(Originally written April 20, 2007 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion
John H. Hick
Chapter 9 - Human Destiny: Immortality and Resurrection
The Immortality of the Soul
Plato was the first to systematically develop the mind-body dichotomy and prove the immortality of the soul.
The soul (mind) as being conceived of as a simple substance is not an empirical fact, but a metaphysical theory. As such it cannot be used as proof for the immortality of the soul.
Cartesian mind-body theories have declined since WWIII due to attacks by the analytical school of philosophy.
The Re-Creation of the Psychophysical Person
Hebrew theology initially focused solely on the covenant between God and Israel and paid little attention to the individual. As the breakdown of Israel as a political entity Hebrew theology focused on the individual soul and on the after life.
Judaeo-Christian belief in immortality differs from Platonic belief in that the Judaeo-Christian conception includes a re-creation of the body.
St. Paul's conception of the resurrection concerns God's re-creation of the human psychophysical individual.
The major problem with this is providing criteria of personal identity.
Hell is a major part of the problem of evil. If God is all-good and uses evil for good then what is the purpose of eternal suffering?
Quick note: Hell is not itself evil. The suffering that befalls the men and women in hell is not evil. The torment they suffer is punitive action for the life they chose. Punishment is not evil; it is justice. Justice cannot be evil. Also, hell has a purpose for good. When all is finished and Hell is stalled, then all evil will be trapped and separated from good. As such, evil cannot escape from hell to corrupt what is good. Because evil exists and evil nearly inevitably corrupts good, hell is necessary to protect good from evil.
Does Parapsychology Help?
Spiritualists claims that life after death is proved by well-documented cases of communication between the living and the dead.
This section: pg 127-131 is really strange and obnoxious.
The supposed recalling of spirits from the land of the dead to the land of the living is explainable by a telepathic function of the medium. Mediums posses an ability to derive knowledge telepathically from their clients about whom they are "reaching". Though the medium may even feel this is a genuine connection it is merely a telepathic marvel.
Resuscitation Cases
People that have been resuscitated after being declared dead provide another interesting phenomenal experience.
People experience numerous similar things in the time they are dead. Often they are reluctant to speak about such strange things, but their view of death normally changes after the experience.
All of parapsychology's assertions must be handled with caution. They are not (yet) weighted enough to prove the immortality of the soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment