In Season 4 “97 Seconds” episode of “House”, a patient tries to commit-suicide because he believes in the afterlife and thinks he can be there. He has already been clinically dead and rescued, and while “dead,” he had “experiences” in a beautiful, peaceful afterlife. The patient says, “The paramedics said I was technically dead for 97 seconds. It was the best 97 seconds of my life.” House tells the patient: “Okay, here’s what happened. Your oxygen-deprived brain shutting down, flooded endorphins, serotonin, and gave you the visions.”
Perhaps we have souls that give us intrinsic value and make our lives meaningful. Or perhaps it has something to do with the idea that souls are supposed to be immortal and live on in an afterlife. If there is an afterlife, then this life is meaningful because it’s leading somewhere.
Consider this:
House : If you believe in eternity, then life is irrelevant – the same as a bug is irrelevant in comparison to the universe.
Eve (Patient) : If you don’t believe in eternity, then what you do here is irrelevant.
House : Your acts here are all that matters.
Eve : Then nothing matters. There’s no ultimate consequences.
The patient expresses the idea that if this is all there is, then what’s the point ? But for House, if this is all there is, then what we do here is the only thing that matters.
Yes, House is a jerk but he is brilliant. I love the philosophical underpinnings of this drama.
