Is There Life After Death?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Is There Life After Death?

When humans began to contemplate their existence, they also began to ponder their mortality. Scientists have found evidence that even prehistoric man tried to prepare the dead for what lay ahead. From this grew many different religions and even more different views of death. The early Egyptians’ entire society was based around death. Each of the religions in the world has its own specific doctrines regarding the afterlife. Those who believe in no religion also have ideas about what happens after death. Many theorized about a higher plain of existence where all people would live forever, others told of people rising from the dead to be reborn again in the body of another creature, and still others thought that there was nothing past death and that once someone died, it was the end.

The majority of the global population believes in some variation of heaven and hell. Also, intermingled amongst these beliefs is the belief in a half way point, a limbo state where souls await judgment or are not yet ready to pass on to the other side. People who believe in eternal punishment and reward believe that each person has only one life on earth. At the end of that life, the person goes to either heaven or hell and stays there for all eternity. The way a person conducts his or her life determines which place he or she goes to.

The idea of hell comes from the Hebrew, Sheol, which was a giant fire pit where all dead went when they died. This probably manifested itself from their burial rituals in which all the dead were thrown in a burial pit. In the Bible, Job calls Sheol “the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness.”10 The Egyptians are probably the most influential society when it comes to Judeo-Christine doctrine: judgment, heaven, and hell. The idea of judgment was recorded more than four thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. The Ancient Hindus like the Egyptians drew their concepts from the pleasures on Earth. Their idea of Heaven were luscious gardens with good food and flowing streams of milk and honey. Their heaven was also an exclusive one. It was reserved for only great warriors and those who gave sacrificial gifts to the gods. In both of these ancient religions hell was a place of unending physical torture. African tribes, I have discovered also have many of these same beliefs. Heaven and Hell reflects a perfect world in which they are comfortable living. They also have the concept of judgment. These views are very similar to those found in ancient India and Native Americans as well.

Following the concept of Earth reflected in Heaven, Christians in the early medieval period thought of Heaven as a busy city with golden streets and people carrying on their business and working jobs. The Renaissance changed this idea and a more Edenic heaven evolved. The cities were replaced by rolling gardens and everything that they had on earth without the evil or sadness. Hell on the other hand was more of a place where wicked people’s bad qualities were reflected. Another interesting quality of Christianity is Purgatory. Purgatory is an afterlife that is not quite heaven, and not quite hell either. It is a place of temporary punishment. Basically, a person would be punished for sins committed on Earth and once they made up for these sins, they could continue on to heaven for the rest of eternity. The Judeo-Christian Hell has evolved from the place where the deceased is burned by endless flames. The concept has been elaborated upon, but still remains very much unchanged. It is a gruesome extension of the hell imagined by the early Christians. 14

The difference between Jewish and Christians follows as thus. Jews believe that the dead stay dead for a while. They stay in sort of limbo, purgatory, until the “end of time.”5 At the end of time the messiah will come, the dead will be resurrected, and there will be a judgment of everyone. It coincides with the Mormon though that emphasizes a realm of the spirit only. The difference in hell is that the soul is annihilated as it is a greater punishment than eternal torture.

Islam is the religion of many people in the Middle East and much of ...

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Islam is the religion of many people in the Middle East and much of Northern Africa. It retains the idea of Heaven and Hell with some differences. Interested in the words of Moses and Jesus, the believe Mohammed was the true messanger of God. At the time of death, an angel appears to the recently deceased and asks three important questions: Who is your lord, what is your religion, and who is your prophet? The correct answers are Allah, Islam, and Mohammad. If these are answered correctly then the deceased continues on to paradise for all eternity. If these questions are not satisfied, the angels beat the deceased and send the person to hell where they burn for all eternity in a place of fire, extreme heat, and no water. This idea of hell probably resembles the desert which surround the Islamic countries. 14

There are two similarities between all these heaven and hells. The first is that they represent an ultimate destination. The specific ideas about that destination tell a lot about the people who believe in it. The second thing all these different theories have in common is the basis in physical reality. Since no one really knows what happens after death, these reality-based ideas of heaven and hell help make the afterlife less mysterious.

