Afterlife

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The afterlife (or life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual, experiential, or ghost-like, beyond this world, or after death. Current widely held positions in regard to life after death, and conceptions of the potential nature of afterlife, include:

Contents 1 The afterlife in different metaphysical models 2 Afterlife in modern science 2.1 Cryonics 2.2 Science Fiction 3 History of afterlife beliefs 3.1 ca 1500 BC: Egyptian 3.2 ca 1200 BC: Zoroastrian 3.3 ca 800 BC: Hindu 3.4 ca 800 BC: Jewish 3.5 ca 700 BC: Greek 3.6 ca 400 BC: Greek 3.7 ca 200 BC: Jewish 3.8 ca 100 BC: Jewish 3.9 ca 100 AD: Christian 3.10 ca 200 AD: Christian 3.11 ca 400 AD: Roman Catholic 3.12 ca 600 AD: Roman Catholic 3.13 ca 900 AD: Zoroastrian 3.14 ca 1100 AD: Roman Catholic 3.15 ca 1200 AD: Jewish 3.16 ca 1200 AD: Norse 3.17 ca 1300 AD: Jewish 3.18 ca 1500 AD: Protestant 3.19 ca 1700 AD: Swedenborg and the Enlightenment 3.20 ca 1800 AD to present 3.21 1832 AD: Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) 3.22 1918 AD: Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) 3.23 1945 AD: Christian fiction 4 Current religious beliefs about life after death 4.1 Afterlife as reward or punishment 4.2 Abrahamic religions 4.3 Salvation, faith, and merit 4.4 The dead as angels in heaven 4.5 Universalism 4.6 Jehovah's Witnesses 4.7 Deists 4.8 Punishment, retribution, and deterrence 4.9 Afterlife as reincarnation 5 Other Beliefs 6 See also 7 External links 8 References 9 Further reading

[edit] The afterlife in different metaphysical models

Creationists and the religious generally believe that there is such a thing as life after death.

Atheists generally believe that there is not.

Agnostics generally hold the position that like the existence of God, the existence of supernatural phenomena, such as souls or life after death, is unverifiable and therefore unknowable.

Some philosophies (i.e.empiricism, posthumanism, and Humanism) generally conclude or hold that there is not.

[edit] Afterlife in modern science

Modern science describes the universe and human beings without reference to a soul or to an afterlife. Scientific method offers few tools for investigating the concepts. However, some investigation has occurred into the biological and experiential aspects of death and near-death experiences.

Psychology and cognitive science attempt to explain human behavior solely in terms of phenomena of the physical brain, and either do not require the presence of a non-brain "soul" or "spirit" that might be expected to continue a separate existence after the death of the brain, or rule it out a priori. However, the nature of consciousness and sentience itself is a subject of ongoing debate. Is consciousness a sole result of the specific configuration of matter of a living brain, or do some forms of consciousness or experience remain after the brain has died? If the mind and the brain are not completely interdependent, then it is not certain that the subjective experience of a being's consciousness ends at the time of death, which means that scientific biology and psychology may not necessarily rule out theories involving a soul or existence after death. One new aspect of the debate is the possibility of creating an artificial intelligence, raising new questions about what it means to be alive, conscious, dead, and resurrected.

[edit] Cryonics

Main article: Cryonics

In the face of the absence of knowledge concerning life after death, science is constrained to studying, improving, and preserving life. Death is therefore combatted directly, by developing technologies to delay or get around it. While medicine tries to prevent death by treating the causes of it, and while life extension tries to delay death by promoting youth and vigor, another technology seeks to get around death by suspending it...

Cryonics (often mistakenly called "cryogenics") is the practice of cryopreserving humans or animals that can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine until resuscitation may be possible in the future. The largest current practitioners are two member-owned, non-profit organizations, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, with 74 cryopreserved patients and the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan with 75.

Resuscitation after being cryonically preserved, if it ever becomes successfully performed, would be science's version of life after death.

Unfortunately, the process is not currently reversible. Cryonics can only be legally performed on humans after clinical death, and a legal determination that further medical care is not appropriate (legal death). The rationale for cryonics is that the process may be reversible in the future if performed soon enough, and that cryopreserved people may not really be dead by the standards of future medicine (see information theoretic death).

