Several correspondents in the Times of Malta have responded to my letter entitled ‘No afterlife’ (August 5). It seems to have struck a chord in their heart, especially Philip Larkin’s poem about “the true extinction that we travel to... nothing more terrible, nothing more true”. Oscar Mifsud was one of those correspondents who reacted to my letter. He described it as “hogwash” and a “fairy tale” (August 10). Far from being either of these things, annihilation at death is an inexorable reality he himself will undergo when he dies.

The wishful notion of personal immortality arises from the innate self-importance of man. His self-importance will finally be laid to rest in the absolute silence of the grave.