How different religions deal with death.
Christianity
For Christians whose lives are guided by the Bible, the reality of death is acknowledged as part of the current human condition, affected by sin (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5; Hebrews 9:27). There is "a time to be born, and a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:2). Although eternal life is a gift that is granted to all who accept salvation through Jesus Christ, faithful Christians await the second coming of Jesus for complete realization of their immortality (John 3:36; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). While waiting for Jesus to come again, Christians may be called upon to care for the dying and to face personally their own death.
Judaism
Judaism has stressed the natural fact of death and its role in giving life meaning. The fear of death, concern about the fate of our own soul and those of our loved ones, ethical concerns that some people die unfairly, all these and many other issues are discussed in Jewish literature. Since God is seen as ultimately just, the seeming injustice on Earth has propelled many traditional Jewish thinkers into seeing the afterlife as a way to reflect the ultimate justice of human existence.
Traditional thinkers considered how individuals would be rewarded or punished after their deaths. There are a few rare descriptions of life after death. Traditionalists gave the name Gehenna to the place where souls were punished. Many Jewish thinkers noted that since, essentially, God is filled with mercy and love, punishment is not to be considered to be eternal. There are, similarly, many varying conceptions of paradise, such as that paradise is the place where we finally understand the true concept of God. It is also possible that there is no separate Heaven and Hell, only lesser or greater distance from God after death.
Judaism does not believe people who are Gentiles will automatically go to Hell or that Jews will automatically go to Heaven on their basis of their belonging to the faith. Rather, individual ethical behavior is what is most important.
Buddhism
From its inception, Buddhism has stressed the importance of death, since awareness of death is what prompted the Buddha to perceive the ultimate futility of worldly concerns and pleasures. Realizing that death is inevitable for a person who is caught up in worldly pleasures and attitudes, he resolved to renounce the world and devote himself to finding a solution to this most basic of existential dilemmas.
A Buddhist looks at death as a breaking apart of the material of which we are composed. However Buddhism does not look at death as a continuation of the soul but as an awakening. Dying and being reborn has been compared by some Buddhist as a candle flame. When the flame of one lit candle is touched to the wick of an unlighted candle, the light passes from one candle to another. The actual flame of the first candle does not pass over but is responsible for lighting the second candle.
When preparing for death Buddhist generally agree a person’s state of mind while dying is of great importance. While dying the person can be surrounded by friends, family and monks who recite Buddhists scriptures and mantras to help the person achieve a peaceful state of mind. Buddhism asserts that all being live beyond the various fluctuations of this life. Death is merely a passage to rebirth in another realm such as the human world, a pure land or the flowering of the ultimate nature of the mind.
QUESTIONS:
What are your views on life after death? Did you get those views from your religion or upbrining?
Some think religious views on the after life is a way to help people cope with death and losing people? What are your thoughts on these views?
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4 comments:
I think it is intersting how most religious people NEED to believe that they go on in some form after death. The thought that when you die you are accepted into a cold and uncaring nothingness without time or space is disconcerting to say the least for most people because it is a crisis of consciousness. Do you know how long you are asleep? Only by the social constructs of time and the passing of the sun and moon that you can see when you awake. Apply this to something that you never awake from and the conclusion is terrifying. I think the Buddhist legitimizing of death is the most interesting and all of them are apparent social constructs meant to keep people inline and undisturbed by their own mortality.
In short, religion is one of the largest and most controlling social constructs that one can find in society.
-PopThor
Not being religious at all, my belief is that when you die, it's basically over. I don't know if that is too harsh to say, but it seems that something somewhat "popular" today is finding an alternative to this view so you dont seem quite as morbid. But the fact of the matter is, your belief system can help you guide your life towards death so you are better prepared, but personally, I like to fosuc more on my life, and when the death thing gets closer, then I'll worry about it.
I think that the question of what leads someone to their understanding of life after death is a large one. I think fear plays a large role in what people understand is 'waiting' for them after they die. I do not believe in a system as biased and black-and-white as heaven and hell, so in some sense, I do not care about how I conduct my life in relation to the "afterlife." I will follow what I think is right (treating people fairly, doing good deeds, etc.) and if after all the help I hope to accomplish by the end of my life is completed, some afterlife person tells me I wasn't good enough because of some specific spiritual element of human existence, and that I'm going to perish in eternal damnation for it or some such thing, then I'm all for the eternal damnation since I don't like the idea of supporting such a biased and close-minded system (assuming I have the same type of consciousness after dying that I have now). If I reincarnate, great. I don't believe in it particularly, but if it happens, then it will happen and I'll keep learning from whatever happens throughout the larger life of my soul. If there's nothing, well hell, that's all the more reason to do wonderful things while here.
The after life is obviously a huge concept to take on in discussion. I don't think that one person is more or less valid in their opinion but instead that they are hugely influenced by life experiences, parental and peer relations, education, etc. I think that religion plays a huge part in not only what people think of the afterlife but how people navigate themselves through daily life and in their interactions with other people. I would personally suggest that religion does not always play a beneficial role in perpetuating social equality, peace, etc. as far as social interactions go, but I also do not feel that I can say that I am 100% right and that someone else is 100% wrong. I think that we all exist on fluctuating plains of understanding of various topics of human existence, and for that reason we can only learn from the views of those around us and our own experiences. (That sounded really vague and confusing but to be honest, I lost my train of thought and am so very, very tired.)
If I were to suggest something to improve this post, I'd include a few more religions.
PopErin
I have no idea what is at the end of the line when breath stops. I love to hear the stories of people who believe they see and come back from the light. Not to increase my hope, but to understand how meanings are made. If there is no ultimate meaning to living life then why continue when it gets tough? I guess how you orient toward living is what matters to me... the process with its good and bad stuff has to be appealing to you because always looking for some ideal destination of "happiness" is clearly a loser. Focusing on the living process lets me not care too much whether something happens after the dark. poppat
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