LIFE AFTER DEATH

REALITY OR FANTASY?
The Fayoum Portraits
Egypt, 2C AD
 The Fayoum Portraits
• The portraits were attached to burial mummies
at the face, from which almost all have now been
detached.
• It is thought that they were painted in life and
displayed in the home until needed in death.
• Most of the portraits depict the deceased at a
relatively young age, and many show children.
According to Walker (2000), "CAT scans of all
the complete mummies represented reveal a
correspondence of age and, in suitable cases,
sex between mummy and image."
• Walker concludes that the age distribution
reflects the low life expectancy at the time.
Death was a daily occurrence
“Irene to Taonnophris and Philon, greeting.
I was as much grieved and shed as many
tears over Eumoiros as I shed for Didymus.
I did everything that was fitting and so did
my whole family. But still there is nothing
one can do in the face of such trouble. So I
leave you to comfort yourselves. Farewell.”
2nd Century papyrus
The Example of Victorian Britain
• Early death was the norm in society
• In Wales in the 1870’s 14 out of every 100
newborn babies did not survive their first year
• In Manchester in the 1850’s life expectancy at
birth was only 32 years
• In London in the 1840’s one third of all children
died before their fifth birthday
• It was not unusual for children to lose one or
both parents through death, and many Victorian
children grew up in single-parent families, or
were looked after by relatives.
• This contributed to strong beliefs in an afterlife.
 Ancient Materialists
• “Suns may set and rise again; but we, when once our
brief light goes down, there is one unending night to be
slept through” (Catullus, a Roman poet).

• “No-one awakes and arises who has once been

overtaken by the chilling end of life”
(Lucretius, a Roman poet).

• “Hopes are among the living; the dead are without hope”
(Theocritus, a Greek poet).

• “Alas! Alas!... these (plants in the garden) live and spring

again in another year; but we…when we die, deaf to all
sound in the hollow earth, sleep a long, long, endless
sleep that knows no waking.”
(Moschus, a Greek poet).
 Contrasting World Views
• I WAS NOT; I BECAME; I AM NOT; I CARE
NOT.
(pagan Roman tomb inscription, 2C AD)

• I will both lie down in peace and sleep; for

You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in
safety.
(Psalm 4:8 – common early Christian funerary inscription)
 Christianity
• Spirit – invisible part of man
• Soul – breath, natural life
• Body – the organism
• Death
– separation of soul from body
– separation of soul from God
• Death is never extinguishment of being
• Therefore, the soul is not ‘immortal’
• Plato & Rene Descartes
 Christianity
• What happens after death?
– The body is buried
– The spirit returns to God
– The soul goes to the intermediate state
• For Christians
– The soul goes to be with Christ
– The body sleeps in the earth to await the
resurrection
• For non Christians
– The soul goes to Hades
– The body sleeps in the earth to await the
resurrection
 Christianity
• The Resurrection
– This is a once for all event for all humanity
– Some will be resurrected to eternal life; some to
eternal punishment
– Christ’s resurrection guarantees the Christian’s
resurrection
– Therefore, resurrection is based on the truth of
the resurrection of Christ – he appeared to
various reliable witnesses
– The soul will be reunited with a transformed body
that is eternal in character
 Christianity
• Hell
– The day of judgement
– Sheol – (Heb) - the intermediate state
– Hades – (Gk) - the intermediate state
• In Jewish theology Hades was two tier (Luke 16)
• The righteous went to Paradise
• The unrighteous went to a place of torments
– Tartarus - (Gk) the place for the very wicked
– Gehenna – (Heb) - Hell proper
• The biblical “lake of fire”
• Named after the valley of Hinnom
 Christianity
Can a God of love send people to an eternal Hell?
The traditional concept of Hell is questioned for
• Its crude imagery
• Its literal existence (“hell is other people” – Jean
Paul Sartre)
• Its deficient justice
– How can a God of Love justify torturing men & women?
– How can God justify an eternal punishment for finite sins?
– How can God consign those who have never heard the
gospel to an eternity of suffering?
– How can God disregard the many good things Non-
Christian people have done?
 Christianity
Various solutions
• Hell is a metaphor – for separation from God
• Hell is mythical – hell is what we make of our lives
in the here & now
• All bad people are annihilated at death
-Annihilationism
• The unrepentant are destroyed at the final
judgement - Conditional Immortality
• All bad people are given a second chance -- once
they see what hell is like, they will repent
• All bad people pay a limited price and then are
promoted to heaven - Purgatory
• Everyone will be saved – NT says that Jesus is the
saviour of all (1 Tim 4:10) – Universalism
 Christianity
• A gentler, kinder damnation – God will
somehow find a way to save everyone
– Idea is based on the love of God, but
• What about God’s justice?
• Separation of God’s attributes
• Makes light of God’s wrath
• Devalues heinousness of sin
• What value in the death of Christ?
 Hinduism
• Circular concept of time
• Reincarnation – ‘in flesh again’ - sansara
• Resurrection
• New Birth
• Release from sansara by moksha –
enlightenment
• Karma – balance of good and evil acts
• Dharma – what is right
Hinduism
Hinduism
 Hinduism
• Differences between Hinduism and
Christianity
– No personal God – Brahman is ultimate reality
– No concept of sin and punishment – what
about karma?
– No redemption, no immediate hope of
betterment
– No heaven, no hell
– Aim is nihilism rather than communion with
deity
 Hinduism
• Hinduism’s resonance with post modern
society
– Many ways to ultimate reality
– No absolute standards of behaviour – dharma
differs between individuals
• But, Hinduism’s less appealing side
– The caste system
– Fatalism
– Callousness to the poor
 Is it possible to know?
• Does believing something make it true
(postmodernism), or is the truth worth
believing in (modernism)?
• Are there personal ‘truths’ which can’t be
proven, or substantiated?
• If there are, is David Icke right when he
declares that a reptile conspiracy rules the
world?
• If there aren’t, what would constitute
proof?
 Evidences for the afterlife
• Atheism – no possibility of proof
• Christianity – the resurrection of Jesus
• Hinduism – the nature of the cosmos
• Ghosts
• Past life remembrances
• Near Death Experiences
• Spiritualism – mediums