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Intimations on immortality
The concept of immortality of the soul
The concept of immortality of the soul
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I believe that literal and spiritual immortality are impossible but genetic, memorial, and historical are achievable. In my opinion, literal immortality is impossible from a medical view. This could never happen because the body’s’ organs and muscles would wear out and stop working, for example the heart is a muscle and would eventually stop working over time. Eventually the lubrication in the joints would dry out and moving would be unbearably painful. In addition, the skin would lose elasticity. I also do not believe in spiritual immortality because I do not believe that someone could live forever in heaven.
My education has greatly influenced by beliefs on immortality. My education has always been focused on more science than religious views, mainly because schools are not allowed to discuss religious subjects. I was told about evolution in elementary and because I had no religious background that was the first explanation of what would happen after I died.
My mom went to church when she was younger because her parents made her and my dad went because he was the preachers’ s...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr. Wharton removed a sample of her cervix tumor and a sample of her healthy cervix tissue and gave this tissue to dr. George Gey, who had been trying to grow cells in his lab for years. In the meantime that Henrietta was recovering from her first treatment with radium, her cells were growing in George Gey’s lab. This all happened without the permission and the informing of Henrietta Lacks. The cells started growing in a unbelievable fast way, they doubled every 24 hours, Henrietta’s cells didn’t seem to stop growing. Henrietta’s cancer cell grew twenty times as fast as her normal healthy cells, which eventually also died a couple of days after they started growing. The first immortal human cells were grown, which was a big breakthrough in science. The HeLa cells were spread throughout the scientific world. They were used for major breakthroughs in science, for example the developing of the polio vaccine. The HeLa-cells caused a revolution in the scientific world, while Henrietta Lacks, who died Octob...
Discussion of D.Z. Phillips Conception of Immortality In his book 'Death and Immortality', D Z Phillips starts by asking the question: does belief in immortality rest on a mistake? The first two chapters are negative in the sense that they examine traditional philosophical, as well as common sense, conceptions of what immortality means. Phillips argues that philosophical analyses centred on the notion of immortality have generally been constructed around certain essential presuppositions: presuppositions that assume some form of continuation of personal identity after death. One cannot logically deny that, by definition, death entails the end of bodily existence, so one, it seems, is logically drawn to the notion that survival after death entails the survival of some kind of non-bodily identity - the soul. In the last two chapters Phillips disputes this presupposition, claiming that a perfectly valid conception of immortality can be maintained without resorting to any form of dualism.
Immortality a fantasy that the human civilization has for centuries fantasied with. The ideas of an eternal life, legends and myths have been passed down from generation to generation of figures who have achieved this obscure goal. Let’s ask ourselves; in essence what really determines immortality? It is clear that the human body will no matter what have a predetermined end from dust to dust. We have to stop and re-think the true meaning of the word immortality. Immortals are those who are for always remembered throughout history for their accomplishments throughout their mortal life. Bernhard Riemann is one of these figures who achieved greatness throughout his life and as long as math is vital to all of us and immortal he will be.
For my final project I chose to compare two works of art from ancient Mesopotamia. A visual work of art and a literary one. The visual work of art I chose was the Statuettes of Worshipers which were created around 2900 to 2350 BCE at the Square Temple at Eshnunna, a city in ancient Mesopotamia. The literary artwork I have chosen is the Epic of Gilgamesh written roughly around 2800 BCE by author or authors unknown. It was set in Uruk, another city in ancient Mesopotamia. Both of these works of art share a common theme; the theme of immortality. It is my hopes that within this paper I can accurately show how each of these works of art express this theme, and how it relates to modern society.
The idea of “Outliving Oneself” depends on the concepts of trauma and most importantly the self, in a situation where said trauma obliterates the self for an indefinite amount of time. Brison presents the self in three interwoven parts: the embodied self, the self as narrative, and the autonomous self. Any of these parts of self depend largely on the individual’s society, culture, and interactions with other people. The embodied self represents the self in conjunction with the physical body, which our society separates from the self, to intimate a soul or personality, and also assigns genders to certain traits. Trauma dissolves this separation of body and mind because violence brings the traumatized to face their own mortality. They have to see their body as an object because their assailant treats it as an object. Trauma is so damaging because the self cannot exert any power whatsoever; the interaction between the assailant and the victim, essentially a social situation, robs the victim of a voice, because the assailant ignores it, a personality, because it is of no consequence to the assailant, and a self, because the assailant uses the body as an object, and the body plays a more central role in the interaction than the self does. Brison quotes Cathy Winkler in saying a rape is a “social murder,” because the rapist’s part in the interaction defines the victim through their actions that take away the victim’s sense of self. Any control that the victim felt over their body gets taken from them by the rapist. The consequences of this trauma include a loss of control over physiological functions, such as emotion and incapacitation from anxiety; the body and mind are out of balance, which leads the victim to be stigmatized by societ...
