Death and Afterlife

222 Pages·1989·22.02 MB·English

by  Stephen T. Davis (auth.)

DEATH AND AFTERLIFE
Death and Afterlife
Stephen T. Davis
Professor of Philosophy and Religion
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, California
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-10528-1 ISBN 978-1-349-10526-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-10526-7
© Claremont Graduate School, 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1989
ISBN 978-0-312-03537-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Death and afterlife/[edited by] Stephen T. Davis.
p. em.
ISBN 978-0-312-03537-2
1. Death. 2. Death-Religious aspects. 3. Future life.
I. Davis, Stephen T., 1940-.
BD444.D34 1990
12~c20 89-39431
CIP
Contents
Notes on the Contributors vii
Introduction viii
1 The Faces of Immortality 1
Kai Nielsen
Response to Nielsen 31
John Hick
2 God, the Soul, and the Future Life 36
Paul Badham
God and the Soul: A Response to Paul Badham 53
Kai Nielsen
3 The Idea of Reincarnation 65
Joseph Prabhu
Karma and Rebirth in India: A Pessimistic Approach 81
Ariel Glucklich
4 Life After Death, Parapsychology, and 88
and Post-Modern Animism
David Ray Griffin
The Soul in Modern Philosophy: A Response 108
Edward J. Hughes
5 The Resurrection of the Dead 119
Stephen T. Davis
From Here to Eternity: A Response to Davis 145
Jerry A. Irish
God, the Soul, and Coherence: 149
A Response to Davis and Hick
Kai Nielsen
v
vi Contents
6 Memento Mori: The Buddhist Thinks about Death 154
Francis H. Cook
Zen and Death: A Response to Cook 172
Paul Badham
Response to Cook 177
John Hick
Response to Badham's Response 180
Francis H. Cook
7 A Possible Conception of Life After Death 183
John Hick
Conceivability and Immortality: 197
A Response to John Hick
Kai Nielsen
Index 204
Notes on the Contributors
Paul Badbam is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at
Saint David's University College, Lampeter, in the University of
Wales.
Francis H. Cook is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of
California at Riverside.
Stephen T. Davis is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at
Claremont McKenna College.
Ariel Glucklich is Assistant Professor of Modem Languages and
Literature at Pomona College.
David Ray Grifim is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at the
School of Theology at Claremont.
John Hick is Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at
Claremont Graduate School.
Edward J. Hughes is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the
University of LaVerne.
Jerry A. Irish is Vice-President and Dean of the College and
Professor of Religion at Pomona College.
Kai Nielsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary.
Joseph Prabhu is Professor of Philosophy at California State
University at Los Angeles.
vii
Introduction
Do we live after bodily death? This is surely one of the most pressing
questions we human beings ask. Virtually everyone has an opinion.
Virtually everyone is vitally interested in the answer. Does death end
all, so to speak? Or do we (in some sense) continue as conscious,
acting individuals after death?
It is sometimes said that death is the most fearful reality that we
face. Perhaps this is true. Death is a universal human problem. We
can find thinkers in all generations and cultures who are concerned
about death, fear of death, and the possibility of survival of death. It
might prove helpful to ask why death is such a frightening thing. Why
do most people look upon their own death with dread? Perhaps there
are (at least) the following six reasons that we fear death:
1. We all know that death is inevitable; but most of us do not know
when we will die. Accordingly, we live constantly under death's
threat.
2. Death is unknown. Death is not something that we experience but
is rather (as Wittgenstein put it) the end of experience. So there
are many opinions but few or no accepted truths about death and
what happens to us (if anything) after we die.
3. Every person must face death alone. Perhaps if we could expe
rience death together - if we could, so to speak, hold hands and
leap together into the void - death would not be so alarming to us.
Unfortunately we cannot.
4. In death we will be separated from our friends and loved ones.
5. In death our personal hopes and aims about the future will not be
realized.
6. There is a real and fearful possibility that death does indeed 'end
all', that my death means my annihilation as a person. After my
death, I simply no longer exist.
These fears (and other factors like religious tradition) naturally
