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For the Japanese film, see After Life. For the British television drama, see Afterlife (television).

The afterlife (or life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual and experiential, beyond this world, or after death. This article is about current generic and widely held or reported concepts of afterlife. See also: Underworld, for a comprehensive catalog of specific traditions about afterlife.

Afterlife as a belief

Many people believe in an afterlife. It is generally described as a non-verifiable and non-falsifiable belief within a religion, because it is generally accepted as beyond the experiential knowledge or casual accessibility of most people (see esoteric knowledge). As a result, the popular mind relies on various sources for concepts about afterlife, arranged below in presumed order of reliability:

  • Testimony of individuals who claim experiential knowledge of facets of afterlife
  • Testimony of individuals who are presumed to have special insights into the afterlife
    • holy ones
    • miracle workers
    • spectacular converts
  • Claimed testimony of visitors from the afterlife
    • God
    • Angels
    • Spirits
  • Human intuitions of goodness assumed to emanate from the afterlife
  • Speculation and extrapolation
  • Concoction

While there is information available from all of the above sources, a preponderance of concoctions, speculations, and extrapolations have arguably historically characterized formal descriptions of afterlife. Religious traditions have historically formalized and codified ideas about afterlife in widely divergent forms. Though the onset of the information age is bringing to light increasing consistency and uniformity of beliefs about afterlife from across and without religious boundaries, most afterlife conceptions continue to follow traditional descriptions, often viewed as rationally weak by skeptics who -- particularly atheists and agnostics of a secular humanist mindset -- may hold that we entirely cease to exist. However, it should be pointed out that not all atheists and agnostics necessarily rule out the existence of an afterlife. For example, many Buddhists neither confirm nor deny the existence of the supernatural (gods, demons, heavens, hells, etc.), while simultaneously embracing the concept of rebirth.

For those who do believe in an afterlife, the various conceptions about it differ in their answer to the following questions:

  • Is the afterlife a normal life, or a different type of existence?
  • Are afterlife conditions a consequence of good and bad actions during life?
  • Is afterlife eternal?
  • Is it possible to reincarnate as a human or other form of life?
  • What happens at the moment of death?
  • Are ghosts and other undead a proof of an afterlife?

Afterlife as an individual existence

For an afterlife to exist, there must be something that survives the body when death occurs. This something is usually believed to be extraphysical and is usually called soul or spirit. Philosophers have long debated whether such an extraphysical substance can exist; see Mind-body problem.

Afterlife as reward or punishment

One notion of afterlife which is common to Judaism (see the afterlife and olam haba ), most sects of Christianity, and Islam is that human souls go on for eternity to a place of happiness or torment, such as heaven, hell, or purgatory or limbo.

Many religions hold that after death people get reward or punishment based on their deeds or faith.

The Christian Bible, for example, contains the words of Jesus: "The measure you give will be the measure you get." (Mark 4:24). For many, belief in an afterlife is a consolation in connection with death of a beloved one or the prospect of one's own death. On the other hand, fear of hell etc. may make death worse.

In the informal folk beliefs of many Christians, the souls of virtuous people ascend to Heaven and are converted into angels upon their deaths. However, a more literal reading of scripture suggests that the dead wait until the Last Judgment, which is followed by resurrection for the faithful. 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.

In view of the eternity of afterlife, some consider regular life as relatively unimportant, except for determining whether afterlife follows, and/or what kind. It is just a provisional situation, and the metaphor of a tent as provisional housing facility is used as quoted below:

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.(Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:1)

In what we know of Egyptian religion, afterlife is very important. The believer had to act well and know the rituals explained in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. If the corpse was 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 Devourer monster would eat them.

Others, including some Universalists, believe in universalism which holds that all will eventually be rewarded regardless of what they have done or believed.

Life after death, however, is in no way a universal belief; for example, 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 a resurrection in the flesh at some future date will be a reward and that death (non-existence) is a punishment.

