Human destiny Flashcards
Definitions of death and immortality
Death means “the cessation of vital process in a living organism”
For molecular biology death is defined as the dissolution of the molecular structuralization necessary for the phenomenon of life”
Philosophically or in ordinary language it states that “death is the separation of the soul from the body”
Types of death
- Clinical death- is the one that provokes in man the cessation of the functions essential to the body.
- Absolute death- is the definitive separation of the soul from the body
Immortality
It means perentie of life
St Thomas defines it as certain power to always live and not to die
Immortality means the continued and perennial existence of the spiritual dimension of man, soul.
Characteristics of death
- Universality- death looks no one in the face before striking its murderous blow, and does not take into account position, race, sex etc. It has already fixed the hour of its arrival for everyone.
- Inescapability- There is nothing to do against death. Against death , sooner or later, even the bravest player must surrender.
- Imminence- men cling to life as if death did not exist or as if it were enormously far away, or as if it did not regard the man personally. It is ever present-potency, incessantly inter-weaving itself with life and threatening it.
- Fearfulness- Death appear frightful. Men detest death and do not wish to hear it being spoken of.
Principal theories about survival after death
Total dissolution of the human person
Partial survival through the “karma”
Survival through reincarnation
Survival as immortality
Total dissolution of the human person
This is a very comfortable theoretical solution.
It ignores some data of capital importance eg self-consciousness, freedom, communication and self transcendence.
It does not recognize the spiritual dimension in the human person.
Partial survival through the “karma”
The karma is the trace that every action that the person performs leaves in the cosmic life. This is the fundamental doctrine of Hinduism.
The effects of mans actions aren’t exhausted in the present moment, but protract themselves for a long or short time through centuries.
Survival through reincarnation
This solution which not only is not confirmed by any experience (none of us is conscious of being the reincarnation of one of our ancestors)
Its absolutely unjust that a person coming into this world be weighed down with the burden of either good or evil actions which have been unfulfilled by others in a past memory and in conditions very different from the present.
Inadmissibility of reincarnation through beings inferior to man:
A) The human soul has need of a body gifted with completely special organic structure to be able to live and function.
B) Beings lacking conscience and freedom, its is impossible to realize any explanation for one’s own guilt or any purifications for one’s own being.
Survival as immortality
It’s the only theory capable of giving a satisfying response to that incessant movement of self-transcendence which characterizes human existence.
The spiritual dimension of man , in that it cannot be felled by death, also postulates an eternal destiny for the man value.
The absolute value of the human person is rooted in the Absolute Value, God
The dependence of man on the absolute value constitutes a valid reason to retain that man survives the tragic event of death in his entirety.
Every man is worthy of the highest respect, of the greatest care and of the most profound love.
Each one of us must have total esteem , be it for one’s own person or for the persons of others, because we are all without any distinction treasured as totally precious.
Pain and suffering
Even in the course of the earthly life of man, his imperfect nature leads him to experience sickness, weakness, pain and suffering. Therefore man is limited. However, all this has meaning. If it didn’t, then the life of man on earth is a useless existence.
The period of human life and its deep meaning
Man is immersed in space and time. His corporeity places him in this situation. He fulfils himself and realizes his life project within spatio-temporal coordinates.
Value of the person and pain
Pain is therefore felt, it is, sensed. However, when it is interiorized in man, that is, when the intellect, imagination, and the memory intervene, it becomes suffering
Man feels pain is because man is alive. He experiences pleasure when he possesses the good and pain when he meets evil. In this world, man is immersed in matter. Matter follows its own laws inexorably.
