Eternal Life:Life After Death as a

Medical,Philosophical, and

Theological Question

Class #3Models of Belief in Eternity in Religion

What we have discussed so far…Like medicine, philosophy ultimately is

unable to definitively answer the question if there is life after death.

The closest philosophy comes to eternal life is this idea of “transcendence” - a leap of faith into the unknown, but this image isn’t helpful for us.

Today we turn to religion, to see how religion answers the question of what happens to us after we die.

Table Conversation (10 minutes)Pick any (or more) of the questions below to

discuss as a group:1. How has religion helped (or not helped)

your understanding the idea of eternal life?

2. Recall our discussion of materialism from last week. (Materialism is the theory that physical matter is the only fundamental reality. Things not perceptible by our senses are understood to be less significant than what is concrete.) How would a philosophical materialist view something abstract like hope or faith?

Perennial Questions of most World Religions:Where did we come from?Why are we here?Where do we go when we die?

Religions have many common features:Redemption – All world religions are aware of

humankind’s alienation, corruptibility, and need of redemption. They all understand humankind to suffer from ignorance, loneliness, suffering, etc. World religions understand that people long for enlightenment, transformation, redemption.

Revelation – All world religions are concerned with an absolute reality (i.e. “God”) that when it is revealed to us, provides closeness and enlightenment.

Prophets - Great personalities have made staggering breakthroughs to knowing God: Jesus, Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, Buddha, etc.

Can you think of any other common features world religions share?

Religions have many common features:

World Religions also differ from one another in dramatic ways.Semitic Religions (Judaism, Islam

Christianity)

Point of clarification: the word “Semite” is a term to describe a person living in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, northeast Africa). An “anti-Semite” is literally a person opposed to people in all these geographic regions, not someone who is against Judaism.

Semitic religions tend to see the world as ultimately good. In the creation story of Genesis, creation is affirmed again and again as “good.”

In the Hindu tradition, the world is seen as an illusion. The world is not real, not worth our true investment. There are not many Hindu physicists.

The goal in Hinduism and Buddhism is release from samsara (cyclic reoccurring nature of the world).

Semitic Religions (Judaism, Islam & Christianity) Vs. Asian/Indian Religions (Hinduism & Buddhism) – The world

In Semitic religions, humans have one life, and it is largely concluded that this one life is what decides our eternal fate.

Semitic Religions (Judaism, Islam & Christianity) Vs. Asian/Indian Religions (Hinduism & Buddhism) – Life & Death

Hindu/Buddhist tradition follows a belief in reincarnation in which the overall goal is to work toward perfection, at which time a person will be released from samsara.

Semitic Religions (Judaism, Islam & Christianity) Vs. Asian/Indian Religions (Hinduism & Buddhism) – Life & Death

Reincarnation – Many people (going back to the Greeks) have professed belief in reincarnation. What makes it an attractive possibility?Reincarnation helps to explain evil and

suffering in the world. Bad things happen to people because people were bad in a previous life, not because God is angry, vengeful, etc. A better life in the future begins with the choices you make today

After death, do humans have one life or several?

A criticism of reincarnation is that it is an idea that focuses solely on the individual and what an individual person can do to improve their lot in life. It does not profess interest in the well being of the world as a whole.

“Tikkun Olam” – in Hebrew, “repairing the world.” All of humanity have an obligation to repair, heal, and transform the world.

What is an argument against reincarnation?

1. Life is either followed by definitive extinction into nothingness or it’s not. If there is nothing after this life that we can quantifiably prove, then our best bet is to live on in the memories of others.

Where do we go from here? Three possibilities to consider:

2. If there is eternal life, then eternity will either be some sort of reoccurring event (akin to a movie playing in full and repeating itself for ever, or a broken record – more formally called “eternal reoccurrence”) or eternal life will be progressive, ever expanding (like the universe is believed to be doing).

Where do we go from here? Three possibilities to consider:

If eternal life is progressive (dynamic rather than static), then it is either reached after several earthly lives or one. Either people have to have to pass through several lives of cleansing or purification through reincarnation or not. If people don’t cycle through reincarnation to arrive at eternity, then they accomplish it in a single lifetime. This is the conviction of the Jewish/Islamic/Christian tradition.

Christianity espouses the belief that eternal life is unattainable on our own merits, but is gifted to us by a loving God through God’s grace.

Where do we go from here? Three possibilities to consider:

We will look at resurrection as it is described in the Hebrew scriptures and see how it led to a natural development of resurrection in first century Israel during the time of Jesus.

Next week: “Resurrection of the Dead? October 5, 2014