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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Nature of post-mortem experience |
’The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’ Hamlet “Today you will be with me in paradise” Luke 23:43 It also gives purpose to morality and would allow us to reach our full potential. John Hick - ‘if the human potential is to be fulfilled... these lives must be prolonged' Central to christianity ALL DEPENDENT ON FAITH |
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Arguments against LAD |
B. Russell - ‘When I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive’ ‘mental life ceases when bodily life ceases' Dawkins - ‘We are so grotesquely lucky to be here’ why is LAD necessary? Life is intrinsically special In a plane crash there are no living survivors Relies on eschatological verification |
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Monism and dualism
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Monism - The soul or mind does not survive death - Robinson - ‘man does not have a body, he is a body, he is flesh animated by soul' Ryle - ‘ghost in a machine’ is a 'category mistake' Dualism- Descartes - Body is spatial but not conscious/ Mind is non-spatial but conscious The soul is ‘immortal’ Personhood - key issue with dualism and LAD - what is it which makes us human - what do we want to survive? How do we recognise resurrected (In Luke they don’t recognise Jesus on road to Emmaus) |
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Near- Death experiences |
Montefiore - ‘out of the ordinary experiences when they are... close to death’ Raymond Moody highlighted a number of problems, that it is dreaming, cryptomnesia or hallucination caused by a lack of oxygen. They are unique but there is a common pattern of ‘core experiences’ (K. Ring). |
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Fenwick's features Feelings of peace - Out of body experiences - |
Fenwick outlined several features which represent the ‘full syndrome’ Feelings of peace - May be due to drugs or the release of endorphins, or a taste of heaven? Out-of-body Experiences - Under dualism this is possible but it could be drug-induced or psychologically. People often see things which would be impossible to see from the bed. A woman in a hospital inSeattle reported seeing a tennis shoe lying on a window sill on the third floor - this was true - how did she see it? |
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Fenwick's features The tunnel and the light - The being of light - |
The tunnel and the light - Is this the transition to a new realm? Light is often a metaphor for the divine. Does it represent the birth process? The being of light - God? Positive, loving experience beyond description. Figure of authority not always related to the individuals religion - Fenwick described a catholic who saw 3 young indian men. |
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Fenwick's features The Barrier - Another Country - |
The Barrier - Point beyond which visitors may not pass - not yet the time to die Another Country - An idyllic pastoral scene filled with light and colour; often beyond the barrier. Is it heaven or a psychological way of calming yourself? |
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Fenwick's features Relatives and Friends - Life Review - |
Relatives and Friends - Retreat from the fear of death to the comfort of known and loved ones? Montefiore - ‘it would be difficult to produce a physiological explanation’ Life Review - Some feel they have been weighed up, others have a life preview and tasks they need to do are outlined. Could be explained by anoxia - but if so why are memories so orderly and clear? |
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Fenwick's features The decision to return - The return - |
The decision to return - usually people want to stay but this is impossible and once they decide to return it is immediate The return - This is usually rapid and followed by no longer being afraid of death. Often had a profound effect and they may became more pious, if not in an orthodox manner. |
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Scholars on near-death experiences |
Moody - raises more questions than answers Swineburne - ‘we ought to take such apparent memories seriously’ Montefiore - ‘a near-death experience will be mediated not through the brain, but through the soul’ |
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Parapsychology |
Study of the spiritual realm - mediums and seances. John Hick - ‘the best cases of trance utterance are impressive and puzzling and... are indication of survival and communication after death' |
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Resurrection |
Bodily resurrection is something like Judgement day or the resurrection of Jesus. “He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25) “what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable” St Paul 1Corinthians 15 Bultmann & Vermes - shouldn’t be taken literally It is an act of ‘divine love’ Aquinas believed that eternal life required a body and a soul (anima). The anima animated the body giving it life. It is in the gospels of matthew mark luke (synoptic gospels) and John - more philosophical developed ideas on resurrection |
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Soma pneumatikon |
Spiritual body after resurrection- from greek meaning spirit image. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." - 1 Corinthians 15: 44, 45 |
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Problems with resurrection |
Jesus wasn’t resurrected perfectly, contradictory to resurrection ideas. Spiritual body rather than a flesh one? Keith Ward said this was a logical consequence of LAD. Little evidence of resurrection - in gospel of Mark it was added in - gospels not clear w/ contradictions & confusion Topographical issues around the sightings of Jesus in a limited report time (40 days ‘alive’ after resurrection and appeared across Israel). |
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John Hick’s Replica Theory |
Monistic The essence of that person can be replicated in a state of perfection. Can fit with the multiverse theory 3 stages - 1. John Smith disappears and an exact replica appears in India -tests conclude he is the same 2. John Smith dies and a replica appears in India - he is still the same 3. John Smith dies and a replica is created on another world - ‘the resurrection world’ Uses 1 Corinthians 15 and Iraneus to support. |
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Vardy |
SUpports Hick somewhat
Duplicate theory Vardy can print 2 copies of his comments on a students essay - in the same way God can reprint us with new material. Only 1 copy is made to preserve the identity of the individual.
Vardy claims this is inline with tradition xianity, specifically St Paul (1Corin.15) |
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Immortality of the Soul |
The body is contingent, the soul is not. Maritain said ‘A spiritual soul cannot be corrupted since it possesses no physical matter’
First written about by Plato who said the soul is trying to free itself from the physical world to return to true reality.
Descartes - The soul must be the only possible meaningful way of understanding an after life ‘we are naturally led to conclude that it is immortal’ (it being the soul) |
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Plato and Kant on Immortality of the Soul |
Plato - The body belongs to the physical world and will cease to exist, the soul will live on forever. The soul is invisible, intellectual and immaterial (non-physical) Kant - Purpose of existence is to achieve the summum bonum. God is morally obliged to help humanity and he does so by giving us the afterlife. Otherwise ‘morality would be pointless’. ‘The summum bonum is only possible on the presupposition of the immortality of the soul’ (In Critique of pure reason' |
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Issues with Resurrection |
Linda Badham - ‘the more one actually fills out the vague notion of the resurrection... the more problems arise’ ‘If the countless millions of human beings who have ever lived and may live in the future were all to be resurrected on this earth, then the overcrowding would be acute.’ ST Paul - ‘If christ is not raised our faith is in vain' |
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Vermes |
4 rational ways for explaining away the ‘resurrection conundrum’. 1 - Body was not found because guardian of the cemetery moved JJesus’ body as the grave had been for someone else 2 - In the darkness the women were lost 3 - Apostles stole the corpse as was alleged by the leaders 4 - Jesus was buried alive and survived ‘He rose in their hearts' |
