Life After Death…

Introduction1) Reasons for agreeing with Life After Death:• ‘Is this life all there is/meaningful?’ – this can’t be the end (need

more). Logic states we can’t just be born to die.• ‘Moral Law – Aquinas/Kant’ - assumption that of you lead a good

life, you will be rewarded – justice.• ‘Potential Fulfilled – Augustine/Hick’ – potential to do better.• Religious Texts.• Eastern Religions – Reincarnation.

2) Reasons for disagreeing with Life After Death:• ‘Richard Dawkins (Materialism)’ - we are

only physical DNA, not divinely created. He is a biological materialist, stating that divine activity is illusionary, which includes souls, heaven and reincarnation. The soul was invented by ‘primitive people’ and ‘if you look to science, will know souls to be false – all humans are survival machines’, broken by death.

• ‘Gilbert Ryle (the Ghost in the Machine)’ – If you walk into a pub and see a juke box with a light on but no one around it, then it goes black, then creaks, you wouldn’t assume it was haunted. So why do people assume you do good because of your soul when it is likely just thought processes? Theists are just looking for something that isn’t there. It is a categorical mistake to say anything you can’t explain is the soul as it is misleading.

• A. J. Ayer (language) – phrases used in Religious Language don’t make sense; ‘life after death’? They are contradictions in terms that cannot be empirically proved.

3) Key Questions:• Life after death.• Can there be a post-mortem existence? (chance that it’s right)?• What form will it take? (an object reincarnation? People? Life has to

be the same and therefore must be people?)• Still us? (even after reincarnation? Then isn’t it life, death, new life?

Can it be you if its not your body/species?)

Resurrection Hick1) Why Hick believes in Life After Death:• At some future date (Catholics – Judgment

day), God, as an ‘act of love’ will raise the dead in a bodily form.

• Jesus said – ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, through he dies, yet shall he live.’

• Christ was resurrected with a physical body.

2) Post-mortem existence:• Monism=body and Soul/I/Personality are

linked together to form one entity. • ‘Independent but interacting realities’.• Life after death therefore involves a body

and a soul linked together.• ‘A person is indissoluble psycho-physical

unity’.

3) Form:• Hick’s Replica Theory.• At death, the whole person dies. • But God, by an act of sovereign power,

recreates the person, not as an identical-physical organism, but as a ‘soma pneumatikon’ (spiritual body).

• This spiritual body embodies the dispositional characteristic and memory traces of the person.

• ‘Exact copy’/replica of the person who dies.

4) Still us:• A person in London disappears

and suddenly reappears in New York – same personality and continuity of memory. Only thing possible changed is continuity occupancy of space because of monism.

• Person dies in London, reappears in New York (with the same characteristics). We would be forced to say that it is the same person.

• Person dies and the person with the same character traits, memories appears in a resurrected world. Is that the same person?

5) Quotes:• Inhabits an environment

continuous with this ‘spiritual body’.

• ‘…not situated at any distance, or in any direction from the objects in our present world although each object in with world is spatially related to every other object in the same world.’

6) Support – Peter Vardy:• Vardy supports Hick with his

Student Essay Example.• He argues if you get an essay

photocopied, the photocopy has the same content as the original.

• Therefore, you would say it is an exact replica, which is the same as Hick’s theory as there is the same ‘I’ so is therefore logical to say it’s the same person.

7) Summary:• Post-mortem existence; yes,

body and mind become spiritual – God acts through love to raise copy in this reality as body and spirit are linked and therefore possible.

• Form; spiritual, in another reality with the same body and mind in spiritual forms with others – looks like alive person but see through.

• You; yes, analogy of London to NY and life to death.

Resurrection - Strengths

2) Peter Vardy:• Good because it is rooted in

Christian teachings.• Resurrection of body – seen

in Jesus.• Gospel of John; ‘I am the

resurrection and the life’.

1) Dr. Ray Moody:• Looked at near death experiences in his research.• Found they all have similar criteria.• Most experienced ‘bliss and ecstasy’ – need a body for this feeling and movement which seems to add evidence.• ‘Observe’ – see things (friends and family) in these experiences and therefore soul must be linked to eyes and therefore

body.• ‘Awareness of physical pain’ – body and soul must be linked.

