Life after death

Question 1

Why is the prospect of a life after death a desirable one?

Answer 1

• We are scared of death. The prospect of an afterlife makes it easier to bear.
• It is hard to accept that this short life is all that there is.
• The moral law is fulfilled when the good are rewarded and the evil punished.
• The after life would be the place where human potential could ultimately be realised.
• Religious believers often claim that life is a holy and precious gift from God.
• Eastern religions speak of reincarnation.

Question 2

What are the arguments against the concept of an after life?

Answer 2

• For some people, there is no post-mortem existence. Death is a biological function and a neccessary part of the natural process.
• So, for some people, the notion of life after death is meaningless and unneccessary.
• Even the language of an afterlife poses problems for some scholars.
• The afterlife need not be contingent upon the action of a loving and omnipotent God.

Question 3

What are the views on the relationship between the body and the mind/soul?

Answer 3

• The monistic view is that the body and mind are linked together to form one entity.
• The dualistic view is that the body and mind are distinct and separate entities, though each can influence the other.
• Within this, there are different dualistic views. The first is that the mind depends totally on the body in order to function.
• The second is that the mind and body influence each other equally, but that the two need each other in order to be conscious and aware of the world.
• The third view is that body and mind are distinct entities that are mysteriously locked together in this world, but that the soul will escape.

Question 4

The monistic view.

Answer 4

In the monistic view, human beings are pyscho-physical unities. There is no soul/mind distinct from the body that survives death.

Question 5

The dualistic view.

Answer 5

In the dualistic view however, the physical body and the spiritual soul are regarded as distinct entities.

Question 6

What did Rene Descartes say?

Answer 6

Rene Descartes said that the body is spatial but not conscious. He argued that the body and the mind are separate but interact with each other through the workings of the brain.

Question 7

What difficulties do these views present?

Answer 7

Both the monistic and dualistic views present difficulties, most notably about whether or not the physical body is linked to the soul.

Question 8

Near-death experiences

Answer 8

A near-death experience is said to occur when someone dies for a short while and is rescuscitated before the state becomes irreversible.

Near death experiences are individually unique.

Question 9

Parapsychology.

Answer 9

Parapyschology is the study of the spiritual realm. Followers of the Spiritualist movement claim that there is a spirit worldd where people go after death and that the deceased can be communicated with.

Philosophers have also questioned the very purpose of the spirit world.

Question 10

Reincarnation.

Answer 10

Reincarnation is the rebirth in another body of some critical part of a person’s personality or spirit.

This notion of reincarnation raises questions about the relationship of the soul with the brain and the body.

Question 11

What is the evidence for reincarnation?

Answer 11

Stevenson doesn’t use hypnosis, instead he has investigated a large number of cases in which people claim to have memories of a previous life.

Question 12

What difficulties does this pose?

Answer 12

• Almost all the cases he described come from societies in which the reality of reincarnation is accepted, which makes it possible that belief in it may be merely a cultural phenomenon.
• In some cases, there was a long-time gap between the person’s first claim to have the memories and Stevenson’s investigation which makes the problems of possible secondary elaboration more difficult to eliminate.

Question 13

What is rebirth?

Answer 13

Rebirth is a Buddhist concept that has certain similariities to but also some important differences from the Hindu notion of reincarnation.

The Buddha taught that everything is composite.

Question 14

What does Buddhism teach?

Answer 14

Buddhism teaches that a person is made up of the physical body and four moral elements. When the physical body dies, the nama rupa is released and the character aspects of the dead person are reborn into the new person.

Question 15

What are the four types of karmic effect?

Answer 15

1} The fully-ripened effect of an action.
2} The effect is similar to the cause.
3} The conditioning effect.
4} The proliferation effect.

Question 16

What is resurrection of the body?

Answer 16

Bodily resurrection is an important concept in monotheistic traditions and is a central doctrine of Christianity. It is based on the notion that at some future date, God through an act of divine love, will restore the dead to eternal life in bodily form.

The resurrected person is not the same as the one who died. He or she will have a spiritual body.

Question 17

What did Thomas Aquinas believe?

Answer 17

Thomas Aquinas believed that eternal life required a body and a soul.

Question 18

What is John Hick’s Replica theory?

Answer 18

He suggested that if someone died and appeared in another place with the same memories and physical features, then it would be meaningful to regard this replica as the same person because they would be conscious of being the same person as the one who had earlier died.

Question 19

What are the problems with this theory?

Answer 19

• If God can make one replica, then he could make multiple replicas.
• The concept of a replica is questionable.