[edit] Science Fiction

There are many books and science fiction writers that dream up an increasing amount of theories about death. Some examples are the idea that this is all just a dream, or some alien experiment that we will wake up from. The Matrix movies made the idea of a false notion of being alive very popular. Star Trek also made the hologram deck idea popular and a possible cause of all that we sense, think, and feel. Notions of time travellers that can move from one universe to the next have also become popular on television and in movies. The idea that the human body can be cloned forever, and that one will never die in the future is also a common science fiction theme. Some science fiction deals with memories being erased or implanted and various bodies can have the same illusionary and/or true memories downloaded. Cryonics is explored in science fiction by portraying what the world and life may be like in the future once we have effective suspended animation technologies.

[edit] History of afterlife beliefs

[edit] ca 1500 BC: Egyptian

Arriving at one's reward in afterlife is a demanding ordeal, requiring a sin-free heart and the spells, passwords, and formulas of the Book of the Dead. One's heart is weighed against the feather of truth and justice (the Goddess Maat). If the heart is lighter than the feather then they may pass on, if it is heavier Ammut will devour them.

The afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion. Egyptians believed that being mummified was the only way to have an afterlife. Without it, you would not have one. The believer had to act well and know the rituals explained in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. If the corpse had been properly embalmed and entombed in a mastaba, the defunct would relive in the Fields of Yalu and accompany the Sun god on its daily ride. If, during the psychomachia, the souls of the defunct were found faulty, the demon Ammit would eat them. In addition to being virtuous, however, one also had to know numerous passwords, spells, and formulas to navigate the afterlife successfully. When the body died, its ka went to the kingdom of dead. Because of all the dangers, the book of the dead was placed in the tomb. While the body was in the fields of Yalu, Osiris demanded work as payback for protection he provided. Statues were placed in the tombs to serve as substitutes for the deceased.

[edit] ca 1200 BC: Zoroastrian

Zoroaster teaches that the dead will be resurrected and purified to live in a perfected material world at the end of time.

[edit] ca 800 BC: Hindu

The Upanishads describe reincarnation, or samsara.

[edit] ca 800 BC: Jewish

Writing that will later be incorporated into the Hebrew Bible names sheol as the afterlife, a gloomy place where the unrighteous are destined to go after death. The Book of Numbers identifies sheol as literally underground (Numbers 16:31-33), in the Biblical account of the destruction of the rebellious Korah and his followers.

[edit] ca 700 BC: Greek

In the Odyssey, Homer refers to the dead as "burnt-out wraiths." An afterlife of eternal bliss exists in Elysium, but it's reserved for Zeus's mortal descendants.

[edit] ca 400 BC: Greek

In his Myth of Er, Plato describes souls being judged immediately after death and sent either to the heavens for a reward or underground for punishment. After their respective rewards have been enjoyed or suffered, the souls reincarnate.

[edit] ca 200 BC: Jewish

The Book of Enoch describes sheol as divided into four compartments for four types of the dead: the faithful saints who await resurrection in Paradise, the merely virtuous who await their reward, the wicked who await punishment, and the wicked who have already been punished and will not be resurrected on Judgment Day.^[1] It should be noted that the Book of Enoch is considered apocryphal by most denominations of Christianity and all denominations of Judaism, and should be accorded little, if any weight.

[edit] ca 100 BC: Jewish

The book of 2 Maccabees gives a clear account of the dead awaiting a future resurrection and judgment, plus prayers and offerings for the dead to remove the burden of sin.

[edit] ca 100 AD: Christian

Jesus and the New Testament writers of the Bible books mention notions of an afterlife and resurrection that involve ideas like heaven and hell. The author of Luke recounts the story of Lazarus and the rich man, which shows people in Hades awaiting the resurrection either in comfort or torment. The author of the Book of Revelation writes about God and the angels versus Satan and demons in an epic battle at the end of times when all souls are judged. There is mention of ghostly bodies of past prophets, and the transfiguration.

[edit] ca 200 AD: Christian

Hippolytus of Rome describes hades, where the elect are kept in the bosom of Abraham and the condemned are tormented with fire. Here souls await their fate on Judgment Day.

[edit] ca 400 AD: Roman Catholic

Saint Augustine counters Pelagius, arguing that original sin means that unbaptized infants go to hell (albeit with less suffering than adults experience).

