recent 60 minutes interview of Walter Isaacson on his biography of Steve Jobs and was impressed by the comments he made with regard to Steve's faith in God. Steve admitted to him that before his cancer, he was conflicted with regard to his faith in God and the afterlife, but after he was faced with death (he had pancreatic cancer) he changed his perspective and began to believe more. He also now thought that there has to be an afterlife; all the wisdom we have accumulated over the years must somehow live on, he said. Interestingly, doubts would come again in his mind and he would think of life as having an on/off switch, and then again he would go back, hoping that it was different. He finally concluded his remarks by saying, "that's why I don't like putting on/off switches on Apple devices". His hope for continuity lives on in his own creations, in his quest for perfection!

Our desire to live on is inherent in us humans. We have been created in the image of God. God breathed in us His own life. We need to live for ever, hence, we desire to live on. How can a person full of energy and life, full of creativity and innovation be lost forever? How can the image of God be extinguished? How can a person that has affected the world and our lives in so many different positive ways disappear just like that, as if at the flip of a switch?

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This has been a perennial question for humanity. What could be the answer? Where shall we turn for any hints?

The fact of the matter is that there has been no human culture or religion at any time in our history that has not believed in some sort of divinity and some sort of continuity to life beyond the moment of death. But it was Christ that offered a more definitive answer to this question, not only by his teaching (see for example the parable of Lazarus and the rich man - Luke 16:19-31), but primarily by His own resurrection and the proof of the regeneration of our nature in Himself, the creation of a new humanity, incorruptible and eternal, offered to us as well through our union with Him. Hope is not abstract any more, but based on reality - the events of His life and our own decisions. 

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Steve Jobs was not a theologian, nor did he intend to teach anything on this matter. He was just brutally honest, as usual, and very forthcoming about his own state of faith. It is too bad that he did not know anyone who had experienced the presence of God in their own life to help him cross the barrier of doubt. It is sad that our society does not offer a stronger witness of Christ's teaching so that people like Steve Jobs, who are on the fence, might be offered that hope for which God became man in the person of Christ, who defeated the power of death through His own death.

Witnessing this Truth is the mission of the Church in the world! This should be the primary mission of every Christian in America today; we owe it to our Risen Lord to proclaim from the rooftops the hope He offered to us through His Resurrection! To show the world that the Creation of God lives on and does not have an on/off switch, just like the devices Steve Jobs has created.

Fr. Panayiotis

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