Longevity is a foreign word when it comes to the love lives of young socialites. Family obligations, careers, and scandals often get in the way of long lasting relationships. It is almost a rule. The good thing for Olivia Palermo and Johannes Huebl is that every rule has at least one exception. They met in St. Bart’s in 2008 and have been going strong every since. The location became so special that they return there every year, and even became the spot of a very important part of their relationship. More on that in a little bit.
In, Gilgamesh, the quest for immortality is important in order for Gilgamesh to cheat death, after his one and only best friend’s quick fatal fall to illness. Gilgamesh being two-thirds God and one-third human has many great obstacles to overcome, especially with the Gods. The search for immortality and overall self may be a great accomplishment for Gilgamesh to overcome.
Immortality and Myth in The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton’s books are considered, by some, merely popular fiction of her time. But we must be careful not to equate popularity with the value of the fiction; i.e., we must not assume that if her books are popular, they are also primitive. Compared to the works of her contemporary and friend, Henry James, whose books may seem complex and sometimes bewildering, Wharton’s The Age of Innocence appears to be a simplistic, gossipy commentary of New York society during the last decade of the 19th century*. Instead, it is one man’s struggle with the questions of mortality and immortality.
hilosophers have contemplated over the subject of immortality. They question if the soul, particularly, is immortal. Although Plato writes the Meno, it is supposed to be a copy of what Socrates personally encountered and “taught” in his lifetime. Even though the Meno is originally about the search for the meaning of virtue, one perspective on the immortality of the soul is introduced to us by Socrates in that play. Therefore, what Socrates thought about the immortality of the soul in the Meno is the following: “If the truth about reality is always in our soul, the soul would be immortal so that you should always confidently try to seek out and recollect what you do not know at present” (Plato, 86b) In the beginning, Meno challenges Socrates
While all of these are accurate interpretations to some extent none of them encompass all of what immortality really is. The reason for this is simple; there is no true definition or guideline by which to follow. Immortality means something different to each and every person on this earth. Down through the ages people have been immortalized by deeds, words, songs, poetry, and a number of other endeavors, but some have always sought the elusive Philosopher's Stone; the answer to true immortality
With his 1955 novel Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov invents a narrator by the name of Humbert Humbert who is both an exquisite wordsmith and an obsessive pedophile. The novel serves as the canvas upon which Humbert Humbert will paint a story of love, lust, and death for the reader. His confession is beautiful and worthy of artistic appreciation, so the fact that it centers on the subject of pedophilia leaves the reader conflicted by the close of the novel. Humbert Humbert frequently identifies himself as an artist and with his confession he hopes “to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets” (Nabokov, Lolita 134). Immortalizing the fleeting beauty and enchanting qualities of these preteen girls is Humbert Humbert’s artistic mission
The loss of a loved one is an emotional and personal experience, and everyone grieves in their own way. Before the healing process can begin, the deceased must be laid to rest and this is usually accomplished with a funeral service. Many people choose a piece to be read at these ceremonies, such as W.H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” and Mary Elizabeth Frye’s “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep.” It is quite thought-provoking to compare the poems, since the subject matter is the same, however each of these works views death from a different perspective, one negative and the other positive.
The desire for everlasting life or immortality has been the first and the oldest quest of mankind. At the beginning of time, man was designed to live forever. When God created Adam, he created him to dwell on the earth and to fill it with his offspring’s. At no time was he told that this was a temporary arrangement. He was to live forever unless he ate from one certain tree. If he ate from that tree, then he would die. We are then left with several questions, if he had not eaten from that tree, would he still be alive? If he was meant to live forever, was that desire instilled in him? And as his descendants, was the desire to live forever instilled in each of us as well?
The search for immortality is not an uncommon one in literature. Many authors and poets find contentment within the ideals of faith and divinity; others, such as Whitman and Stevens, achieve satisfaction with the concept of the immortality of mortality. This understanding of the cycle of death and rebirth dominates both Walt Whitman's "On the Beach at Night" and Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning" and demonstrates the poets' philosophies of worldly immortality.
As I stated before, I grew up in church. In fact, the church I attend today is the one my father started attending when he was only seven months old. I have strong familial ties to my church and that is ultimately where my faith began. I sometimes reminisce back to when my father would sing Amazing Grace with me and my mother would teach me Bible stories. Together, my parents were my Sunday School teachers from third to sixth grade. I loved going to church as a family: my sister, my parents, and myself included. My sister, two cousins, and I even formed a singing group at my church in honor of my grandmother, Minnie (we were called “The Minnie Maberrys”) Needless to say, my family has been an integral part of my faith. I have sought encouragement from them and the wisdom they have instilled in me will remain with me for a lifetime. Another crucial facet of the growing of my faith has been the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization, or FCA for short.