I never had any idea that you were such an intellectual, Ken... No offense, but it's hard to get a read on someone through a forum.
There wasn't an "I don't know" answer Dennis!
As for my ponderings:
Right now, I'm sitting in a building with high-powered electron beams below me, and many radiological devices, all of which have the capacity to kill me rather quickly... So I suppose a discussion on life and death is somewhat appropriate.
Anyway, I don't really know. I figure that humans perhaps have an innate desire to live beyond death, whether it be emotional connections to others that we wish to maintain, or maybe the fear of being alone. Or, considering that for many, many years (since ~50,000 years ago) humans have been performing some sort of rituals or giving respect to the deceased, perhaps there is something spiritual out there that we are connected too that other animals are not which maybe has been lost in recent times.
I suppose we would all like to know there was something after death. I think I would be GREATLY relieved if I actually saw a ghost, simply as recognition that there is something beyond our flesh and blood. So I'd probably go running towards it rather than running away...
But as for now, I don't have an answer. I can only try to live out what I know exists to the fullest, and attempt to take comfort in the fact that millions upon billions of others have passed from this life and into whatever there is after this.
My .02.