Religious Views of Life After Death

Views of life after death associated with the ancient and modern religious traditions of the world

Earliest Evidence of Human Belief in Survival of Death

Archeological Evidence

The practice of intentional human burial, which dates back to at least the Neanderthal period (300,00 - 30,000 BCE), provides prima facie evidence of the concept of death among early humans.

The practice of ritual burials among later Neanderthal and Cro Magnon humans is prima facie evidence of the concept of survival of death among early humans.

Archeological Evidences of Ritual Burial

1. Unique positioning of the corpse (e.g., fetal position)

2. Painting the corpse or covering it with carved stones or plants.

3. Clothing and decorating corpses with jewelry (e.g., pendants, bracelets, necklaces, beads).

4. Burying corpses with other “grave goods” (e.g. jewelry, tools)

Between 1957-1961Columbia University archeologists excavated nine Neanderthal skeletons in the caves of the Zagros Mountains. The corpses date between 60,000 and 80,000 BCE.

Substantial pollen deposits found in the soil around one skeleton (Shanidar IV) suggest that the body was buried with flowers. Zagros Mountains, Northern Iraq

Shanidar Caves

Some of the bodies had been buried with carved rocks and split animal bones around the grave.

Shanidar IV

Pre-historic humans exhibited a concept of death and belief in survival of death.

Written Evidence

Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2000 BCE): After death, the human person goes to the netherworld as an etemmu (ghost or

shade).

The “shade” is a ghostly double of the human person, and the netherworld is a gloomy subterranean realm.

The idea of the continued existence of a person as a ghost in the Netherworld was common throughout Mesopotamia by 2000 BCE.

Portions of the Hebrew Scriptures (circa 800-500 BCE)

The dead go to “sheol,” but some are capable of being raised as spirits or ghosts. (e.g., I Samuel 28)

The Iliad and the Odyssey (circa 750-650 BCE )The dead go to Hades (the underworld). “There remains then even in the house of Hades a spirit and phantom of the dead, but there is no life within it.” (Iliad 23).

Significance of this Ancient Conception of the Afterlife

The afterlife is not a desirable place.

The conception of the afterlife is not a beatific one. It isn’t a place of happiness and joy. It also isn’t a place of

punishment.

The prevalence of this negative concept of the afterlife in the ancient world undermines the idea that belief in an afterlife arose because people wanted a better life than

they had during their earthly lives.

If the afterlife does not distinguish between the just and the unjust, afterlife beliefs cannot be used as ways of enforcing

morality and controlling people’s behavior.

The virtuous receive a new body after death and enter “the world of the fathers” after death (a heavenly realm of pleasure and joy occupied by one’s ancestors and the gods), but the wicked are cast into a dark pit.

Morally Relevant Conception of the Afterlife in Mesopotamia and India around 1400 BCE….

Mesopotamia - the 12th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

India – Rig Veda (of the sacred Vedas)

The quality of life in the Netherworld varies depending on the quality of one’s earthly life.

With the exception of survival beliefs in Egypt and South Asia, the conception of the afterlife in the

ancient world prior to the first millenium BCE was not a positive one.

The Axial Period (800-200 BCE)

Zoroaster (prophet of Zoroastrianism)

Buddha

Completion of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament)

Composition of the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita

Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

Two Important Features of the Axial Period

Ideal Self

Beatific Conception of the Afterlife

The Rise of Soul

The Socratic dialogues affirmed the existence of the self as an individual soul, an immaterial, simple substance that intrinsically

has immortality. The soul can enter into a divine world after death, otherwise it might be reborn in a new body on earth.

The Upanishadic Hindu tradition in India affirmed the existence of a true self (atman) that transcends the

individual self of our present experience.

The Persian and Hebrew traditions affirmed the existence of an individual self that will survive death, first in the form of a

disembodied soul and subsequently as a unity of soul and body.

Zoroastrianism: Ancient Religion of Persia

Zoroastrianism affirmed a beatific afterlife for all worshippers of the one true God.

The soul (urvan) of the dead person goes to a heavenly realm after death. The soul is rejoined to the body at some time in the future when God conquers all the forces of evil.

The wicked enter a place of punishment after death (hell), but exist there only for a limit time. All people are eventually redeemed.

By the 2nd century BCE, the doctrines of disembodied soul-survival and a future bodily resurrection from the dead are

present in Judaism.

These ideas eventually work their way into Christian and Islamic theology in the

common era.

Asian Religion

The Upanishads (circa 800-500 BCE) and the Bhagavad Gita (500-200 BCE) explicitly affirm the doctrine of reincarnation (samsara), roughly the idea that souls are reborn in new bodies until the cycle of death an rebirth is broken.

Buddhism taught a similar doctrine of rebirth from its inception in the 6th century BCE.

The Heart of Hinduism and Buddhism

Afterlife Views at a Glance

Eastern Religions(Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism)

Reincarnation

Western Religions(Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

Bodily Resurrection

Eastern and WesternReligions

Disembodied Survival(Intermediate State)