What Happens After We Die?

Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed including detail and some examples.

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

Regardless of social strata, death and the afterlife were almost always valued by the living in ancient Egypt. The afterlife was birthed and designed for great societal rulers but eventually trickled down and was adopted by other levels of society (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 42). Death was interpreted as “new life in another state” by ancient Egypt, and the ultimate goal of immortality could be attained if specific burial arrangements were made for the dead. This was to avoid a final death of the soul known as the “second death,” and measures such as burial with food, drink, and personal possessions, were taken to aid the soul on its journey into immortality (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 36).

During the ancient Roman and Egyptian civilizations, the belief in an afterlife dictated the lives of the civilians. In both civilizations, a successful journey to paradise required a sound body as well as their worldly possessions. After death, each soul had to complete several prerequisites before being granted access to paradise. In the afterlife, each soul completed specific tasks on their journey to reach a destination of judgement. For the Egyptians, they conducted judgement with a scale and for the Romans it was determined by three gods. The result of this judgement would therefore determine their experience, whether pleasant or horrific, in the afterlife. Regardless of each similarity and difference, each civilization placed a high

As we all know death of humans has been one of the utmost mysteries we would all like to solve. Although the ancient Mesopotamia, Egyptian, and Hindu all believed in an afterlife, their understanding and celebration if any, seems to be a little different. Mesopotamians were afraid of death, although they believed in afterlife they also had strong belief about the spirits still being alive. The Egyptians had an understanding and outlook on death, in which they believed in an afterlife, but they also believed in preserving the body. However, the Hindu also had the same perspective on afterlife, they were also very religious, but the way they went about it was much different than those of Mesopotamia and Egyptians.

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

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism are all religions that connect in more than one way. One major way that these religions connect is through the afterlife, otherwise known as the unconditioned reality. Hinduism and Buddhism have very similar views on the afterlife while Daoism has a slightly different view. In the end, they all have the same goal which is to achieve the final state that lasts forever. Even though this is true, that does not mean they do not differ in more than one way. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism rely strongly on theoretical, practical, and sociological standpoints. A large part of the theoretical standpoints, are myths about the gods and how things are. A large part of sociological standpoints are festivals, and temples. Lastly, practical is practiced through mediation, yoga, and payers. In Hinduism, there are various sects that worship a total of roughly 360,000,000 different gods. As you could imagine, this would be difficult to generalize in just one essay, so the branch of Hinduism I will go over just includes the basic trinity and Vedic gods. Along with this, this essay will include information on the two major types of Buddhism and how one attains enlightenment. Finally, we will go over how one is to attain immortality through Daoism, along with the beliefs of the traditional Chinese Folk religions.

Where do we go when we die? This is a question that most people—spiritual or not—ask themselves at least once within their lifetime. In reality, this question is likely to never be answered, but is nevertheless an exciting area for study. Every culture, every religion and every individual person has some type of theory or belief on what happens to us after our bodies meet their final rest, and the ancient Greeks were no exception to this. The ancient Greek view on life after death is the most interesting to study, and belongs to perhaps one of the most influential belief systems to emerge within the ancient world. Rife with mythology and magic, the beliefs of the afterlife that were held by the ancient Greek people included the idea of a heaven vs. hell, reincarnation and the notion of ‘katabasis’, and were so powerful they paved the way for future religions’ ideologies.

Death is one of the only things guaranteed in life and most religions have meaningful and precise customs, traditions, and funerary practices revolving around death. From specific protocols for preparing the body to performing certain duties during the memorial service. The structure that religion provides around dealing with death offers guidance to grief stricken survivors and fulfills religious obligations. The two religions I chose to focus on for this paper is Buddhism more specifically the Mahayana sect of Buddhism and religion I the Mayan civilization. Mahayana Buddhism and Mayan religions have similar aspects in dealing with death and the funerary practices such as cremation.

Religion defines death by portraying ideas of legitimacy to life and, therefore, providing shelter and meaning to death. This essay will explore death through socio-historical lenses by identifying key death concepts in both Christianity and The people’s temple religions.

Individuals die and there is no afterlife, but their memory and ideals can live on in the works that they created and the people that they touched. Everyone leaves an impact in this world and it is what we do while we are alive that will determine what we become when we die. Every living individual is a conglomerate of the thousands of humans that have lived and died before them, passing their genes, values and ideals on. Perhaps when we look into each other we see not only ourselves, but our shared history, ancestry and experiences. This is the true essence of

Topic 9: Compare and contrast the views of death and afterlife in the myths. What do these views show us about the cultures?

​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.

One of the most ancient mystery yet unsolved is the question pertaining to death and the afterlife. This mystery is one of the fundamental studies in both field of philosophy and religion. Comparing those who believe in a god-existing religion against those who don’t, we often see many differences in the answers relating to death. In the contrary, the similar answers to theist and atheist are evident strongly in two great thinkers and their works. The focus will be on Socrates’ speech in the Apology by Plato setting in 399 BCE and De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius 300 years later.

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.