[edit] ca 600 AD: Roman Catholic

Pope Gregory I, Bishop of Rome, articulates the concept that the saved suffer purification after death. This concept would later be called purgatory and accepted as dogma.

[edit] ca 900 AD: Zoroastrian

The Pahlavi text Dadestan-i Denig ("Religious Decisions") describes the particular judgment of the soul three days after death, with each soul sent to heaven, hell, or a neutral place (hamistagan) to await Judgment Day..

[edit] ca 1100 AD: Roman Catholic

The term purgatorium is first used to describe a state of suffering and purification of the saved after death.

[edit] ca 1200 AD: Jewish

Maimonides describes the Olam Haba ("World to Come") in spiritual terms, relegating the prophesied physical resurrection to the status of a future miracle, unrelated to the afterlife or the Messianic era.

[edit] ca 1200 AD: Norse

The Prose Edda describes Hel as an unpleasant abode for those unworthy of Valhalla, which is reserved for chosen warriors who die in battle.

[edit] ca 1300 AD: Jewish

The Zohar describes Gehenna not as a place of punishment for the wicked but as a place of spiritual purification for the souls of almost all mortals.[1]

[edit] ca 1500 AD: Protestant

Martin Luther denounces the doctrine of particular judgment as contrary to the Bible, professing instead the belief that the soul sleeps until Judgment Day. John Calvin denounces Luther's doctrine, writing instead that the souls of the elect rest in blessedness while awaiting the resurrection of the dead.

[edit] ca 1700 AD: Swedenborg and the Enlightenment

During the Age of Enlightenment, theologians and philosophers presented various philosophies and beliefs. A notable example is Emanuel Swedenborg who wrote some 18 theological works which describe in detail the nature of the afterlife according to his claimed spiritual experiences, the most famous of which is Heaven and Hell.

[edit] ca 1800 AD to present

Many New Age and Science Fiction beliefs become more popular. The variety of beliefs is greatly increased and continues to change, or becomes more eclectic by mixing up beliefs of the past.

[edit] 1832 AD: Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)

Revelation to Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon concerning the Three Degrees of glory: Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76.

[edit] 1918 AD: Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)

President Joseph F. Smith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presents an elaborate vision of the Afterlife. It is revealed as the scene of an intense Missionary effort by righteous spirits to redeem those still in darkness - a permanent, ongoing Harrowing of Hell.

[edit] 1945 AD: Christian fiction

C. S. Lewis writes The Great Divorce. In this work of fiction, spirits are continually escaping from Hell to Heaven.

[edit] Current religious beliefs about life after death

[edit] Afterlife as reward or punishment

Many religious traditions have held that the afterlife will resolve justice by assigning rewards and punishments to people according to how they lived their lives. This belief can be found throughout the ancient world, especially in Greek and Roman religion, as well as in various Asian religions. To the extent that the afterlife is a form of justice, it is usually restricted to humans, as other animals are not held responsible for their actions.

[edit] Abrahamic religions

In the monotheistic traditions of Judaism (see Jewish views of the afterlife), most sects of Christianity, and Islam, human souls spend eternity in a place of happiness or torment, such as heaven, hell, or limbo (in Islam, Mizan, the instrument used by Allah to compare the things of good and bad in the afterlife by someone, compares everything a person has done, and it is believed limbo was does not exist according to the Quran) . (in Judaism, "eternity" is not applicable to heaven, hell or limbo doesn't exist, and time spent in "purgatory" is definitely not eternal. Purgatory is not always entered. If one was baptised and then died before committing any sin then one would go directly to heaven.

[edit] Salvation, faith, and merit

Most Christians deny that entry into Heaven can be properly earned, rather it is a gift that is solely God's to give through his unmerited grace. This belief follows the theology of St. Paul: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. The Augustinian, Thomist, Lutheran, and Calvinist theological traditions all emphasize the necessity of God's undeserved grace for salvation, and reject so-called Pelagianism, which would make man earn salvation through good works. Not all Christian sects accept this doctrine, leading many controversies on grace and free will, and the idea of predestination. In particular, the belief that heaven is a reward for good behavior is a common folk belief in Christian societies, even among members of churches which reject that belief.