Jesus

Resurrection - Weaknesses

4) General:• God could make multiple replicas

which would undermine personal identity.

• A replica is not as valuable as the original.

• A replica, by definition, is not the same as the original.

• Practical issues; how the person dies – replicated?

2) Don Cupitt:• It requires God to make the

replica – what if there is no God? • This means Hick’s view on life

after death is ultimate rests on faith in God – other theories don’t.

1) Terence Penelhum:• ‘Time causes the person’s

identity to change’.• Because it takes time/space

to replicate someone, you are not the same person you were before they died.

3) A. J. Ayer:• Doesn’t like Hick’s ‘exact

replica’ – as the language id of ‘no literal significance’ as it doesn’t work and gives no empirical evidence.

• ‘The fact that it would not be correct to call them persons would not perhaps be of very great importance.’

Summary…1) Post-mortem existence:• Hick: states monism is correct, so body

and soul are together after death.• Vardy: Jesus was resurrected and

therefore so can his followers.• Moody: there are near death

experiences and therefore existence after death is possible.

• Cupitt: rests on Gods existence.

3) Form:• Hick: spiritual form.• Vardy: saw Jesus’ body and was passed

through.• Moody: ‘observe’ – float/see people

from above in experiences.• Cupitt: need God to replicate this form.

2) Still us:• Hick: exact replica of spiritual person.• Vardy: Jesus looked the same after

death.• Moody: travel in near death experiences

and therefore have a body.• Penelhum: time/space it takes changes

the person and is therefore not you.• Ayer: no empirical evidence for a replica

and therefore of no importance.

Immortality of the soul1) Post-mortem existence:• Theory shaped by dualism.• Body is physical – belonging to a physical

world of sensations.• Soul is non-physical but exists in a spiritual

way.• Because of this, it will not decay as nothing

can reach it.• So they are dual united and therefore

separate at death.• It’s the soul that gives you reason, not the

mind as it makes you want to experience the world – coined ‘universalia ante res’ (universal concepts) by Plato. Your soul searches for them and intuitionally know they are wrong.

• The soul is pure and searches for greater good and desires justice.

2) Form:• Soul is incorruptible and therefore never

broken and immortal as it doesn’t break away/decay.

• ‘Since we cannot see any other cause which destroys the soul, we are naturally inclined to conclude that it is immortal’ – Descartes.

• It can therefore live on after death.

3) Still us:• An immortal soul – ‘I think therefore I am’ - Descartes.• Descartes – ‘mind’ is the seat of all feelings and sensations.• Mind/soul is the ‘essence of the person’ – soul makes you, you and

therefore when you die it is the same you.• Thoughts are only interaction between the mind and body, but can

be understood in this reality.• The soul is the animator/‘anima’ (Aquinas)• ‘The mind is non-spatial, and conscious. It experiences thoughts,

feeling, desires and emotions’ – Descartes.

4) Summary:• Post-mortem; because soul is immortal, it can live after the death of

a physical body forever as it does not decay.• Form; spiritual form – soul lives on forever (immortal).• You; soul makes you, you and the soul is still there (Descartes – ‘I

think therefore I am’.)

Descartes, Aquinas and Plato.

Immortality of the soul - StrengthsDr. Deepak Chopra:• Strength of post-mortem ideas.• Looked into the existence of ghosts.• After death, this energy continues in

the form of a ghost. • Many people have such experiences

and they must therefore be reliable.

Immanuel Kant:• Strength of form.• ‘Summon bonum’ – the highest good.• ‘The summon bonum is only possible

on the presupposition of the immortality of the soul.’

• Soul shapes your mortality.

Immortality of the soul - WeaknessesRichard Dawkins:• Is a materialist, believing that only physical

things exist.• ‘Divine activity is an illusion’.• You are just DNA.• Soul was invented by ‘primitive people’.

Gilbert Ryle:• ‘Ghost in the machine’.• ‘Category mistake’.• Can’t find a soul because one does

not exist.

Reincarnation/Transmigration Hindu faith

1) Post-mortem existence:• The soul itself is in a state

of illusion, enclosed in a set of ‘bodies’.

