Notesale: Turn your study into money

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William Shakespeare- ‘the undiscover’d country from whose bourn no
traveller returns
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Since our experience of life is totally personal, and since the
attachments and experiences we have in life have such meaning, it is hard to
accept the idea of such an end
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Ideas such as
morality and justice seem meaningless since our lives and the lives of those
around us are so temporary, only a tiny point on earth’s timeline
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 The afterlife rationalises death and gives our lives a purpose and gives us the

ability to our fulfill our potentials John Hick: ‘If the human potential is to be
fulfilled in the lives of individuals, these lives must be prolonged far beyond
the limits of our present bodily existence’ i
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‘Life is too short’
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They are distinct entities and
have entirely different natures
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Unlike the physical body, the soul is noncontingent and immortal
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’ Maritain- ‘once it exists, it cannot disappear; it will necessarily
exist for ever
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Aquinas described Heaven as the ‘beatific
vision’, a state of highest joy and ultimate existence, and that it exists not on some external plane but ‘within
the very essence of our soul
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He proposed two ideas to support his belief in the immortality of the soul: the
Doctrine of Recollection (DoR) and the Phaedo
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Our
experiences and our learning, what he see as our life, is therefore simply the process of ‘remembering’ what is
already in our soul
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Plato argues that the nature of
the body and the mind are so vastly different that it seems inconceivable that they could be made of the same
basic materials
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Since this is impossible to achieve in our earthly lifetimes, it seems logical that an omnibenevolent God
would allow us an afterlife in which to reach it
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Without a physical body or brain, how would we
relate to our surroundings or communicate with others?
 H
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If not, and our existence is without consciousness, or
memory, or human emotion, then would it really be existence? And
how could we continue to develop and reach our full potentials without
the same desires and incentives as we have on earth?
 Furthermore, our body is surely part of our identity and without it can
we really be considered the same person?
 The idea of Hell in particular has been criticised as an incoherent
concept
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Also a fundamental belief of Christianity, resurrection of the body answers the criticisms
of how a soul could exist independent of a body
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’ In Christianity,
much of the understanding as to the exact nature of this resurrected body is based upon
the example of Jesus Christ
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He still bears the
scars of the crucifixion, although the wounds have healed, suggesting that physical
illnesses and disabilities will be cured in the afterlife
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’ However, many scholars
argue that in the afterlife we will have a spiritual body (soma pneumatikon)
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Corinthians- ‘For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we shall be changed
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Reincarnation is a key part of Hindu beliefs, which regards life and death as part of the cycle of existence
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Bhagavad Gita- ‘Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, even so does
the disembodied soul cast off worn-out bodies and take on others that are new
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It is the subtle body that is reincarnated, along with the soul, although all of it’s
characteristics may change and develop over a single lifetime
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The soul repeats this process through many lifetimes until achieves ultimate reality, or nirvana, through
meditation and is united with Brahman
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There are even other realms where one can be
reborn, but only on earth does the soul have the ability to develop and reach nirvana
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The belief that all intentional actions
or deeds are rewarded or punished accordingly through good and bad karma
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But if one does not have a real awareness or memory of their past lives, and it is only the most principle
character traits which continue, then can the reincarnated person truly constitute the same person or is
personal identity lost? Hick- ‘There can be general similarities of character found in such qualities as
selfishness and unselfishness, introverted or extroverted types of personality… but such general similarities
would never by themselves lead or entitle us to identify the two as the same person
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Does not believe in some eternal ‘self ’ that is preserved
after eat, but instead in anicca, the idea that everything is composite and impermanent,
and in dukkah, the idea that our lives are imperfect and therefore vulnerable to evil and
suffering
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‘Self ’ is actually
composite is made up of physical body and four mental elements- feeling, perception,
moral will and consciousness (nama-rupa)
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’ Similarly to reincarnation, when someone
dies the nama-rupa is released and reborn into a new person
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Although
our objective identity continues through this cycle of rebirth, our ‘self ’ as we know it does
not
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Similarly believe that the ultimate
goal is to escape the cycle and achieve nirvana through meditation and gradual
realization, over a number of lifetimes, of the nature of ultimate reality
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g losing a
job) and try to believe it was ‘all for the best’
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We feel we are owed more than we have, feel that there needs to be a ‘purpose’ or some justification
for morality, but nature is, as Nietzsche said, ‘moral neutral’ and there is no reason that it should
care what we feel we need
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Many aspects of certain religions seem obvious manifestations of human desires  Heaven, justice,
seeing dead loved ones etc
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Default position has to be that death is the end of life
unless strong evidence against it- Ockham’s Razor
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A
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Mark Twain- ‘I do not fear death
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’
Richard Dawkins- ‘we are so grotesquely lucky to be here’ and so life, and morality, should be
intrinsically special and meaningful without afterlife
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