Human beings are not eternal, and no matter how long their life is and how healthy they are, everybody knows that death awaits them at the end. Some people die accidentally due to the sad coincidence of events; others leave life according to their own will. Death occurs to all people without exception at the end of their lives. No matter how it happens, it is a subject of intense discussions and even experiments because all people are afraid, fascinated, and intrigued by what awaits them after their physical body stops functioning. The main question that is left without an answer, but represents utmost importance for the whole of humankind is whether there is a spiritual world that awaits people after death, and if it really exists, what it represents.
The spiritual world for people means the immortality of their souls, which is in general highly important from the point of view of religion and philosophy. Christianity and Islam pose much attention to the modest, humble, and correct life of believers who want to be gratified for their goodness in the afterlife. There are a number of sins that are punished by eternal sufferings for the soul that are called to engage people in virtuous lives in the hope for a happy afterlife. However, no matter whether hell or heaven expects their souls, it is clear that the immortal soul exists and proceeds from one world of earthly human beings to the eternal spiritual world. Other religions such as Buddhism deny the fact of the soul’s existence and state that human life exists only due to the flow of super-powers and super-energies in the world.
My personal opinion on the issue is heavily influenced by the religion I have because all followers of Christianity are taught from a young age to believe in the immortality of human souls to make people responsible for the outcomes of their lives. People should live carefully, without sinning and committing atrocities towards other people or nature in order to be rewarded for this later. I believe that there is something beyond the world in which humankind lives because of many stories about mysterious forces that guide people, give them extraordinary possibilities, and bring sacred knowledge to the human world. I am sure that the soul of each person is transformed after his or her death and passed on to another creature, not sure the human being but an animal or a plant. It is impossible to get the whole cultural, spiritual and intellectual knowledge passed on from century to century by our ancestors; it would take much longer for people to grasp all basics of life in case they did not have the subconscious memory of their souls.
Besides, I believe in the existence of an immortal human soul because I am sure that only education and upbringing cannot produce great people or criminals; there is something beyond their social and genetic background that makes them commit the greatest good and the greatest evil in their life. One life would be not enough to raise such people as Hitler or Gandhi. For this reason, I am sure that our soul is much wiser than we are, showing us the way through life by symbols, hidden signs, and hints that we rarely understand but the presence of which we certainly feel. The immortal soul is something for the sake of which people live and do good – if there were no belief in immortality, people would grow immoral and would not think about the consequences of their deeds.
Ancient philosophers dedicated much of their writing to issues of life and death. Analyzing the work of Epicurus and his opinion on death voiced in the work “Letter to Menoeceus”, it becomes clear that the philosopher was highly confident in the existence of the immortal soul and its transition from one form of living into another one. However, he attributes more attention not to the death itself, but to the nature of fear of death. Epicurus relies on pure logic and practice approaches the subjectivity of this fear, trying to explain why it is senseless and foolish. He manages this point of view, characterizing the act of death – finish of the human existence. Thus, he wonders why people should be afraid of death since it never concerns them directly. As long as people are alive, death is not the problem for them since it is absent; as soon as they die, that is, death approaches them, they no longer exist, thus being unable to be concerned with it (Epicurus 100).
Logically, Epicurus arrives at the generalization that only one of the two may exist simultaneously – either a person or death. Judging from this angle, Epicurus assumes that people should not be afraid of death because as soon as it comes they will no longer exist, and while they exist there will be no death. He also comments on human dissatisfaction with life – people are initially born to be happy, so in case they are not happy and do not see a way to live their life happily, they have a set of tools available for leaving the life. Hence, Epicurus makes a conclusion that life cannot be sad or gloomy for people, and those who do not need it can leave it on their own will, thus getting free from the painful anticipation (Epicurus 101).
Plato approaches the subject of the afterlife in a different way, trying to prove whether the soul is an immortal substance or not. Utilizing the main assumptions of logic in the dialogue of Socrates with Cebes, Plato starts with the argument that all people should be afraid of death unless the immortality of the human soul is proven. He asserts that the human soul surely lives longer than the human body, being able to exist in several people; however, he doubts that it is immortal. No matter how long it exists, in case there is the end of its existence all people should fear death if they suppose they are the final element of its existence. In the process of the discussion and application of several logical inferences Socrates concludes in the dialogue: “Then, it seems, when death attacks a man, his mortal part dies, but his immortal part retreats before death, and goes away safe and indestructible” (Plato 97). Finally, this conclusion arouses one more inference from the whole set of arguments used in the process of discussion – “soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will indeed exist in the other world” (Plato 97). As one can see, ancient philosophy provides a strong basis for assuming that the human soul exists and proceeds to another world after death to be reborn in another creature afterward.
Notwithstanding the fact that the immortality of the human soul is widely recognized by philosophy and religion, it is still evident that the question does not find a unanimous decision on the subject – Buddhism is a good example of the counterargument to the existence of an immortal soul. Buddhism, in general, denies fear of death as the most wicked human weakness and egocentrism, the sense of possessing a soul that is actually unable to belong to anybody being a universal Soul, the unity of energies and forces that govern the whole world and not only one personality (Rahula 113). For this reason, Buddhism calls not to be afraid of death because every creature and every object in the world suffers death and rebirth every single moment of life, making fear of death senseless (Rahula 112).
Buddhism is governed by the idea of no-soul or no-self (the so-called doctrine of Anatta) (Rahula 113). The human being is considered to have two deeply-rooted psychological ideas – the one of self-protection and the one of self-preservation. To ensure the fulfillment of the former people create God, and the latter is ensured by the idea of an immortal Soul (Rahula 113). Thus, Buddhists state that all considerations about God (with any name in any religion) and immortality of human souls are false, subjective projections deriving from the human fears and weakness, while in fact there is no super-power and no soul but only a set of super-forces, energies that govern the universe (Rahula 113).
Summing everything that has been said up, it is possible to see how the issues of the afterlife and the immortality of the human soul find proponents and opponents in religion and philosophy. The greatest thinkers of ancient times, as well as modern philosophers, have been obsessed with determining the immortality of the soul, while Buddhism rejects its existence in general. Christianity is governed by ethics and morality much, trying to direct people at good deeds and making them ashamed of sins (immoral and unethical actions that impede on other’s rights or do harm to others) in the fear to get to hell after death. Those who live a good life, on the contrary, are promised to get to heaven where their happy life will continue and where their soul will not be submitted to tortures but will get the reward for all virtues the person committed during lifetime.
All theories and beliefs that have been discussed in the present work certainly possess some drawbacks and advantages for those who are interested in the issues of death and the afterlife, giving much food for thought regarding the immortality of the human soul. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the belief in the human soul immortality creates additional reasons for being ethically correct and responsible for one’s actions on a long-term, in-depth basis. Nobody will ever know whether there is something that awaits people after death, so the main source of information is human faith that dictates appropriate behavior. For this reason, it is necessary to rely on the existing opinions and to choose the ones that suit one’s religion, personal philosophy, or values – consideration of all these theories should be conducted only under the acceptance of an initial fact about overall ignorance of what really expects human beings after death.