Great Afterlife Debate

Phaedo – the existence and nature of the afterlife and the immortality and reincarnation of the soul

The philosophical question being asked already introduces the finitude of human existence, since, according to Martin Heidegger human beings, as Da-sein, exist “as thrown being(s)-toward-its-end,”1 recognizing death is recognized as a possibility of Da-sein. However, it is important to define death in Heidegger’s context because he establishes the idea that death is a reality that we, as human beings, encounter as a possibility of being. As such, the relation between death and authentic existence must also be clarified, so as to fully understand what it truly means to be Da-sein.

The concept of life after death has been around practically as long as life itself. Our beliefs about life after death can have a profound effect on our attitudes toward life. Most individual's beliefs about life after death are directly related to their cultural or religious affiliations. According to Montagu, "Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far – reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality" (1955, p.15).

If we take a glance at the world we live in today, we can recognize that people are different from one another in physical and psychological ways. Since this is the case, people possess the ability to develop different ideas even if they deal with the same topic. This can be seen through the one thing that everyone in this world holds in common, which is that we are all living beings that will eventual experience death. Even though we all share the same characteristics of being alive and will eventually face death, there are many different ideas of what will happen to someone after death. The movie “Unmistaken Child”, demonstrates one idea of what the Tibetan Buddhist Monks believes happens to someone after death.

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.

The book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, is a non-fiction work by Mary Roach, that explores the unanswered questions about the afterlife. The humorous and scientific exploration includes: whether there is a soul that survives death, reincarnation, near-death experiences and out of body experiences. This is a book about what scientists are doing and have done in their attempt to find evidence that when we die we don’t just turn into bones. Roach attempts to find and the define that soul using a scientific approach in order to determine the possibilities of an afterlife. To achieve this goal, she examines what scientists have discovered in their quest to find evidence for life after death.

While Phaedrus, the Bhagavad Gita, Epicurus’ Letters to Menoeceus, and the story of “The Priest Walchelin and the Hellequin’s Hunt” all offer slightly different theories on what happens after death, they all agree that the death of the body is inevitable. However, the texts fail to give explicit instruction on how mortals should best live their life so as to be best situated for existence after death. Identifying how the texts instruct people to live life in a way that’s meaningful despite its temporary nature will help identify methods for benefitting humanity and thus retroactively reveal our shortcomings. According to these texts, the only way to live a meaningful life is to focus on the betterment of the soul. Because the soul will

There is belief of life after death. The soul of a dead person first lingers around the earth for three days as a result of separation from its body. On the third day, the soul is judged by its doings an is either taken to paradise (heaven) or to the world of punishment (hell).

Both philosophers and non-philosophers stand on a level of equality with respect to death. There are no experts on death, for there is nothing to know about it. Even those who study the death process have no edge on the rest of us. We are all equals in thinking about death, and we all begin and end thinking about it from a position of ignorance. One trouble with discussing this topic is the instinctive fear of death. We tend to avoid death in our thoughts and actions. However, if we could forget our fears for a minute, we could see more clearly how interesting the concept actually is from a more detached point of view. One of the most interesting views on death comes from an ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates. In the texts that are going to be analyzed in this essay, Apology and Phaedo, are the retellings of words and thoughts of Socrates by Plato, a pupil and admirer of Socrates. Both texts lecture about the topic of death and though both are the thoughts of Socrates at different times of his life, they have similar and contrasting views on the outlook of death.

​This paper will analyze afterlife in Hinduism and in Catholicism. Afterlife will be considered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020-1060 and in Romans 10. Afterlife will also be considered in Bhagavad Gita 2:27, Obayashi page 146 and in Rig Veda 10.14.8. This topic is intriguing because death is a part of life and it is interesting to see the different perspectives of their two religions and of what happens in the afterlife. Besides the perspectives, this topic studies the greatest mystery of life, death which is an uncommon topic since people usually shy away from talking about this because of the emotional implications that it brings to people.

The first section of this paper should properly be named: “The Happy Ending,” as it seems fitting for this point of success for religion. It is not unfair to assert that one of humans greatest fears is death, the thought of become nothingness. Honestly, is there ever a point in ones own life that they can think, or even experience nothingness? Evidently the answer should be no, as we are always something, always being. For a human this is an overwhelming, and at times frightening thought. Especially when science and many atheist comes to the conclusion that when a human dies nothing happens, there is no happy ending -- sadly, nothingness seems to be the answer.

One thing that ponders almost all who live is what happens after one dies. There are multiple theories about life after death, or the absence of it, many dependent on one’s religious beliefs. However, this is also a question philosophers have faced and come up with theories for. Bertrand Russell, a well-known philosopher from the twentieth century, has a theory on the matter. His theory on life after death, in standard form, is as follows: There is a strong correlation between brain states and mental states. In particular, the correlation between brain damage and impairment in mental capacity. So, probably all the mental states and capacities that we associate with a particular person are ontologically dependent on the continued functioning of that individual 's brain. So, if one 's brain ceases to function, then one 's mind ceases, as well. If you survive death, then your mind must survive. But, brain functioning ceases with death. Therefore, you will not survive death (Zelinski “On”). The argument is valid but some question whether it is sound. Russell 's argument is sound because the third premise, if one’s brain ceases to function, then one’s mind ceases to function, is true; the fifth premise, brain functioning ceases with death, is also true; that all leads to the conclusion, your mind will not survive death, being true.

One of the strengths that this article has is that they provided a broad hypothesis. It was not specific and that gave them more room to play around with how they want to test the beliefs on life-after-death. They basically just wanted to explore from what was found in previous search on the afterlife and find more detailed data. Another strengths in this article were the specific questions that the participants were asked about their beliefs in the afterlife. The

that if X can be without Y then X and Y are distinct. This view that a

Many different religions around the world see the importance in life after death but these beliefs do vary a lot and each religion will believe completely different things. Two core religions in this essay that will be looked into are Islamic and Catholic. What do they believe will happen when someone dies? Is there another life after they die? Heaven? Hell? Or Paradise? Through this you will the importance in the belief of life after death, and the practices, rituals, and prayers that provide evidence and physical proof of how they show this belief. Then to go onto to discuss the wider implications holding onto these beliefs can have.