The Afterlife

Reincarnation

Resurrection

Heaven

Hell

Buddhism

Hinduism

Secular

There are 3 concepts they teach, Anatta (soullessness), Annica, Dukka (life is unsatisfactory as it involves suffering) claims the soul is not yours and it wants to escape Samsara to Nirvana

Snakes and ladders - agrees with Karma of Buddhism.

Stevenson spent the majority of his life researching this.

Looked at first hand accounts of when people remember things from their previous lives.

He particularly looked at children e.g. remembered where they had died in the war.

Almeeder supports this and claims that if 100 people fell off a building and 5 survived, you've have to believed this 5% even if its the minority because its still valid.

  • Links to John Hick's replica theory
  • Resurrection is when the body and soul reunite after death. Jesus is the only known person to beresurrected.
  • On Judgement day, our souls will be reunited with our bodies and we will walk the earth (which will be heaven)
  • In the Bible it claims Jesus resurrected people but we don't know if they were actually dead, they could have just been in a coma
  • Jesus was unrecognizable to begin with (his spiritual body) because an aura of goodness had been taken.
  • Popular in Christianity, Islam Modern Judaism
  • Hell is a place of, eternal suffering with Lucifer, darkness, fire, unhappiness and you can never leave
  • It was created by God to scare people into behaving well
  • Sheep and Goats, the sheep go to heaven and the goats go to Hell.
  • Popular in Christianity, Islam and modern Judaism
  • Place of no suffering or pain, there are angles and the golden gates, beatific vision and eternal happiness.
  • Roman Catholics believe you can't go here unless you go to purgatory first to cleanse your sin because no one if perfect

Hick: Universal salvation so everyone can go

Augustine: Have to be baptized to have the opportunity to go

Jehovah Witnesses say there are limited places

The ultimate goal is to reach 'Nirvana' - a state of being we get to when we have overcome craving. We reach Nirvana when we reach a full understanding of the meaning of life.

Buddhism claims we are all trapped on the wheel of life (use it like a mirror) - we are reborn many times to give us the opportunity to reach Nirvana, a belief in the cycle of Karma and rebirth.

Buddhists argue that the person who comes back is neither the same nor different giving the example of a row of candles, as one burns down it is used to light the next and your karma decides where in the Wheel of Life you come back in

Through sustained meditation, it is possible to control the mind to the extent that it is no longer distracted. The Dalai Luma says that when he dies he will not choose to reborn in Tibet because its under Chinese rule so hard to be a Buddhist.

Whilst most people argue you cannot remember past lives, Buddhist do hold that many people can. They argue 'would you deny the existence of radio waves simply because one cannot see them inside a radio set?

Reincarnation is key to Hindu beliefs

Each person has an essential self (known as the atman) The atman holds the persons true nature.

Through the cycle of samsara (birth and rebirth) eventually leads to the union of the atman and Brahman so it is not necessary for the atman to continue in the cycle of samsara - This liberation is known as Moksha.

This process is controlled by the laws of Karma, a good action will bring about a good re-birth and bad karma will bring about a bad re-birth and undeserved karmic action is put down to their past lives

Richard Dawkins

Openly rejects the idea of any afterlife, referring to is as the 'delusional next world'.

Religion offers comfort because of their fear of death

He questioned what the after life even was, is it spiritual?

There is no soul, we are the sum total of our genes

Our soul doesn't continue after death, it is only our DNA that does

Dawkins looks at the idea of consciousness and the idea of individuality we all feel.

The role of the body is to act as a 'survival machine' for our genes.

He argues that human consciousness gives a greater advantage of survival which is why we have developed it.