Not everyone agrees with these ideas about the afterlife. Many scientists and atheists believe that the soul simply dies with the body, that there is no afterlife. The idea follows this logic. When a baby is born, the baby’s mind and body are equally unformed. An adult’s body is generally as good as it will ever be and the same can be said of the adult’s mind. In old age, the body declines and senility sets into the mind. Even when a person is sick his or her mind does not work as well as when he or she is healthy. So the body and the mind are closely linked all through life. It is very strange, then, to say that they are suddenly free of each other at the death of the body. They believe that it is much more logical to conclude that when the body dies the mind dies too. 6

The primary argument with Heaven and Hell is that most people are neither good nor bad. The majority of the population are a mix of both. They also say that an eternity of suffering is disproportionate punishment even for a very bad person, because that person’s crimes were temporary. Even if the person committed crimes almost all his or her life, the crimes would in no way justify an eternity of suffering. Could the so called God of Love be more harsh than a parole board? The idea of hell is inconsistent with Christian thought. Others believe that a paradise would become boring and thus would be no reward. “A society of perfected individuals in a totally stress-free environment from which pain, sorrow, and death have been banished”6 is worth thinking about. It might be boring if you knew exactly what to expect from life for the rest of eternity, even if it was pleasant.

The growing disbelief in life after death has been brought about largely by two influences. The first is science; the second is a philosophy called existentialism. Scientists question many of the biblical concepts such as the creation of the universe and the creation of the human race. Many of the biblical ideas are simply outdated. The earth is not the center of the universe. It is only on planet in a shadow of billions. There is also strong evidence to support the idea that human beings were not created suddenly, but evolved slowly over time. Evolution has shown in many different species, not just humans, that changes occur over time. Some scientists believe that this is why the idea of Heaven and Hell must be re-examined. 3

Existentialists ideas have been around for a long time, but the philosophy has not matured until recently. Existentialists generally reject the idea of a spirit outlasting the physical body. A few believe in God and the afterlife, but most do not. They believe that life amounts to only what can be observed and experienced: birth, life, death, and the decay of the body. Since the spirit is nowhere evident after the death of the body, an existentialist assumes that it no longer exists. What is life about then? Some say there is no meaning. Milan Kundera writes, “Death has two faces. One is nonbeing; the other is the terrifying material of the corpse.”3 He is saying that all that is left after death is the body, and even it eventually will decompose and disintegrate. By “nonbeing,” Kundera means that the life that once inhabited the body no longer exists. In other words, it is important to live all you can while you can.

Atheists go further to say that because of all this scientific evidence, there never was a supreme being. Out of chaos, the universe was created. They follow evolution of the universe to come to the conclusion that humans are not as special as they think they are. When plants and animals die, they cease to exist since they have no souls according to Judao-Christian beliefs. Atheists ask the question of why humans should continue on to another realm when other species that have high learning capacities do not? 4

There are a variety of ways that the spirit can continue after death according to the scientists, existentialists, and atheists. Genetically each child is a combination of chromosomes from both mother and father. Even when a parent dies, part of him or her is alive in the child in a very real way. That part of the parent will continue in the child’s children and grandchildren.

A person also live on in the deeds done and the work accomplished during life. Anything the person did that affected people positively will be remembered for a very long time. Any buildings, books, or other lasting existence serves as a reminder of who that person was thus allowing the spirit to live on. The same can be said of a negative impact.

Lastly, people are part of the food chain and so when they die they re-enter the cycle of life thus adding the process of life. The plants that are eaten by insects or plant eating animals. Other insects or animals eat the insects. Other animals or humans eat the animals. When a plant or animal dies, the nutrients that are a part of it go back into the food chain.

Despite the persuasive arguments in favor of life after death, others make persuasive arguments against the idea. Scientists point to a lack of physical evidence. Existentialists say that the idea of an afterlife is merely wishful thinking. Others see the afterlife as the impressions made on other people during life. Some say that life comes after death in the form of a contribution to the food chain.

Many people believe that the cycle of birth, life and death repeats. In other words, the death of the physical body leads to rebirth of the spirit into another body. Reincarnationists believe that instead of going to some spiritual realm, people come back to another earthly life.

There are many variations in the beliefs concerning the rebirth of the soul. However, the idea of reincarnation has been most fully developed in the Hindu religion. And most Reincarnationists believe at least some of the same things the Hindus believe. Hinduism is the oldest existing religion in the world. One of the most important Hindu concepts is Karma. Karma is the idea that what you do in this life determines where you will be in your next life. It is as though a person is judged throughout their life and at the end of the life, the points are tallied and the person is sent to the next life based on how they scored. If the person scored well then they would go to a better life. If they got more bad Karma, they would get a worse next life. That person is suffering the consequences brought about by his or her own actions in a previous life, not a supreme being. 12

