In the 2007 movie The Bucket List Morgan Freeman’s character tells Jack Nicholson’s character that in ancient Egypt they believed when they died the gods would ask them two questions before allowing them to enter: (1) Have you found joy in your life? and (2) Has your life brought joy to others?

I was impressed enough that I began a search of ancient Egyptian religions to verify this, but I didn’t find anything to support the movie. It seems that upon death one entered "the hall of two truths" where one would stand before of Osiris, the head of the Court of the Dead and forty two judges. Each judge had jurisdiction over a specific fault. One would recite a list of forty two negative confessions about each fault. They involved such things as "I have not laid violent hands on an orphan" and "I have not killed" but, nothing about the two questions. Then one was led to a great set of scales where their heart, containing all the deeds of their life, was weighed against the "feather of truth." This was the feather of Maat, the Goddess of truth and justice.

While the movies line about two questions has been repeated by others I wasn’t able to find any support for the story line. However, the two questions are still very profound and worth considering in our own lives.