[edit] The dead as angels in heaven

In the informal folk beliefs of many Christians, the souls of virtuous people ascend to Heaven and are converted into angels. More formal Christian theology makes a sharp distinction between angels, who were created by God before the creation of humanity, and saints, who are virtuous people who have received immortality from the grace of God.

The Sufi mystic Rumi beliefs in different development steps of the soul. The souls of virtuous people become angels and later they will return to God.

[edit] Universalism

Some sects, such as the Universalists, believe in universalism which holds that all will eventually be rewarded regardless of what they have done or believed. On that note, perhaps it is that on the other side of life, in a space we would call death, it would be more that likely that we know everything instantaneously, which would soon follow by boredom. Perhaps it is because we would be bored in knowing everything that we come to here in life and take the present form of humanity, unknowing and curious, yet knowing that it is impossible to know everything without wondering "Why is the Universe Eternal" and failing to realize that it is Eternal to keep us Entertained with Possibility.

[edit] Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses interpret Ecclesiastes 9:5 as precluding an afterlife:

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

They believe that following Armageddon a resurrection in the flesh^[2] to an Edenic Earth^[3] will be rewarded to both righteous and unrighteous(but not wicked) dead and that eternal death (non-existence) is the punishment for sin lacking repentance after Armageddon. Although those who are not dead when Armageddon occurs will be judged and possibly slain during Armageddon because of their potential regretless sins. They believe that death is the price for sinning (that is why most dead will be resurrected - they paid the price already).^[4][5]

[edit] Deists

During the European Enlightenment, many deist freethinkers held that belief in an afterlife with reward and punishment was a necessity of reason and good moral order.

[edit] Punishment, retribution, and deterrence

Over the centuries, concepts related to punishment have changed, and so have attitudes about punishment in the afterlife. Earlier views of punishment as retribution have largely given way to a modern view of punishment as properly serving to deter or rehabilitate. (See for example punishment; Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria; Jeremy Bentham; and Michel Foucault) At the same time, views of punishment in the afterlife have softened. For example, Thomas Aquinas and Jonathan Edwards wrote that the saved in heaven will delight in the suffering of the damned. Hell, however, doesn't fit modern, humanitarian concepts of punishment because it can't deter the unbeliever nor rehabilitate the damned. Believers have come to downplay the punishment of hell. Universalists teach that salvation is for all. Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists teach that sinners are destroyed rather than tortured forever. Mormons believe that there are three possible degrees of glory in the afterlife, none of which are hellish. In the 1990s, the Catechism of the Catholic Church defined hell not as punishment imposed on the sinner but rather as the sinner's "self-exclusion" from God.

[edit] Afterlife as reincarnation

Another afterlife concept which is found among Hindus, Rosicrucians, Spiritists, and Wicca is reincarnation, as evolving humans life after life in the physical world, that is, acquiring a superior grade of consciousness and altruism by means of successive reincarnations. This succession is conceived to lead toward an eventual liberation or spiritual rebirth as spiritual beings. However, some practitioners of eastern religions follow a different concept called metempsychosis which purposes that human beings can transmigrate into animals, vegetables or even minerals^{[citation needed]}. One consequence of the Hindu and Spiritist beliefs is that our current lives are also an afterlife. According to those beliefs events in our current life are consequences of actions taken in previous lives, or Karma.

Buddhists, however, believe that rebirth takes place without a self (similar to soul) and that the process of rebirth is simply a continuation of the previous life. The process of being reborn as any other being is based on your karma. And from a Buddhist perspective, the current life is actually a continuation of the past life.

In Tibetan Buddhism the Tibetan Book of the Dead explains the intermediate state of humans between decease and reincarnation. The deceased will find the bright light of wisdom, which shows a straightforward path to move upward and leave the cycle of reincarnation. There are various reasons why deceased not follow that light. Some had no briefing about the intermediate state in the former life. Others only used to follow their basic instincts like animals. And some have fear, which results from foul deeds in the former life or from insistent haughtiness. In the intermediate state the awareness is very flexible, so it is important to be virtuous, adopt a positive attitude and avoid negative ideas. Ideas which are rising from subconsciousness can cause extreme tempers and cowing visions. In this situation they have to understand, that these manifestations are just reflections of the inner thoughts. No one can really hurt them, because they have no more material body. The deceased get help from different Buddhas who show them the path to the bright light. The ones who do not follow the path after all will get hints for a better reincarnation. They have to release the things and beings on which or whom they still hang from the life before. It is recommended to choose a family where the parents trust in the Dharma and to reincarnate with the will to care for the welfare of all beings.

