Belief is grounded on faith. You cannot see it but you know in your heart that it is there. This causes problems with the belief of the afterlife because, the uncertainty of what happens after death is the scariest thought in the universe. There is no concrete fact that there is a new life waiting for all who die. However, with belief in a religion this can cause hope for something greater and gives us a sort of rules in how we should live out the lives we have on earth. These rules obviously vary from the sense of karma by the Hindu traditions to good actions committed by Roman Catholics. For those who prefer skepticism, several theories about the afterlife have surfaced that have some aspects worth appeal, but others are quite disturbing. …show more content…
Strangely enough when I try to remember my early years I always get this memory of being in a priest’s hands and then getting submerged into a pool of water where I can see my parents from underneath. I remember being in pain going in and then coming out really calm or even happy. I then asked my parents about the event and they told me almost word for word what I remembered. They said that the really weird thing was I was crying under the water, but slowly as I came out I calmed down and smiled. This really freaked me out and made me realize that I have to be seeing this memory for a reason, but I shook it off as a coincidence. Then in my years of grade school I found out that it probably was not. I was not the most popular kid in school and I was bullied a lot. In the fourth grade however, everyone who I thought were my friends were not and they just used me to make fun of me and get a good laugh. I would come home every day and hear my mom cry in her room, but I never knew why. Halfway through the year I hear my mom on the phone, but this time I knew what it was about. She was talking to my grandmother about how my teachers asked her to test me for mental retardation. This caused me to be in a state of depression, in which I did not want to do anything or go to school for that matter. A month after this, while in church I looked to the cross in the middle of the room and asked God for help. I felt …show more content…
If someone was to ask me about the afterlife I would say there are three forms Heaven (happiness), Hell (suffering), and Purgatory (cleansing state). The reason I believe this is not simply because I was taught it, but because of the experience that I had with the divine as a child. However, being the skeptic that I am, I have come to realize the uncertainty of the afterlife as a man, and have found two theories in which one I find appealing and one very disturbing. The one I find appealing is David Eagleman’s theory of upon entering the afterlife you can ask the creator one question. This basically is the Catholic belief but with a twist in which God created the kingdom of heaven after realizing how many people wrong not only him, but the rest of the world. The one I found disturbing was Samuel Scheffler’s argument that when we die there is nothing to look forward too. This caused me to think about the nonexistence of my being which took me a good ten minutes to shake. Then there is the Hindu tradition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, in which good karma leads to a higher form of reincarnation, animals. Also bad karma can lead to a miserable reincarnation of the lower forms, such as bugs. This concept is untrue to me in the sense even if you commit good actions you still have a chance of picking a terrible new life. In
Each religion has its own idea of what will happen in the afterlife. In Buddhism, they believe that dying is apart of an ongoing cycle until the dead receive enlightenment. This cycle is called Samsara and by definition means an ongoing cycle of life and death until that person reaches enlightenment (heaven). There is a three stage cycle that occurs from the moment you die until you are reincarnated; This process is called The Three Bardo's. The first bardo is when the soul goes into a trance and often doesn't realize that they have passed away. People recall seeing a bright light once in this trance and if that person welcomes the light then they will not be reincarnated, but most people flee from this light. The second bardo begins when the person realizes they are dead. The deceased will see everything that they have done or throughout their life. The third bardo and final stage contains a longing for possessing someone. When they do posses someone the rebirth occurs and they are reincarnated as a living
Many religions and philosophies attempt to answer the question, what happens after a person dies? Some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, believe there is an afterlife. They believe that good and moral people enter Heaven or Paradise and that bad and immoral people go to Hell. Other religions and cultures believe that death is final, and that nothing happens after a person dies. Buddhism and Hinduism have different ideas about death.
First let's examine more specifically the belief of afterlife and how it impacts internalized beliefs of the soul. When people think of death, there is a sense of depression and sadness of this idea of “the end” to their lives. This in turn, causes an imbalance in their internal milieu, leading to anxiety and fear of death. To keep the homeostasis of the internal milieu, there is another force that must counterbalance this fear, by replacing it with comfort. This comfort is founded on the belief in “eternity” of the soul in an afterlife. Whereby, life of the soul continues to live beyond the death of the physical body, thus relieving the anxiety of death, and bringing back the homeostasis of the internal mil...
