Life after death: An introduction

Immortality and Life after Death

Philosophy of Religion

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Information: This article gives a brief review of beliefs about what happens when we die. A version of this article was originally published on the website www.faithnet.org.uk.

Introduction

Picture of sun shining through tree branches

Belief in an afterlife is an important part of religious belief. In fact, one might say that making sure one goes to the right place (or is saved) is one of the main reasons someone joins a religion, or remains in one. Also, if someone believes God exists it is natural for them to assume that there is something after death (an after-life), or a place separate from this world where God dwells. Most faiths teach that a person has a body and a soul, and that when the body dies the soul will live on. Common ideas about what happens to the soul at death are that either it goes to another spiritual dimension (heaven, hell etc.), or is reborn into a new body to live again on the earth (reincarnation). The soul is also usually thought to be immortal (meaning it will never die).

Buddhists do not believe we have a soul (atman), and that we are impermanent realities. What they mean by this is that at every moment we are changing (anicca), and that if we look for something in us which does not change we will never find it.

Key Terms

Immortality of the Soul:

indestructible

Resurrection: The belief that at a certain point in the future (often called the Last Day or Day of Judgement), the dead will be raised to life. The idea of resurrection often carries with it the notion of people being restored to perfection (or what their body should have been when alive on earth, but was not for whatever reason).
Reincarnation: The idea that the soul of a person continues to be reborn into the world to live a new life, on the way to finding salvation. This is an idea particularly associated with Indian religion, and western faith-traditions influenced by them.

Buddhists believe in the idea of reincarnation, even though they do not believe we have a soul.

Some evidence for life after death

Holy Texts (E.g. The Bible, The Qur'an, The Bhagavad-Gita), teach that there is an afterlife.
Ghosts (aka Poltergeists) are said to haunt various places, and are believed to be the souls of those whose passage into the next life has been disrupted. Mediums are believed to be able to communicate with these spirits, and channel their messages to the living (often in séances).

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is an attempt to receive messages from the dead, using electronic means such as tape and video recorders.

Picture of car tunnel with light at the end

A Near Death Experience (NDE) is often cited as evidence for the existence of an afterlife. Those claiming to have had an NDE often report the sensation of floating away from their body towards a bright light, where they meet a religious figure or a spiritual being. This is often believed to be the moment when a person is going to enter heaven (or paradise). Some also claim that during a NDE they have experienced the moment when they nearly entered hell (although this is not as common).
Some use rational arguments to suggest that there must be an afterlife. For example, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that people needed to believe there was a source of Goodness inspiring people to do good things (God), and that they had a soul, if they were to feel there was any purpose in doing good (i.e. that they would be judged and held accountable for their actions by God). For Kant, there needed to be an afterlife if the world was to make moral sense.

Objections to belief in life after death (and possible answers)

Many religions teach different things about what an afterlife may be like, and which God (or gods) may be there. So their teachings cannot be true!

The fact that there are many different versions of what a possible afterlife might be like, does not mean that all accounts in every religion are wrong. One account may be right, the problem is working out which one.

Science rejects belief in an afterlife, because we cannot know about things outside our realm of (testable) experience. People believe an afterlife exists by faith, but ultimately they cannot prove this belief to be true.

If there is an afterlife then one day we will be in it (or experience it). So the belief in an afterlife would still be true, using the 'scientific method'.

NDE's can be explained by the brain being starved of oxygen (causing a tunneling effect), and so producing hallucinations (which explain the feeling of leaving your body).

Some people who claim to be atheists (such as A. J. Ayer), had NDE's despite not believing in God, or even the notion of an afterlife. Some people have also had NDE's where they saw religious figures they did not believe in (for more on this see www.near-death.com).

Ghosts and poltergeists are figments of people's imaginations. Mediums who claim to channel the dead are frauds.

The world famous escapologist Harry Houdini enjoyed exposing the false claims of mediums. He said that when he died he would prove if an afterlife existed, by speaking through a medium. Every year at Halloween people gather to hear him, but as yet no voice has ever been heard (for more on this see The Houdini Séance).

Something to discuss: The soul is immaterial (as opposed to the body which is material (i.e. made of matter)). Something which is immaterial has no physical substance. Things which have no physical substance do not exist. Therefore the soul does not exist, and there is nothing in us which lives forever.

Further information