Life After Death
Glossary:
*Anima- the soul which animates the body.
*Brahman- An ultimate reality.
*Dualism- the belief that the mind and body are separate entities.
*Eschatological- concerned with the end of time.
*Hypnotic Regression- a person, under hypnosis, appears to relive an episode of a former life- a life, which occurred before their present one.
*Identity Theory- suggests that mental and physical events are one and the same thing.
*Immortality of the soul- the belief that the soul belongs to the realm of the external and can therefore exist after the death of the contingent body.
*Intentionality- The property of being about or directed toward a subject, as inherent in conscious states, beliefs, or creations of the mind, such as sentences or books.
*Karma- the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.
*Law of Identity- suggested by Leibniz, it says that if things are identical than they must share identical properties.
*Materialism- the belief that the mind and body cannot be separated and that each influence each other.
*Maya- a temporary and finite illusion.
Monism- the belief that the mind and body are of one and the same nature.
*Nirvana- the ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion.
*Post-Mortem Existence- a continued life after the death of the physical body.
*Qualia- sensory experiences such as taste.
Reincarnation- the soul (or essence of personal identity) is literally re-clothed in flesh to live again in new body or outward form.
*Resurrection-the recreation of the physical body
*Summum bonum- complete good
The relationship between body and soul
What survives after death- the body, the mind/soul or both?
Human beings-characterised by the physical (body) and the mental/spiritual (mind/soul)
Descartes believed that the body and mind are separate but they interact.
He thought that when people die, their soul is able to continue with God after death.
Problems: - If we have 2 natures, then do they both end when we die, or does 1 survive.
There does seem to be a link between the mind and the body.
Ryle and the ghost in the machine
An alternative is materialism- the view that so called mental events are really physical events occurring to physical objects.
Gilbert Ryle dismissed dualism as a theory about a “ghost in the machine”.
Some scholars favour the identity theory- suggests that mental and physical events are 1 and the same thing.
Such a view falls foul of Leibniz’s Law of Identity, which says that things are identical then they must share identical properties.
Personal Identity
Determined by the nature of the relationship between mind and body.
We need to establish whether we believe that identity is rooted in mind or body, since we presumably anticipate that any post-mortem existence involves continuity of identity.
Proponents of language game theory can resolve this by claiming that talk of post mortem existence is part of a religious language game and has meaning for those who participate in it.
Desirability of life after death
One of the certainties of life is that one day our earthly life in our current physical form will end.
Many find the prospect of post mortem experience highly desirable.
There are many reasons: - Death has a powerful effect on us.
-We find it hard to accept that this life is all there is.
-The moral law needs to be balanced.
-Our earthly life is short and restricted.
-We place high value on human life.
-The Bible talks of an afterlife.
Will we survive death as we are or will we be given a new mode of being to continue our existence?
Reincarnation/ rebirth/ transmigration of the soul
In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the view is held that we have lived many lives before and will be born again.
Everything else is Maya
The soul continues from life to life, being reincarnated until it find the ultimate truth.
Many people seem to be able to remember fragments of previous lives- evidence.
Human beings seem to require 2 things for individuality- body, memory and psychological pattern.
Continuity and memory will be lost in reincarnation.
Near Death Experiences
Dr. Raymond Moody studied cases of people who had died and then resuscitated.
Many claimed similar experiences- floating out of bodies, travelling down a tunnel etc.
Such accounts present problems:
They could be dreaming or remembering a lost subconscious memory.
Similar problems encountered in hypnotic regression.
Parapsychology
The Spiritualist Movement claims there is a spirit world where people go after death.
The dead can be reached and communicated with through mediums.
The Movement has suffered at the hands of hoaxers.
If the Spirit world is real, what is the point of it?
If the evidence of parapsychology was proved reliable, it could provide the best grounds for verifying the reality of an afterlife.
Immortality of the Soul
Plato suggested the body belongs to the physical world, and like all physical things, it will one day turn to dust.
However, it belongs to a higher realm where eternal truths endure forever.
Kant believed the purpose of existence is to achieve the summum bonum
There is a moral obligation on God to grant humans eternal life to achieve this.
Many Christians theologians suggest that personal identity is strongly linked to the physical body.
-Would a loving God consign anyone to hell?
-Should life after death be available universally?
-Are heaven and hell just metaphors or symbols?
Resurrection of the body
Resurrection and eternal life depend on an act if God’s divine love.
Bodily resurrection is nothing to do with resusciating corpses.
It is the re-creation by God of the human individual.
St. Paul explained that the resurrected body is spiritual and can last forever.
Can a copy of us really be the same person?
John Hick suggested that it would be reasonable to call the replica the same person as the one who died.
We would be left with the problem of whether post- mortem existence can be verified.
John Hick believes what is right will not be verified until we reach the end.