Life after death

Jewish scriptures do not have a prominent theme of resurrection within their scriptures, but there are passages about future hope and the “Last Days”, in which there is a clear reference to resurrection.

• The apocalyptic Book of Daniel refers to the prophecy about the end of time where “multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt”.
• Moses Maimonides also set down thirteen main principles for Jewish faith, with number thirteen being the concept of resurrection which states that: “there will be resurrection of the dead, at the time which pleases the Creator”.
• However, the Jewish scripture are not very clear on whether bodily resurrection actually occurs, however, the fact that there are examples within scripture where it is referred suggests that it is a belief held by the religion.

Richard Dawkins is a materialist, therefore holds the belief that no part of a person is non-physical.

• Consciousness cannot be separated from the brain and life after death does not exist because all that does exist is matter.
• The reason life after death does not exist is that once the brain is dead, consciousness ends.
• He believed that humans are simply “survival machines” and are only interested in replicating themselves into the next generation through passing on their genes.
• Dawkins argues that human beings do not possess immortal souls they are simply a mixture of chemicals blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. 
• In his book “River out of Eden” he states that “there is no spirit-driven life force…life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information”. He does not mean that there is nothing awe-inspiring about life, he simply means that there is no additional supernatural force of the “soul” driving human behaviour.
• Therefore, we cannot underpin the neural processes which cause consciousness.

Hindu's believe in Reincarnation (Rebirth) they believe that each person possesses the “essential self” known as the atman.

• This is eternal and seeks unity with God. 
• Upanishads states that spiritual wisdom comes when people recognise the ultimate identity of the atman with the divine.
• Hindu's believe that God manifests himself in the atman and through a series of birth and deaths people come to an understanding of the atmans relationship with God. Once this relationship has been identified, there is no need for the atman to continue its cycle. It has attained moksha (release).
• The state that the physical body should be seen as a vehicle for the atman. The atman lives within the body until death when it will be entering another body at birth. The process of the rebirth is controlled by the law of karma according to Hindu’s. Each action that a person does therefore, leads to particular “fruits” (consequences). If the action is good, then the consequence is also good. If the action is bad, then as is the consequence.
• Those who live morally good lives are more likely to benefit with good fortune, whereas those who live bad lives will suffer with misfortune. Although, some people who are not moral do live better lives that those who are good.

The whole concept of life after death is criticised by Anthony Flew

• He holds the belief that the concept of life after death, whether it be reincarnation or resurrection is meaningless. It's  unable to be empirically tested using the senses; therefore, it can neither be verified nor falsified and as such is meaningless.

Dawkins and Bertrand Russell believe that religious belief in ideas such as that of an immortal soul have no sound basis.

• They are beliefs based on wishful thinking and for those who lack courage, fear death and who cannot cope with the idea of their own mortality

Richard Swinburne believes that the soul and body  are distinct and therefore supports the view that the soul is able to survive after death. 

• There must be some distinct part of us as there are significant  aspects of us that cannot be explained in physical terms. These include our identity and are not found in our physical bodies. He believes that our souls hold within themselves our moral obligations and therefore, due to possessing consciousness, can direct us towards being moral or not. 

• Self-awareness in Dawkins’ view is developed due to evolutionary advantages; it is not the product of a soul. The individual person can be seen as a “colony” of genes working together in an animal that has become so complex that it is aware of itself. It can make plans and imagine different futures because this consciousness has the evolutionary advantage of allowing deliberate choices to be made.
• Therefore, the materialist believes that consciousness is no more than electro-chemical events within the brain and therefore the individual person is incapable of surviving after brain death. 
• However, it is argued that the relationship between consciousness and the brain is a mystery to science; some hold the belief it is due to chemical compounds in the body while overs believe it is outside of our comprehension.

• Peter Geach believes this is the only way we can talk meaningfully about life after death. People could not be meaningfully recognised or identified with a spiritual existence after death. So, due to the body and soul being a unity the only meaningful way to discuss life after death it to say that the soul can be reunited with a body similar to the one who died. 
• Christianity takes a monist view
• However it can sound dualistic.
• The soul of the person is separated from the body for the final resurrection. At death each person is judged by God in the “Particular Judgement”.
• However they also put emphasis physical resurrection which appears to make the Christian idea unclear.
• It is believed that people shape their relationship with God through their own actions and that is the reason for the Bible discussing principle to live by is in order to maintain a relationship with God. 

According to Christianity the concept of person-hood centres on the belief that we possess a soul as it sets us apart from other created life forms.

• God gives people their souls so that they are made in His image. When humans are made God gives them something of himself, unlike the other creatures he creates.
• “God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). 
• Death is not the end of human existence but the end to physical life and the beginning of a new stage of life.
• The New Testament states that life after death is a paradise and a state of continued existence with God.
• The resurrection of Jesus shows death is not the end of human existence
• The Gospels conclude with Jesus’ resurrection. He is somehow changed as his followers do not at first recognise him and his body 
• Peter Geach believes this is the only way we can talk meaningfully about life after death. People could not be meaningfully recognised or identified with a spiritual existence after death. So, due to the body and soul being a unity the only meaningful way to discuss life after death it to say that the soul can be reunited with a body similar to the one who died. 

