Is There Life After Death? Essay

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).

The aim of my report is to explain how the view of the afterlife in Ancient Greece has shaped works of art, books and the mentality of people. In order to do this I am going to explore how ancient Greek people saw the underworld as well as Roman people and the Renaissance period. Because Greeks saw the underworld as a dark, dreadful and gloomy place, many of the works that refer to it, either in Roman times or the Renaissance, are influenced by this view. In particular works like the Odyssey by Homer or The Phaedo by Plato, explained to a certain level the structure of the afterlife in ancient Greece. These two pieces of literature severely influenced works like the book VI of the Aeneid by Virgil where he depicts the underworld referencing to the Greek point of view. But a deeper description of the underworld is given by Dante in his Divine Comedy where he uses Virgil as his guide, from the depths of hell to the Purgatory while Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through heaven. All these time periods shared the idea of the underworld as being a place where souls pay the sins they committed during their lives.

One of the main objectives in religion is to achieve a certain state where the afterlife becomes a paradise for the soul. This is seen to be true in Catholicism and Buddhism, as both religions have a goal to insure their place with their religion. While the contentions on death may be different, both religions offer a certainty if a certain way of living is followed.

​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 purpose of my report is to demonstrate the views of the catholic tradition and the secular world view Nihilism. These two views are very different in what they believe which will be interesting to compare and contrast the two. I am going to pursue the questions, ‘is there a higher being?’ ‘what happens to a person at death?’ and ‘what is the meaning/purpose of life?’. Knowing what secular, my secular world view and religious traditions will be very helpful with my findings for my report. Secular is something that is not connected to religious matters, my world view of Nihilism is based around the belief of life being meaningless with values being unfounded. The Catholic tradition ‘transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.’

In Roman Catholicism, they believe that the soul will continue to live after the death of physical human body and that at the time of death, the soul separates and is immediately judged by God who decides if they are destined to hell or heaven. If a soul gets chosen to go to hell, it goes soon after decision. The path to heaven is slightly different with a place called purgatory on the way. Some souls get to go directly to heaven without being put in purgatory first and this is due to them being truly holy to the Lord. Those who are sent to purgatory are there because they still have sins attached and God gives them a temporary punishment to rid their sins. Once lifted, they continue on their path to heaven. Roman Catholics also believe that whenever God decides to make the world come to an end, each and every soul, both the damned and

The Catholic belief is that at death, while our physical body decays, our soul or spirit lives on eternally either in heaven or hell depending on our deeds or faith while on Earth. Some souls may need to undergo purification before they are permitted in heaven. The atheist’s view is that at death we are dead and gone. There is no God, no judgment, no heaven, no purgatory and no hell. Any afterlife is merely in the memories of those who knew us. Of course no one has yet found out what happens when we die, it remains a mystery. Other questions might be why do we need to die or what do we do in heaven for eternity? Meanwhile, I suggest we have to live and experience this world as best we can, particularly since life seems to be so short lived. I am Christian and I fully respect atheist and their ideas but I just cannot grasp the idea that once you die your consciousness is gone for the rest of

Catholics believe that there is Heaven, Purgatory and Hell awaiting us after death, and have been taught since a young age that where we go is based upon how we have lived our lives and which path we chose to take during our life on earth.

Key beliefs of the Catholic Church regarding life after death is that death is inevitable and is a natural progression of life and is something not to fear as everyone eventually dies “There is a season for everything ... A time for giving birth, a time for dying.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

In this essay, we will look at the Buddhist attitude towards other types of view; follow by Buddhist’s own view on death and dying. The focus will be on philosophical ideas and understandings of death and dying. II. The Buddhist Attitude Nowadays, there are two main views that dominate the attitudes to death, namely, the traditional Christian view and the modern secular views. The traditional Christian view asserts that man an immortal soul and the reality of life after death; while the modern secular view claims to be scientific, and challenges the ‘soul’ that man perish completely at physical death like animals.

Catholics base their true facts on life after death from The Apostle Creed. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he destroyed the power of sin and death, and brought new life to the world. To this day, us, Christians believe there is a life after death because we were saved by Jesus. We believe our souls live on entirely with God, where we came from, even when our body dies. This is because Jesus rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion and we believe that we will also be raised from death to new life like Jesus did, if we follow Jesus’ teachings and ways, God and eternal life awaits us in heaven.

A study of American undergraduates indicated that the beliefs about the nature of life after death were quite complicated. A 41-item questionnaire produced 12 independent groups of beliefs. Belief in an internal locus of control and that one’s life is owned by God were associated with a more positive view of the afterlife, as was being Roman Catholic rather than Protestant. The most common beliefs were that one is reunited with family and friends, that the afterlife is comforting, that there is Heaven and that the transition is peaceful, all believed by more than 90 percent of the students.

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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.