Life After Death

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Life After Death The Afterlife is an area of human consciousness we all enter upon leaving the physical world at physical death. Throughout history we've questioned if there is a life after death. Along the way, our religions and various philosophers offered beliefs and opinions to answer this commonly asked question. However, many of the answers contradict each other making it hard to figure out. "Belief in life after death is a source of personal security, optimism, and spiritual betterment" (1 John 3:2). Nothing offers more courage than the confidence that there is a better life for those who use the present to

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prepare for eternity. While some believe it's impossible to know whether there is life after death, belief in immortality is a timeless phenomenon. Through the years there have been many philosophers that do not believe in life after death. Among them is David Hume. David Hume was a British imperialist to the extreme. He only believed in what he could see. He felt that if you can't see your soul or god then they must not exist. The same holds true for the after life, or heaven. He felt that when you died that was it, your life was over and there was nothing more.Buddhist's also do not believe in life after death meaning heaven. Buddhist's believe that when one dies he is reborn again and this continues until the person reaches Nirvana. "The properly ultimate goal for man, no matter how much he may line his way through birth-death by flower beds of temporary betterment or pleasure, is to escape world process completely in timeless, space less, distinction less Nirvana." (King 21).Nirvana is the state in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion. In the Buddhist religion there is no god to save you or to show you the way. To reach nirvana you must achieve insight and wisdom. "The Buddha was not saved by a revelation or from any god. He was the self-enlightened one; by the power of his own post virtue, which finally produced piercing insight and wisdom, he came to the knowledge or the saving insight into things 'as they are.' He literally made himself a Buddha and subsequently entered Nirvana." (King 23) One of the great philosophers that did believe in life after death was Spinoza. Spinoza believed there was a heaven and a hell and the life here in the physical realm was just a small part of gods greater plan. "Spinoza believed that man is a fleeting incident in an infinite and eternal universe." (Fishler 233)In the Christian religion it is believed that there does exist life after death. The argument to support it being that after Jesus died he rose from the dead, proving that the soul is not destroyed after death. "This proof of immortality has been accepted by millions of Christians and has been regarded as one of the most precious assurances brought to mankind by Jesus" (Ducasse 18) All of the Christian teachings and beliefs come from the bible; and in the Bible it states "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)Through out history there have been many different religions and philosophers with many different views on the after life and what it entails. What we do when we leave the physical world will never be know with absolute certainty until our time comes. Until then we must take into consideration all the possibilities and choose the one that makes sense to us the most.