• The analogy of the chariot is used to describe his view of the division between the soul’s desires and the body’s desires.
• The soul is the chariot driver who attempts to direct the mind and the body in the correct direction as they attempt to pull in different direction known as discord.
• Harmony of the soul, in Plato’s view, is a virtue as disharmony suggests that the different components of the soul are not working together making the soul separate further from the world of the Forms.
• According to Plato the soul is “simple” but becomes complex when attaches to the body. He believes that there are three aspects to the soul: reason, spirit and desire. Reason searches for the truth. Spirit holds aspects of ourselves that require to be trained such as aggression. And desire withholds our necessary needs such as food.

Plato was one of the earliest dualists, and the differentiation between the body and soul links closely to his differentiation between the world of Forms and the world of appearances. The soul has access to the world of Forms and has objective knowledge, thanks to our ability to reason.  The body, however, gains knowledge not through reason but through the senses. Plato said that since senses change, they cannot always be trusted. This leads to his overwhelmingly pessimistic view of the body, which he called: "The prison of the soul"

• The body can be seen as a negative instrument as it “traps” the soul by imprisoning it and stopping it from interacting directly with the world of the Forms.
• He calls the body weak because of its desires and flaws, and says that it gets in the way of who we truly are and detracts from our power of thinking. 
• Plato states that the “body is the source of endless trouble to us… it takes away all power of thinking”. 

Plato developed two arguments to support his views.

• First is the argument from knowledge which suggests that knowledge can be seen as the recall of knowledge gained from the world of the Forms. When people come to understand something they recognise it to be true; science and mathematics are true long before we learn they are true. Therefore, the soul exists.
• Second is the argument from opposite which states that the world consists of opposites for example there is light and dark. The opposite to life is death and therefore for “death” to be something rather than “nothing” the soul must exist.

Evaluation

• It falls apart as the world of the Forms may not exist and therefore if a person rejects this concept then the whole argument can be rejected as it is solely based on the concept that we will one day return to the realm of the Forms.
• He appears to make an illogical jump from death existing to meaning that there must be an immortal soul. Purely because the opposite of life is death.
• Peter Geach questioned the idea that what it can mean for the disembodied soul to see the Forms and whether the existence without a body is a real human existence at all.

Aristotle believed the soul was the Form and shape of the body. He was monist and therefore believed that the body and soul were inseparable as the soul is the Form of the body.

• For example, and eye could be the body and the capacity to see is the soul. He believed the soul gives shape to the matter which is the body; it causes activity to occur within the body and that the soul has various faculties such as nutrition, perception, desire and intellect.
• According to Aristotle different souls possess different faculties, for example a plant would have the faculty of nutrition to obtain food, wild animals would have nutrition and perception to allow it to view the world using its sense.
• However, humans have all the faculties including intellect which is what distinguishes us from all other creatures. 
• Aristotle states that the soul is both the efficient and final cause of the body. It is the efficient cause as it causes movement and life, but is the final cause as it gives Form to the matter of the body and causes development and growth.
• He concludes that the soul does not continue after death. Although, our intellect does continue and therefore there is life after death in some form of abstract concept from ourselves.

Evaluation

• This view is criticised as the concept that our intellect continues after death is not a coherent argument.

• How does something as abstract as intellect, something caused by the human brain, lives on after death?

• At death the human brain ceases to exist and therefore intellect ceases to exist. Aristotle’s argument appears incoherent as it reaches an illogical conclusion.

Dualism 

The view that a human person consists of two distinct elements; the mind/soul and the body. The soul is immaterial whereas the body is physical.

Monism 

The belief that human beings are a single unnity of body and soul/mind. The souls existence is dependent on the body.

Materialism 

The view that human beings are ohysical beings rather than consistng of a physical body and an immaterial soul. 

Psyche

The greek word that soul originated from.

• However, this is because “fruits” from a person’s previous life is passed on to the next rebirth.
• If the person copes with their suffering without complaint, then they will become closer to achieving moksha. Those who have good karma will live healthy and strong lives, whereas those who live bad will be poor or disabled.

The theory of reincarnation can be argued against for religious reasons.

Christians, for example may dispute the concept of the theory as it goes against their teachings found in the Bible.

They may argue that each person is given one life which is of prime importance as it determines our future salvation or condemnation.

The teaching of reincarnation is incompatible with this teaching. Also the doctrine of unfairness appears to be able to explain the apparent unfairness of life.

However, it could be argued the concept is not coherent as it appears unjust to allow someone to suffer bad consequences as a result of crimes or faults they cannot remember committing.