Rosicrucians,^[6] in the same way of those who have had near-death experiences, speak of a life review period occurring immediately after death and before entering the afterlife's planes of existence (before the silver cord is broken), followed by a judgment, more akin to a Final Review or End Report over one's life.^[7]

Some Neopagans believe in personal reincarnation, whereas some believe that the energy of one's soul reintegrates with a continuum of such energy which is recycled into other living things as they are born.^{[citation needed]}

Sikhs also believe in reincarnation. They believe that the soul belongs to the spiritual universe which has its origins in God. It is like a see-saw, the amount of good done in life will store up blessings, thus uniting with God. A soul may need to live many lives before it is one with God.

[edit] Other Beliefs

There are many different beliefs about what is after death, and even more recently due to the rise and influence of many more religious sects, cults, and the new age movement. A few cults have claimed that aliens in spaceships will take us away once we are dead. Others claim that aliens are breeding us for experiments, or performing tests on us. Other speculate that we could be time travelers, or forever repeating in an eternal cycling of universes. Nietzsche wrote about the idea of the eternal return, where we will repeat forever all of our worst and best actions. Other beliefs today involve past life regressions, and reincarnation in ever more complicated ways. For example, one could simply be waking up from dreams within dreams, and never awakening into the real body for a very long time. There is the idea that this is all an illusion, or pure energy, and that we create our own reality, or move to parallel universes. Some believe that we manifest reality based on what we expect or unconsciously wish. Still others wonder if there is a best way to describe what happens after death.

[edit] See also

Akhirah Atheism Belief Cognitivism Cryonics Death Doomsday Electronic voice phenomenon Elysium Empiricism Enlightenment Epistemology Eschatology Eternity Exaltation (Mormonism)

Ghosts Happiness Harrowing of Hell Haunting Health Heaven Hell Humanism (life stance) Immortality Jewish eschatology Life Life extension Logical positivism Mictlan Near-death experience

Omega point Out-of-body experience Pre-Birth communication Preventive medicine Reincarnation Salvation Scientific method Sheol Soul Suspended animation Truth Undead Valhalla Verification

Concepts of Heaven
Christian	Kingdom of God | Garden of Eden · Paradise | New Jerusalem | Pearly gates
Jewish	Gan Eden | Olam Haba
Islamic	Jannah | Houri | Sidrat al-Muntaha
Mormon	Celestial Kingdom | Spirit world
Ancient Greek	Elysium | Empyrean | Hesperides
Celtic	Annwn | Tír na nÓg | Mag Mell
Norse	Valhalla | Asgard
Indo-European	Paradise | Svarga | Aaru | The Summerland | Myth of Er | Fortunate Isles
Related concepts	Nirvana | Millennialism | Utopianism | Golden Age | Arcadia | The guf | Well of souls

[edit] External links

• Biblical Death is Defined as Sleep (online articles/audio/video)
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Death and Immortality
• A Tibetian Buddhist View of the Afterlife
• Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife
• Common problems with the concept of Heaven
• Rosicrucians: The Light Beyond Death, pdf file, compilation, 2001
• Afterlife at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• VERITAS Research Program
• The Destiny of the Soul: A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, available at Project Gutenberg. (Extensive 1878 text by William Rounseville Alger)
• Many existing experiences of the Afterlife
• Eternal Perspectives, articles about eternity

[edit] References

v • d • e Death and related topics
In medicine	Autopsy · Brain death · Clinical death · Euthanasia · Legal death · Persistent vegetative state · Terminal illness
Lists	Causes of death by rate · People by cause of death
Mortality	Immortality · Infant mortality · Maternal death · Mortality rate
After death	Afterlife · Burial · Cremation · Funeral · Grief · Mourning
Other	Fascination with death · Martyrdom · Sacrifices (Human · Animal) · Suicide · War

[edit] Further reading

Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion by Alan F. Segal, Doubleday, 2004

Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul by John J. McGraw, Aegis Press, 2004