Afterlife as reincarnation

Another afterlife concept which is found among Hindus, Buddhists, and Wiccans is reincarnation, whether as humans, animals, or as spiritual beings. One consequence of the Hindu and Buddhist beliefs is that our current lives are also an afterlife, and both Hindus and Buddhists interpret events in our current life as being consequences of actions taken in previous lives.

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.

Related studies

The study of views of the afterlife is a concern of Eschatology, which deals with the soul, the resurrection of the dead, the messianic era, and the end of the world.

The question of whether or not there is life after death is closely related to the mind-body problem, and like that problem is one of the classic problems of so-called rational psychology and hence of one (now largely outdated) notion of the scope of metaphysics.

The later works of Emanuel Swedenborg present one of the most comprehensive and systematic descriptions of the spiritual world, including heaven and hell.

Criticism

Upon death, brain activity ceases and a person's body begins to decompose. This marks the end of the individual's mind in the physical world. The fundamental belief of an afterlife is that there exists a non-physical means (a soul or spirit) for the mind to survive the brain's destruction and continue to function in a non-physical world.

Occam's Razor is a strong counter to this belief. There are two basic alternatives to be compared:

  • When you die, your mind ceases to function and your body decomposes.
  • When you die, your mind continues to function despite the physical destruction of your brain, continuing its existence in a non-physical world.

The first belief is simple and well-supported. All available scientific evidence indicates that the mind is the product of the brain's activity, and that destruction of the brain also destroys the mind. Therefore, believing in an afterlife (at least in a logically-consistent way) requires the additional beliefs that:

  • There exists a non-physical entity associated with a person (the soul or spirit).
  • The mind can continue to operate in the absence of the brain, being somehow supported by the soul.
  • The soul exists in a non-physical dimension that we are unable to perceive in a measurable way.

There is no reliable evidence to support any of these beliefs and they do not help to explain any observed phenomena. The fact that these beliefs are nevertheless widely held is easily explained by wishful thinking.

Simply put, humans instinctively fear death and yet we know that our eventual deaths are inevitable. Therefore it is unsurprising that a belief system which promises an escape from death would be strongly embraced. People often suspend their better judgment when presented with "too good to be true" promises (consider Nigerian scams and similar instances of fraud), and an escape from death is the ultimate promise.

The philosophical belief of materialism holds that only the physical universe exists, and therefore precludes belief in an afterlife. Atheism and materialism are closely related, and most atheists do not believe in any sort of afterlife.

Philosophical arguments

Some non-believers in an afterlife, influenced by positivism (philosophy), have argued that claims of an afterlife are unverifiable and unfalsifiable, and therefore cognitively meaningless. Some have argued that, on the contrary, particular claims concerning the nature of the afterlife are verifiable and falsifiable: all one has to do to verify/falsify them is die. On the other hand, they argue, the belief in the absence of an afterlife can be attacked as vacuous on the grounds that the statement "I cease to exist" is unverifiable, unfalsifiable, and therefore by the same token cognitively meaningless. In particular, the concept of our own non-existence is inconceivable (what experience corresponds to your own non-existence? none.)

Other philosophical issues about the idea of an afterlife can be expressed in thought experiments. Johnny is shot and ceases existence for five minutes ( allow, for the sake of the thought experiment, regardless of your beliefs, that he does not experience any form of afterlife in this time.) Then, five minutes later Johnny is cloned, an exact replica is made, possessing all of the factual knowledge, beliefs, values, intentional states and emotions etc he had at the time of death. Is this being the same Johnny that was killed? The result of this thought experiment is arguably very important to some religious groups.

Now, imagine that in accordance with the doctrines of some religious groups, that a person X dies and is ressurected after a period of death and essential non-existence (lack of awareness). Is this X the same X that died? The issue at stake is essentially whether identity is continuity over time, or a set of traits, i.e complexes of memory, personality, a soul etc.

See also

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