Hindus believe that the concepts of karma and reincarnation answer a question that Jewish and Christian beliefs cannot. They explain why some people are born into better lives than others. Like Hindus, Buddhists believe in a continuing cycle of rebirths until a sould is ready to be released from this cycle and become one with the great spirit, Brahma. Brahma is bigger than the entire universe. The belief is that all spirits were once part of Brahma and that somehow we all were split off into individuals. This cycle of reincarnations is our continued attempt to become part of the whole once again. With each good life, the soul gets closer to being able to join with Brahma. When this occurs the soul enters nirvana. 7

There have been many cases of reincarnation throughout the centuries. The Dalia Lama supposedly is the same spirit that has been reincarnated. Some have been proven to be false cases and others have many proofs. It is very difficult to determine for certain whether a person is reincarnated or not. Like most things with religions, it is a matter of belief or not.

A favorite Hindu analogy for reincarnation is that of a candle lighting another candle. The flame is the same, only the candle is different. In this analogy, the flame is equal to the spirit and the candle is the body. While the flame is always there, it changes constantly as it is affected by the breeze. The second point is about how the spirit moves from one body to another. Many reincarnationists believe that they will be able to choose their next incarnation. This is not true of Hindu belief. 11

The argument against reincarnation starts with a question: If I don’t remember my previous life, how do I know it exists? People remember things that happen all during their lives. Memories of experiences affect the personality of the individual who experiences them. Memories form the spirit that reincarnationists say moves from body to body. The spirit is born into the world again and lives another life. Yet when a baby is born, it has no memories.

Many do not believe in reincarnation because it cannot be proven scientifically. No one has been able to photograph the spirit and document all the previous lives. Many have taken this scientific approach to the afterlife question. No one has been able to prove, beyond a doubt, that any kind of life exists after death.

Everyone has a different perspective on life and death based on their own personal experience. Different religions and upbringings will also affect a person’s beliefs. No two people will view the afterlife in the same way.

I take much of what I believe from a variety of sources that make sense and also have some sort of scientific background. Naturally, the fact that some things can not be explained leads me to simply believe what makes sense to me. I think that we are judged on how we live in this life and that we do move onto a Heaven, but I also believe that we do have a choice and may return to Earth if we wish. As for Hell, I think of it similarly to the Mormons and the Egyptians, it is more of a temporary punishment. Once the person has made up for what they have done wrong then the move on.

Torture for all eternity is a bit much and makes no logical sense. In the short breath of life we have, we do not earn enough evil to reason being burned forever. Often, I think people are punished here on earth in the form of prison or execution. A further punishment is not necessarily warranted unless the person has not changed their ideas of what they did. The guilt is also another punishment that these sinners are exposed to.

Heaven, in all its perfection, should be a busy place. As the existentialists point out, it would become boring over time knowing for the rest of eternity how your life will turn out. At the same time, why should it not be everything that we want it to be. An interesting theory of Heaven that I agree with due to scientific experiments with mediators and psychics.

According to one theory, spirits are energy sources that run the body during life and once they die, the energy source rejoins the life force which all living things in the universe are part of. This reflects the Buddhist belief in Brahma. It is fairly logical that this energy force made up of spirits would be able to experience life once again. Energy is neither created nor destroyed according to Einstein’s theory of relativity. So following this line of thought, it would be possible that when a person is born energy is taken from the life force and reused. While in this energy field, the soul still would retain their existence and different souls would be compatible with different living creatures, thus when a spirit would be needed, if the soul choose it could return to earth in the form of another person. The question of why people do not have memories of previous lives is explained that a brain in a new body has no memories. It would be like taking a power source from one system to another. The new system has a new body and a new brain, thus while the power source is the same, the body has changed. 15

God plays an important roll in this theory because even with all the science and religion mixed together, there are many questions unanswered. There must be a supreme being at the source. All the chaos in the universe, the creation, the evolution of the species, and the eventual destruction of our species. It is self centered for humans to believe that after our sun dies or if our planet is hit by a meteor that they universe will end. As a whole, the universe seems to be some grand experiment that some higher being must have created. There are certain things that happen in our existence that can not be explained away. The only conclusion that can be made is there must be a god.

Many of the religious writings are antiquated, but also serve an important role. Throughout all the writings, there are moral beliefs that may be learned and though the story may be different in diverse religions, the point is the same. If you follow a good moral life, you will be rewarded. I think that what many people do not realize is that it is not just in the afterlife, but it is here on earth now. If you are good to people, they may not all be good to you, but eventually your goodness will pay off.

There is no certainty to anything and there is no proof whether one religion or non religion is the better than another. I don’t think that it matters what religion that you follow, but how you live your life. No one knows since no concrete proof has been found.