Matters Of Life And Death

Question 1

Complete this quote from John 14:1-2 - “there is life after death….

Answer 1

“….. With God”

Question 2

Complete this quote from Corinthians 15: 42-44 - “The body is….”

Answer 2

“….. Transformed at death”

Question 3

Spiritualism

Answer 3

An attempt to communicate with the spirits of the dead

Question 4

What are spiritualist meetings called?

Answer 4

Séances

Question 5

Poltergeists

Answer 5

A belief in a “noisy” ghost

Question 6

Moksha

Answer 6

When the atman is reunited with Brahman

Question 7

Dharma

Answer 7

Hindu word for duty

Question 8

What kind of a belief is Samsara?

Answer 8

Dualistic

Question 9

Atman

Answer 9

The eternal essence of an individual

Question 10

Samsara

Answer 10

The Hindu cycle of life

Question 11

Complete this quote from the Bhagavad-Gita - “Just as a man discards old clothes and buys new ones….

Answer 11

“…. The atman discards worn out bodies and enters new ones”

Question 12

Complete this quote from Aquinas - “The natural condition of a human soul…..

Answer 12

“…. Is to be united with a body”

Question 13

Complete this quote from Matthew 25:41-46 “The spirit wants to do what is right….”

Answer 13

“…. But the body is weak”

Question 14

Post-mortem existence

Answer 14

Continuing to exist in some way after death

Question 15

Parapsychology

Answer 15

Spiritualists claim that after death there is a spirit world to which people go

Question 16

What are the four mental elements referred to in Buddhism?

Answer 16

~ Feeling
~ Perception
~ Moral will
~ Nama-rupa (consciousness)

Question 17

What is the end of rebirth referred to as in Buddhism?

Answer 17

Nirvana

Question 18

What do Buddhists mean when they refer to karma?

Answer 18

An action that is deliberately willed

Question 19

Which is more important for Buddhists - Intention or outcome?

Answer 19

Intention - Good actions aim to produce happiness and kindness

Question 20

Complete this quote from the Ecumenial council of Trent in 1945 - “God does not want any to perish, but….

Answer 20

“… All to come to repentance”

Question 21

Complete this quote from Bertrand Russell - “The world is better understood without….”

Answer 21

“…. God and an afterlife”

Question 22

What does the ‘Particular Judgement’ of Christianity refer to?

Answer 22

The moment of death at which God judges us

Question 23

What does the beatific vision of Catholicism refer to?

Answer 23

The moment at which Catholics believe us to meet God and be judged on whether we will go to heaven or hell

Question 24

Idealism

Answer 24

The belief that our reality is a projection of our ideals

Question 25

What does Plato’s Sarx refer to?

Answer 25

The physical part of the body

Question 26

What does Plato’s psyche refer to?

Answer 26

The emotional and physical sensations that make us desire things - the soul

Question 27

What does Plato’s pneuma refer to?

Answer 27

The spirit - rational part of the human being

Question 28

Complete this quote from Aristotle - “To attain any assured knowledge of the soul is..”

Answer 28

“… One of the most difficult things in the world”

Question 29

Name the thinker who said “There is no spirit driven life force”

Answer 29

Richard Dawkins

Question 30

In Hick’s analogy of the candle what do the flame and candle represent?

Answer 30

The flame
~ Represents the personality
~ Contains elements of the body but can be moved

The candle
~ The body

Question 31

Name the thinker who said “Life after death could be as a resurrection replica in a different world altogether”

Answer 31

John Hick

Question 32

Name the philosopher who said “Cogito ergo sum”

Answer 32

René Descartes

Question 33

Name the philosopher who said “There is a little gland in the brain where the soul exercises it’s functions more particularly than in the other parts of the body”

Answer 33

René Descartes

Question 34

Explain Plato’s argument from the cycle of opposites

Answer 34

Everything comes into being from its opposite being so those who are dead have experienced a change from being alive and those who are alive were once among the dead but experienced a change. This is being born.

Question 35

Explain Plato’s argument of knowledge

Answer 35

That which we perceive as learning is actually remembering what the soul knew in the realm of the forms

Question 36

According to Aristotle what is the nous?

Answer 36

The rational part of the individual human soul

Question 37

Explain Aristotle’s analogy of the axe

Answer 37

If an axe were a living thing it’s body would be wood and metal. It’s soul would be the thing that made it an axe, for example it’s ability to chop. If it lost the ability to chop it ceases to become an axe. Likewise we need our soul as it gives us the nous

Question 38

Was John Hick (1922-2012) a dualist or monist?

Answer 38

Neither, his replica theory is somewhere in between

Question 39

According to Dawkins how can humans survive death?

Answer 39

Through the memories of their loved ones or their genes being passed on to offspring

Question 40

Explain the ‘Ghost in a machine’ theory presented by Gilbert Ryle (1900-76)

Answer 40

The ghost represents the perceived soul which Ryle does not believe exists and the machine represents the body

Question 41

What alternate theory did Gilbert Ryle (1900-76) present?

Answer 41

Philosophical behaviourism - the view that supposed mental events just refer to complex patterns of behaviour

Question 42

Define disembodied existence

Answer 42

The belief that part of humans can live on after death

Question 43

Purgatory

Answer 43

The place where Catholics believe that souls go after death to be purified