14. Does Man Survive Death

Arguments Against Immortality

The Universality of Human Mortality

• EXPOSITION
  • we know that all men and women die
  • immortality defenders lack much evidence
  • we don’t know what happens after death
• CRITICISMS
  • not valid proof against immortality, not all humans have died (Enoch, Elijah, Jesus)

The Analogy of Nature

• EXPOSITION
  • physical arguments against the idea of immortality
  • Hume’s On the Immortality of the Soul details them
  • two closely related objects, like body and mind, change together, i.e. when the body experiences pain, the mind experiences confusion. Therefore, when the body dissolves, the mind will as well
  • nothing in nature can survive if moved to a different environment
  • animals resemble humans, so can they be immortal too?
  • earth is dying, what makes human life so important to be gifted immortality?
• CRITICISMS
  • not all effects are proportionate to their cause, and vice versa
  • why would the proportionate response to the dissolution of the body be the dissolution of the soul?
  • Hume assumes that the soul needs the body to exist, but he doesn’t know that it does
  • resemblance /= identity; just because humans resemble animals doesn’t mean they are animals
  • there are many differences between humans and animals
  • most of our observations of the world are changing, not all of it.
  • today, change doesn’t just mean decay, it can also mean grow

The Body-Mind Dependence Argument

• EXPOSITION
  • most popular and impressive anti-immortality argument
  • claimed to be supported by modern brain research
  • mind/brain activity requires the body
  • all evidence suggests our mental life is entwined with our brains
  • therefore, no brain, no mental activity, no immortality
• CRITICISMS
  • yes, our minds are somewhat dependent on our bodies
  • the state of our present conditions isn’t proof of our future ones

Immortality

Kinds of Immortality Doctrines

• THE IMMORTAL-SOUL DOCTRINE
  • started by Plato
  • humans are more than just their bodies, we are incorporeal souls
  • during life, the soul is imprisoned within the body
  • the soul is a substance and can survive independently
• THE RECONSTRUCTION DOCTRINE
  • we need a corporeal form to be a person
  • after death, God resurrects our bodies, and we become immortal
• THE SHADOW-MAN/MINIMAL-PERSON DOCTRINE
  • close to the teachings of orthodox Christianity
    • versions can be found in the teachings of Tertullian, Thomas Aquinas, and Paul Helm
  • we are both human and corporeal
  • we are also both incorporeal and immaterial
• EVALUATIONS
  • the reconstruction doctrine
    • identity - how do we know the resurrected persons are the same as the original persons?
      • we can’t be 100% sure the resurrected person is who he claims to be
      • however, God would know because He is omniscient
    • does the person cease to exist until death and is immediately resurrected to either heaven or hell?
      • the Bible seems to say so about our present state (Luke 16:19—31; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23)
    • or, are we given resurrected bodies immediately after death?
      • the New Testament passages about resurrection speak about groups, not individuals (Dan. 12:1, 2:1; Thess. 4:13—18; Rev. 20:1—10)

Arguments for Immortality

• SIMPLICITY OF THE SOUL
  • designed by Socrates
  • “only certain sorts of things can decompose”
  • there are two types of things, composite and simple
  • composite things are never constant, while simple things are usually constant
  • the soul is simple, therefore, it doesn’t change or decompose
• ANALOGY WITH FORMS OR IDEAS
  • taught by Plato
  • every significant word has an abstract Idea or Form, e.g. “justice”, “goodness”, “triangle”, and “man”
  • Forms are eternal, constant, and intelligible
  • Ideas are general, and particular instances are found in the appropriate Form
  • the soul is the part of the body that knows
    • Forms are real objects of knowledge, and all knowledge is certain and unchanging
    • the soul (the knower) resembles the Ideas (things known) and must be eternal and constant
  • the soul is the principle of life
    • life isn’t compatible with death
    • the soul is eternal and can’t be destroyed by death
• ARGUMENT FROM REMINISCENCE
  • taught by Plato
  • we know certain truths that we didn’t learn in this life, therefore, we must have learned them sometime before our souls were embodied. Consequently, the soul both outlives and preexists the body
• ARGUMENT FROM RATIONALITY
  • believed to be derived from Plato’s arguments
  • rationality isn’t equal to one’s nature, it’s more than that, and it couldn’t have just appeared through material causes. Rationality is supernatural, and rational behavior isn’t something that the natural sciences can explain.

Objections to Arguments for Immortality

The arguments themselves criticize immortality.