• The ‘gross body’ – physical body.

• The ‘subtle body’ – mind, the intellect, the emotions and ‘spiritual aspects’ of the person.

• The aspects of a person that change in their lifetime are called samskaras or impressions.

2) Form:• A reincarnated body.• On the death of the soul (atman) is born again in another bodily form (not

immortality of the soul – a new life not more life).• The soul receives a higher or lower rebirth depending on how a person has lived

their lives.• The good or bad actions done are called karma.• The cycle/circle goes on through many lives until the soul achieves ultimate reality

(nirvana) and is united with Brahman.• It is the subtle body that is reincarnated on earth.• It is through repeated physical lives on earth that the soul ultimately discovers the

path to perfection and enlightenment (moksha).

3) Still us:• On the death of the soul

(atman) is born again in another body.

• ‘Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, even so does the embodied soul cast off worn-out bodies and takes on others that are new’ – Bhagavad Gita 2, 13.

4) Summary:• Post-mortem

existence; subtle body that can live on.

• Form; reincarnated body in this world.

• You; subtle body in both lives.

Reincarnation - Strengths1) Dualism:• Descartes, Plato and Aquinas may

support the idea that the thinking self is more essential than the body, or the view that the body has a non-material cause.

3) Pre-existed:• If the soul is independent of the body, then it is

logical to suppose that it could have pre-existed.

4) Dr. Ian Stevenson:• ‘Yoga memory’ – the experience of people, usually

children, who claim to be someone reborn with memories of a previous life.

• Takes them back through their lives in a hypnotised state, then askes about ages they have not yet reached (asking a 5 year old about when they were 25) and many can recall in detail what happened to them then.

2) Ancient:• The belief in reincarnation is ancient, tried

and tested. It has emerged from a sophisticated body of eastern philosophy and metaphysics (e.g. – in the Bhagavad Gita).

Reincarnation - Weaknesses1) Stephen Davies:• Evidence for yoga memory ‘may be flimsy’ - he argues that

contact between families may allow children to account for a remembered past life which they have not really experienced.

3) Gilbert Ryle:• The mind should not be seen as non-

physical; ‘ghost in the machine’.

2) Marxism:• Bourgeoisie use reincarnation and

karma as a tool to control the Proletariat.

• ‘sigh of the oppressed creature’.

4) Dark View:• It assumes a dark view of reality with

the unavoidability of suffering – bad things will happen if you're bad.

Rebirth Buddhist faith

1) Post-mortem existence:• A person is made up of the physical body

and four mental elements; feelings, perceptions, moral will and consciousness – which together are called ‘nama-rupa’.

• The physical body is temporary; the real self is eternal and unchanging and can live on.

2) Form:• The physical body dies, and the ‘nama-rupa’

is released and the character aspects of the person are reborn into another person.

• The rebirth is governed by ‘karma’ – how good or bad a person has been in their previous lives.

• Therefore the ‘self’/‘aspects’ must rid itself of all change and achieve ‘nirvana’.

• ‘More numerous are those beings who, decrease as men, are reborn in purgatory, who are born in the wounds of animals, who are reborn in the realms of ghosts’ – The Buddha

3) Still us:• The ‘aspects’ are the person.• The ‘soul’ must fix itself.

4) Summary:• Post-mortem existence; consciousness reses out of used body.• Form; reborn into new body with the same character aspects.• You; contains the same aspects/soul.

Rebirth - Strengths1) Moral Value:• Since we are constantly reborn we must constantly strive

for good ‘karmic effects’.• We are never just damned or saved.

3) The enlightenment of the Buddha:• Rebirth stresses the importance of

personal spirituality and rather faith.

2) Psychological proofs:• There is some psychological truth in the idea of ‘anatta’

since who we are is something which is constantly changing.

Rebirth - Weaknesses1) G. E. Moore:• There is no hard

evidence for the laws of karma affecting our lives. It might fall into the ‘naturalistic fallacy’ in that it confuses moral ideas with factual information about how the world works.

2) Dark View:• It assumes a dark view

of reality with the unavoidability of suffering – bad things will happen if you're bad.

General Weaknesses1) Hume:• Lack of evidence of life after death.• When you prove a hypothesis you

prove it synthetically, posterior or analytically, a priori.

