It was December 2010, and the wind was blowing. My wife and I sat at the kitchen table. My wife was discussing her late mother and father. Her mother had outlived her father for more than three decades. When her father was still alive, her mother had once asked him to contact her as a spirit if he were to die first. My wife recalled her mother later saying he had never made himself noticed, ‘not even by stopping a clock.’

Just after my wife had finished speaking, a gust of wind blew a flower pot over the balcony, making a loud noise. It was windy that day, but the blow came out of nowhere. It was eerie. The next day, my wife noticed that both a clock and an alarm clock were back one hour. One was connected to the power grid, while the other ran on a battery. So, did her late father make himself noticed?

Perhaps you also experienced something you couldn’t explain, such as an incredible coincidence or a near-death experience. You are not the only one. Or maybe you know someone who did. You can’t reason it away. And so you believe there must be something more than this life in this world. That can be comforting. Perhaps there is a God, and maybe your life has a purpose.

And I’m gone with the wind like they were before
But I’m believing myself, I think there’s something more
There must be something more, I think there’s something more
Something more

Amy MacDonald, Footballer’s Wife

Why do people believe in an afterlife or God? Do they fear death? Do they hope their life has meaning? Would it be so bad if our existence had no reason? Is that worse than playing a part in the grand scheme of a Supreme Puppet Master? And eternal life? You could bore yourself to death. For a long time, I believed that I would die one day and that it would all be over by then. And that was comforting.

Let’s end this on a lighter note. In 2014, my wife, son, and I visited the Apenheul monkey zoo in Apeldoorn. We had been walking around watching monkeys for hours when a long-tailed monkey came down from a tree to sit near me. I could have touched its tail if I wanted to. And so I said to my wife jokingly, ‘Well, if I pull the tail, a bell will go off, saying ding-dong.’ Within a second, a loud ding-dong came from the speakers all over the zoo. An announcement followed. There had not been an announcement all day, nor did one follow later on. The monkey zoo is in Apeldoorn. That is noteworthy, as this name refers to the word ‘ape’. Indeed, there may be more about this universe than science can explain.

Latest revision: 16 July 2025

Featured image: South Western langur (Semnopithecus hypoleucos) female, Kanha National Park, MP, India. Charles J. Sharp. CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.