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Start with soul:
Similarities:
- Definitions – monism – dualism – Ryle ‘Ghost in the machine’ – Plato – Descartes – anima
- Characteristics – eternal – spiritual – able to be perfected
Go on to what happens to soul after death:
Differences:
- Eastern religions – Karma – new body – no memory – moksha – nirvana – drop in ocean
- Western – one physical life – salvation through Christ – after life options – heaven, hell, purgatory, – judgement – eternal life – spiritual / physical – St Paul ‘clothed in incorruption’
- Personal interference of the deity in Western Religions
Similarities:
- Aiming for goodness – perfection – Kant summum bonum – soul eternal
Arguments against:
- Not verifiable – BUT not falsifiable – religious language – cumulative evidence
- No proof – BUT Scriptural – NDEs – past life memories – eschatological verification
- What purpose? – fair – redemptive – gives meaning to this life
- If no God then no after life – BUT if God then logical reward
- Contradiction in terms – religious language – analogical – life different
- Subjective not objective
- Marxism – ‘opium of masses’, subjugation of people, inertia – Hume – Flew, death of a thousand qualifications – Basil Mitchell, 3 responses to challenges to faith
- Problems concerned with identity – recognition – what kind of body? Lazarus / Jesus – what about mental problems or terminated lives?