2) Flew:• Language meaning debate.• Questioned whether life after

death has any ‘linguistic meaning’ in his essay – ‘Can a man witness his own funeral?’

• The words used have no meaning.• If a ship is torpedoed , we classify

those on board exclusively as ‘dead’ or ‘survivors’.

• It is accepted that one cannot be both.

• Talk of surviving death is a bit like talking of ‘dead survivors’; a contradiction in terms.

• Therefore, he claims that the idea of the afterlife is meaningless and untrue.

• I, you, him can only apply to living organisms which we can experience or interact with.

3) Freud:• Illusion – not real.• It is ‘wishful thinking’.• Projection (made to happen) by

mans own mind.• Life after death is the creation of the

human mind.• Society unite in ‘universal neurosis’.• Any claim by the theist should be

‘disregarded in relation to reality’.

4) Marx:• Oppression.• Life after death is a man made

concept as there is no empirical evidence.

• ‘…is the opium of the people’ – there’s something stopping the working class from uniting and over throwing the ruling class.

• Marx says the working class are in a state of ‘false consciousness’.

Summary:• Hume: • Resurrection – no evidence

of a body coming back to life or the existence of a soul.

• Immortality of the soul - no evidence at all.

• Rebirth - no evidence for eternal self living on after death.

• Reincarnation – no evidence for souls existence.

• Flew: • Resurrection – has no literal

meaning. • Immortality of the soul –

immortality has no literal meaning.

• Rebirth – no literal meaning to having new life.

• Reincarnation – no literal significance to soul moving in another being.

Part BPossible Impossible

Man does seem to be more than just a physical entity and so would assume that there could be a soul – Descartes (‘I think therefore I am’).

Lack of empirical evidence and inability to ever prove life after death (we are alive) seriously undermines any theory offered in favour of it – Hume (fork analogy).

If you believe in God, you would hope a benevolent God would allow us to love a life that means more than just waiting to die; need a purpose for existence – Kant (‘Summon bonnum’).

The concept of life after death, because it has never been proven, must be classed as a meta-physical belief and therefore could be seen as wishful thinking – Freud (‘universal neurosis’).

Evidence from paranormal activity seems to offer some empirical evidence for life after death - Dr. Ian Stevenson (yoga memory).

Continued belief in life after death could be seen as a way of controlling people by fear of eternal damnation and therefore remains oppressive – Marx (‘false consciousness’).

Compare QuestionDifferences Resurrection Immortality

Theory – monism/dualism

- Body and soul together are one entity.- ‘independent but interacting realities’.- Can’t have one without the other – have to have both.

- Body = physical soul which = spiritual.- Dual united but separatable.- ‘universalia ante res’.

Form life after death takes

- Hick – at death, whole person dies and is replicated by God into spiritual world with ‘resurrected bodies’.

- Soul is immortal, body is mortal and therefore they split at death – soul lives- ‘since we cannot see any other cause which destroys the soul we are naturally inclined to conclude that it is immortal’ – Descartes.

Same I: Descartes and

Vardy

- J. Smith analogy – same person in NY and London (contains body and soul).- Vardy – photocopied essay = same

- Mind is seat of feelings (pineal gland – ‘I think therefore I am’ – Descartes).- Thoughts = interactions between mind & body that are understandable

Similarities Resurrection Immortality

Ayer – Language

- Doesn’t like Hick’s ‘exact replica’ – language; is on ‘no literal significance’ as they don’t work – no empirical evidence given and unverifiable.- Replica isn’t the same – cant be a replicated world.

- Language – can’t have immortal soul because we are contingent on something to exist unless it doesn’t exist.- Can’t have spiritual form – it’s an ‘utterance’ – no proof.- Can’t have soul – no evidence.

Moody - Paranormal

- Near death experience research found common criteria that pointed to a resurrected body because feelings of bliss/pain need a body and therefore have a physical body in the next life.

- Dr. Chora; ghosts are real as body has left over energy at death.- Often seen.

Penelhum – not the same

- Personal identity is always changing and therefore exact replicas are impossible.

- When the soul travels to spiritual world it takes time and space and an experience of death and therefore not the same us.