Points for discussion about life after death

Question 1

What provides the best evidnace for life after death for many people?

Answer 1

Near death experiences, they appear to demonstrate that there is brain-soul separation at death.

Question 2

Who is the earliest dualist thinker?

Answer 2

Plato, dualism is the belief that the body and soul are two separate substances.

Question 3

What does Plato say about opposed properties?

Answer 3

The universe contains opposed properties (light/dark, good/bad) and similarly as opposed to the physical universe there must exist a meta-physical universe.

Question 4

What is the meta physical universe composed of?

Answer 4

As the physical universe is composed of physical things, the metaphysical universe must be composed of pure ideas/forms.

Question 5

What are forms?

Answer 5

Universal ideas, for example, each instance of a cat participates to the perfect blueprint of a cat in the world of forms. There are also forms of abstract ideas such the form of The Good.

Question 6

What does Plato say about the soul?

Answer 6

It is the perfect form of the human and is the counterpart to the body and brain. It is preexistent and immortal in its own right. When the person is alive it is embedded in the brain and acts as a bridge between the physical world and the ethereal world of forms.

Question 7

What happens at death according to Plato?

Answer 7

The soul returns to the world of forms where it contemplates until it is reincarnated into the world. Knowledge is gained through anamnesis, the soul remembering what it already knows.

Question 8

What are the three parts of the soul in its embodied form?

Answer 8

1. The head, associated with reasoning. 2. The chest, associated with aggression. 3. The stomach, associated with appetite and desire.

Question 9

What is the best way to live according to Plato?

Answer 9

With reason ruling thumos and desire or the soul will be out of balance, humans must put reason above all else and focus on the soul.

Question 10

What are Aristotle’s four causes?

Answer 10

1. The matter a thing is made from. 2. The form a thing takes. 3. Its efficient cause. 4. Its final cause- the reason it exists.

Question 11

What is the soul for Aristotle?

Answer 11

It is the psyche, the animating principle of the body.

Question 12

What does the soul enable us to do according to Aristotle?

Answer 12

It enables us to grasp eternal truths, to rationalize, to introspect and the understanding abstract ideas.

Question 13

What happens to the soul when the body dies according to Aristotle?

Answer 13

It dies when the body dies as its abilities are grounded in the world.

Question 14

What is monism?

Answer 14

The soul and the body are one substance, most monists tend to be materialists.

Question 15

What is hard materialism?

Answer 15

Human beings are made only from matter and mental events are in fact physical events. It is reductionist philosophy that reduced the soul to matter and holds that there is nothing that can survive death.

Question 16

What did Swinburne say about materialism?

Answer 16

It does not explain the subjectivity of mental events, how can the feel of doing something such as eating strawberries be described in a way that could replicate the experience?

Question 17

What is Swinburne’s soft materialism?

Answer 17

The only substances are material objects, but some of these have mental properties which are distinct from physical properties.

Question 18

How does Dawkins describe DNA?

Answer 18

The only survival that can be identified with forms of life is genetic. The idea of being an individual is just a product of our genes working together to enhance survival.

Question 19

What does Dawkins think about belief in the soul and god?

Answer 19

Beliefs in these are just byproducts of evolutionary processes and our unwillingness to contemplate extinction after death.

Question 20

What are Dawkins’ memes?

Answer 20

A theoretical unit of cultural ideas, symbols and practices that is transmitted from one mind to another through speech and gesture. They explain the spread of cultural ideas through the behaviors they initiate in their hosts. If you get imitated, you become immortal.

Question 21

Give two advantages of Dawkins’ materialism

Answer 21

1. A persuasive use of evolutionary biology, the idea that genes’ function is to farther their own survival explains why nature doesn’t care about killing off millions of humans. 2. Memes are easy to understand.

Question 22

What are two problems with Dawkins’ materialism?

Answer 22

1. Assuming that evolution’s only purpose is to ensure the survival of genes puts the cart before the horse, DNA is the replicator mechanism of evolution and doesn’t explain why evolutionary processes exist. 2. Saying evolution is blind ignores that it follows absolute laws of biology and chemistry.

Question 23

Give two more issues with Dawkins’ materialism

Answer 23

1. If the universe has no purpose and everything is reduced to bytes of information then why should we reflect meaningfully on what we’ve achieved? 2. Self awareness is a byproduct of genes working to enhance our survival, but wouldn’t an organism that has real self awareness have more survival value then one which merely thinks it has?

Question 24

What are near death experiences?

Answer 24

Dying and coming back to life, they have been reported across all ages and all cultures and often have a profound effect upon the individual.

Question 25

Give some common characteristics of near death experiences

Answer 25

Ineffability, peace and quite, noise of a gong, seeing the dead, passing a barrier, a decision to return, a changed outlook on life and a loss of fear of death.

Question 26

Give four scientific explanations for near death experiences

Answer 26

1. Anesthetic drugs. 2. Beta endorphins- the dying brain gives itself a shot of morphine. 3. Hypoxia- when the brain is starved of oxygen. 4. Temporal lobe seizure

Question 27

Where does the verification of NDEs usually come from?

Answer 27

Those who claim to have had them, it is often based on a recall of objects or events which could only be known if the experience is true.

Question 28

What does Susan Blackmore say about NDEs?

Answer 28

They have a scientific explanation and do not give any information about the process of dying, she instead compares them to dreams. Dreams occur when the brain goes to sleep or wakes up, not in between.

Question 29

What issue is posed by NDEs?

Answer 29

No indication is given as to how persons are identified in the afterlife since there would be no observable differences between a physical environment and a mental construct of such an environment.

Question 30

How can NDEs prove life after death?

Answer 30

They can be used to support any theoretical model of life after death and for the person who has experienced one, it is often the ultimate proof of life after death.