6.1 Views about life after death across a range of religious traditions

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

Belief in the possibility of life after death is fundamental to all religious belief systems.

Philosophers argue that the concept of post mortem existence is incoherent in any form.

Empiricists reject the idea of a soul because it is unobservable and unverifiable.

Question 2

Dualism

Answer 2

The belief that the mind and body are two seperate substances.

Question 3

Monism

Answer 3

The belief that the mind and body are one substance.

Question 4

Reincarnation

Answer 4

The idea that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in another physical body.

Question 5

Rebirth

Answer 5

The process of being born again; a period of new life.

Question 6

Views on immortality of the soul

Answer 6

Dualism - the view that humans have dual nature. The body is a material object and the soul is not as it requires no volume of space. MENTAL EVENTS happen to the SOUL and PHYSICAL EVENTS happen to the BODY.

HINDUS believe in REINCARNATION

BUDDISTS believe in REBIRTH

Some CHRISTIANS believe that God resurrects humans from death/some take dualistic perspective

MONIST view within the BIBLIE

Question 7

What is the soul?

Answer 7

1. The personality or spirit of a person, and dies when the body dies.
2. The same as the mind, and dies when the brain dies..
3. PNEUMA - wind/breath/spirit. God breathes into Adam the ‘breath of life’.
4. DESCARTES describes the soul as having no extension in space and interacting with the brain in the pineal gland. The criterion of personal identity.
5. ARISTOTLE the soul is the psyche.

Question 8

The soul is PURE EGO

Answer 8

• ‘Ego’ is Latin for ‘I’ & the core of what a person is.
• The soul is not governed by physics and is free to make decisions and choices - spiritual side.
• Belief in a non-physical soul is central to the way in which many people think about their own unchangeable identity/ability to be rational beings capable of free choice.
  Enables us to survive the death of the body.

Question 9

The soul and body are INSEPERABLE

Answer 9

Christian monist doctrine. St Paul says ‘If there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body’.

Humans are body-soul: the bodily and spiritual characteristics in a person are united while the person lives. God raises a person as an immortal spiritual body.

Christianity/Judaism/Islam, humans are believed to have one life, after which they are judged by God and either sent to heaven or hell.

Question 10

Hinduism

Answer 10

• To be ‘reincarnated’ means to be ‘re-enfleshed’.
• The individual soul is known as the ATMAN - its aim to become one with BRAHMAN.
• The cycle of rebirth is known as the SAMSARA. Its object or goal is known as MOKSHA.
• MOKSHA is the final release from a person’s worldly conception of self, where the chains of being imprisoned in a physical form are loosened.

The process of re-incarnation is governed by KARMA: humans must strive to do their duty and by doing so will achieve GOOD karma, leading to a positive rebirth in the next round of reincarnation. Consequences felt in next life…
Unhappy experiences in a current life may be the result of bad karma from pervious existence.

Question 11

Buddhism

Answer 11

REBIRTH is a form of reincarnation belief. Although similar to Hinduism - what is reborn is NOT a pure ego.
What survives is not the ‘same person’ but something continuous with what proceeds and what follows it.

The Buddha taught the doctrine of ANATTA (meaning ‘no-self’) to express the idea that a person is in a state of flux. ‘Soul is not a sufficient criterion of personal identity - if a human becomes too accustomed to the illusion of being a self, this leads to unhappiness. Attachment to the illusion of self is unhealthy - attachment to what has no permanent existence.

Question 12

Buddhism 2

Answer 12

In Buddhist thinking we are made of five SKANDHAS:
1. Physical matter
2. Sensations
3. Perceptions
4. Volitions
5. Consciousness
These flow like a river upon which we superimpose a singular identity (a personal name).
The self is a FICTION based on CRAVING and DESIRE. In letting go of fiction, we let go of the forces that power rebirth, until it ceases, and all misery and suffering cease with it. NIBBANA - enlightenment.

Question 13

Two resurrection theories

Answer 13

1. Resurrection of the body-soul.
2. Hick’s replica theory.

Question 14

Resurrection of the body-soul

Answer 14

Christian teaching that Jesus’ resurrection was physical.

In the parable of sheep and goats, Jesus taught that on the day of Judgement, all people will be resurrected before judgement and will then be sent to heaven or hell.
Roman Catholic’s say resurrection body is different from earthly one: 1. It becomes immortal 2. It becomes impassible 3. It is ruled by the soul 4. Resurrected have different degrees of glory.

The concept of a purely spiritual resurrection is rejected - as the partner in the souls early life, the body shares its reward or punishment.

Question 15

Hick on resurrection

Answer 15

1. Hick is concerned to defend the general Christian view of the resurrection of the body after death by God and presents a thought experiment to demonstrate that this is logically possible.
2. A monist and believes it is not possible for the individual to be resurrected with bodily identity as it rots away after death.
3. Hick concludes resurrection into a post-mortem world is at least logically impossible, and that we would deliver the verdict ‘same person’ when considering whether the person who has died is the same person who finds himself in post mortem experiences.

Question 16

Hick’s replica theory

Answer 16

John Hicks’s replica theory on the resurrection suggests that after death, individuals are resurrected in a new realm by being replicated exactly as they were at the moment of death. Hicks proposes three scenarios to explain this concept: first, if a person suddenly disappeared from Earth and reappeared in a different realm with the same memories and personality, it would still be considered the same person. Second, if an exact replica of a person appeared on Earth, others would recognize them as the same individual. Third, if a replica appeared in a different realm after the original person had died, they would still be recognized as the same person due to the continuity of identity and personal characteristics. This theory challenges traditional views on resurrection by emphasizing identity continuity through replication rather than the physical reanimation of the original body.

Question 17

Challenges to replica theory

Answer 17

1. If the body that Mr X dies with has cancer and is minus a leg, what will the resurrection body be like? Hick says that God would create an ‘ideal version’ but wouldn’t this be the same as the version in reality?
2. Would a change of body bring about a change in mind? If someone has dementia when they die are they restored to full cognitive functioning?
3. What if a person is cremated? Before the 1960’s the Catholic church only permitted burial as it was the best expression of the Christian hope of resurrection.