The afterlife of whatever is after death cannot harm a just and good man. It is only when a person has lived a life that is full of sins and evil does he/she find it rational to fear the unknown and death itself. A person must make a wager with the uncertainty of death. Either they are resolute with the idea that the uncertainty in life after death won 't affect the life they choose to life or they deal with a great deal of fear, knowing that the life they have choose brings in possible penalties in the events that proceed after
Several of the religions today have their own version of death or the afterlife. Ancient India created one of the oldest of the religions followed today, Hinduism. Hinduism belief about death centers around dharma, which means the person will be reincarnated in another form. Alongside dharma is the Law of Karma, it determines one’s physical state in the next life based on their deeds in their past lives.
Life after Death, Reincarnation, Resurrection and Immortality of the Soul Belief in life after death has taken many forms, some which are unique in particular religious belief systems, though; others can be found in more than one religion. ' For most religions, life after death is an article of faith. In Western religions, the belief is founded in scriptural evidence, but for all religions the belief in life after death is the same: life after death has been promised to humans by an all powerful'[1] There are many views of life after death in particular which have been much adhered to and much discussed by philosophers. This essay will attempt to put forward some of the key ideas and arguments for and against life after death. One view of life after death does have a venerable philosophical history.
The uncertainty of what lies ahead after we die has captured the human psych for ages and many forms of beliefs have been implemented throughout time and religions. Starting with the ancient religions in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, where there exists seven different levels of heaven and hell where individuals who died would be able to have a fair judgement of whether or not they deserved to be in a place of wondrous pleasures or torturous torment. Each level of heaven or hell designates the level of pleasure or torment an individual will encounter. This can also be said in most of the other major religions in the world, whether ancient, modern or future ones. The ancient Greek religion had different levels of heaven and hell with the exception
Christians ultimately believe in two places to go after death, Heaven where eternity is spent in a state that is beautiful beyond our ability to conceive, or Hell, where eternity is spent with Satan and his demons. All are tormented and tortured, in isolation from God, without any hope of mercy or relief (Robinson).
There are multiple views on death and the afterlife and each view is different depending on the religion or belief that someone practices. Some religions believe in a heaven but not a hell, some believe in both and others do not believe in either. The religions that are practiced today were created by our ancient ancestors who had the ability to think beyond themselves. Practicing a religion and having an idea of death and an afterlife back in ancient times laid a foundation on how religion is seen and practiced today. Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Hindu’s created the concept of death and life after death through what they believed and practiced in ancient times.
Different religions have provided belief structures that support the religious and social needs of practitioners. Rituals and sacred writings support the various religious interpretations of what death is and what it will be like in the afterlife. However, even with the differences in religious beliefs, there are similarities between many different religious groups regarding afterlife beliefs. One similarity among religious groups is the belief in an afterlife following physical death. Another similarity is the presence of "the two polar images of life after death - the abode of the righteous.
Death, and people's perception of it are a major part of many philosophies. It could be argued that the questions surrounding death and the afterlife form the basis of many philosophic concepts. To some philosophers, not only is the concept of death itself important, but also how people perceive it, and why they perceive it the way they do. Epicurus's claim that the soul is mortal, is an excellent explanation for why we should not fear death.
Not all religions which believe in reincarnation believe in an eventual eternal resting place for the soul, but sometimes the two believes intertwine. Many people who do not subscribe to any particular religion or belief system may still believe in reincarnation as an explanation to afterlife and origins of the soul or spirit. Reincarnation is simply the idea of the rebirth of a soul in a new body or entity. Reincarnation in many religions explains not only the questions concerning where the soul or consciousness moves on to after death but discusses origins of the soul and consciousness as well. The belief in reincarnation after death is seen in several religions, much like the belief of heaven and hell after death.
What is going to happen to us when we will die? Some people never considered what it could happen to them after life. For many people, death is a redoubtable event because they do not know what to expect after their death. However, other persons, such as religious people are conscious of what to expect after their death because of their beliefs. Each religion has different ideas and different ways of looking life. Death, therefore, is viewed by different religions in many ways. Although, different religions have a distinct conception of death, they all have something in common: they all give hope to people. Among all different religions in the world, four of the most common ones - Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, and Hindu- view death in different ways.