Life after death masterclass

Reincarnation (Hinduism) Karma (determines what we are reincarnated as) Jiva Moksha Brahman Cyclical Nirvana Samsara 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”

Rebirth (Buddhism) Anatta (no soul) Anicca-everything is temporary and impermanent Dukkha all existence is vulnerable to evil and imperfect Nama rupa- feeling, perception, moral will and consciousness Vinnana-non-conscious psychic element Karma-volitional action Samsara-endless rounds of life and death

Resurrection Corinthians seed analogy New heavenly spiritual body for eternity in heaven/hell St. Augustine postulated that on judgment day every single atom of a person would be resurrected. Thomas Aquinas believed life required both a body and a soul and that the soul animated the body-gave it life, he called this anima. John Hick’s replica theory

Immortality of the soul Plato Theory of forms Doctrine of recollection Like from like Slave boy/geometry Descartes Mind/body distinction:body is corporeal has movement and extension mind is non-corporeal and has no movement or extension. Interacts at the pineal gland What kills the body (changing its size or shape) will not necessarily kill the mind

Immortality of the soul Kant Summum bonum Moral argument

Compare and contrast (differences and similarities) Linear vs. Cyclical view of life Monist or dualist Where do we go when we die? What determines where we go when we die? Soul or no soul?

Key to answering the question is deciding what constitutes life after death? Bernard Williams argues that a person must have spatio-temporal continuity, i.e. they exist within time and their life follows its passage.

John Hick responds to this with his ‘replica theory’, arguing that if God replicated you and then you re-appeared elsewhere with the same mind/body etc. this could count as life after death.

A logical positivist such as A. J A logical positivist such as A. J. Ayer would argue that life after death is meaningless as it is not ‘empirically verifiable.’ John Hick responds to this using his ‘eschatological verification’ concept: whereby the after life can be ‘empirically verified at the end of our lives and so would be meaningful at this point.

A Wittgensteinian approach would argue that anything outside of our universe, such as heaven and hell, would not conform to our laws of logic and is therefore in the mystical and beyond our understanding.

D. Z. Phillips Religious language about life after death is actually about morality not immortality, it is about living a moral spiritual life not about living another life in heaven or hell. Backed up by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew when he replied to the rich young ruler when he asked what he needed to do to gain ‘eternal life’ “see all you have and give to the poor”. Religious language relating to life after death is about achieving a certain quality of life (godliness) not an extra quantity of life.

Evidence of reincarnation/rebirth Past life memories Regression under hypnosis Child geniuses