Non-Religious Reasons for Believing in Life after Death

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  • Created by: Gaynor
  • Created on: 15-02-18 14:06

Near Death Experiences

Near-death experiences occur when people are clinically dead for a period of time and then come back to life. In a near-death experience, it is said that there are feelings of peace and joy; feelings of floating above the body; seeing a bright light; entering another world; meeting dead relatives; coming to a point of no return. 

If near-death experiences are true then there is a heaven and there is life after death, but this is not the same as the resurrection as described in the Gospels. 

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Evidence for a Spirit World

Ghosts and Ouija boards appear to provide evidence of spirits surviving death, but the clearest evidence seems to come from mediums. A medium is a person who claims to have the gift of communicating between the material world in which we live and the spirit world inhabited by those who have died. They are sometimes called psychics, clairvoyants or spirit guides. 

If mediums can contact the dead in the spirit world, then there must be life after death.

The Catholic Church rejects the evidence of mediums. "All forms of divination are to be rejected... Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading... the phenomena of clairvoyance and recourse to mediums all... contradict the honour, respect and loving feat that we owe to God alone" - CCC 2116

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The Evidence of Reincarnation

Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists believe that life after death involves souls being reborn into another body. This is reincarnation. There are many stories of reincarnation from around the world and if such cases are true, then it would be evidence for reincarnation and therefore life after death.

Catholics do not believe in reincarnation. "It is appointed for men to die once. There is no reincarnation after death" - CCC 1013.

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