lead people to wonder whether there is life after death. There seems
to be four main answers to the question: What happens to me, if
anything, after I die? These are the major options we find suggested
by reflective people, both religious and irreligious, throughout hi
story:
viii
Introduction ix
1. Nothing happens to me after I die because death is the end of me.
I may live on in other people's memories, or perhaps my influence
will continue for a time, but as a conscious, acting individual I do
not survive my death. We can call this the 'death ends all' option.
2. After my death my body disintegrates permanently, but my
immaterial essence (my mind, or soul, or jiva) is reborn in another
body (animal or human) here on earth, perhaps to be reborn again
many (or even an infinite number of) times. We can call this the
'reincarnation' option.
3. After death my body disintegrates, but my immaterial essence
lives on forever in an immaterial world. We can call this the
'immortality of the soul' option.
4. After death my body disintegrates, but at some point in the future
God will miraculously raise it from the ground and reconstitute me
as a person. We can call this the 'resurrection' option. It might
also be noted that these options are not necessarily mutually
exclusive. Many Christian and Islamic scholars, for example,
affirm both (3) and (4).
This is a book about death and the possibility of life after death. All
four of the options mentioned above are defended and discussed
here. The book began as a series of papers at a scholarly conference
called 'Death and Afterlife' held in Claremont, California in January
1987 under the auspices of the Department of Religion of the
Claremont Graduate School. All the papers included in the book
were written especially for the conference (although two have
appeared subsequently elsewhere). The responses to each paper that
were read at the conference are also included here, as are several
comments submitted later. The high level of the papers themselves,
the many positions they reflect, and the informed nature of the
debate led the participants to believe that the papers and comments
on the papers would constitute a unique and helpful book. We trust
that this has proved to be so.
Let me introduce the scholars who contributed the main chapters
of the book (in the order in which their papers appear in it). Kai
Nielsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. Well
known in the philosophy of religion as well as in other areas of
philosophy, Nielsen is an atheist who in this book defends his own
version of the 'death ends all' option. Paul Badham is Senior Lecturer
in Theology and Religious Studies at St David's University College,
Lampeter, in the University of Wales, where he co-ordinates a
X Introduction
unique master's degree programme in Death and Immortality. In his
paper Badham defends the viability and necessity of the concept of
the soul in Christian theology. Joseph Prabhu is Professor of Philo
sophy at California State University at Los Angeles. A native of
India, in this book Prabhu steps outside his normal area of expertise
(he is a Hegel scholar) and contributes an excellent contemporary
defence of reincarnation. David Ray Griffin is Professor of the
Philosophy of Religion at the School of Theology at Claremont.
Griffin's orientation is Whiteheadean; his paper is interesting in that
it goes beyond his own avowal earlier in his career of 'objective
immortality' toward a notion of personal survival of death. Stephen
T. Davis, the book's editor, is Professor of Philosophy at Claremont
McKenna College. In his paper he defends a traditional Christian
view of bodily resurrection. Francis H. Cook is Professor of Religious
Studies at the University of California at Riverside. A Buddhist
scholar and a practising Zen Buddhist, Cook presents a Buddhist
version of the 'death ends all' option. (I should add that because of
the lively nature of the debate stirred up by Cook's provocative
paper, I have allowed him to contribute a reply to his two main
critics.) John Hick is Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of
Religion at Claremont Graduate School, and was the organiser of the
conference. In his paper Hick summarises and defends. his own
survival of death thesis (developed originally in his Death and Eternal
Life), a unique synthesis of insights from reincarnation, immortality,
and resurrection.
Three other scholars contributed responses. Ariel Glucklich, an
expert in Hinduism, is Visiting Assistant Professor of Modem
Languages and Literatures at Pomona College. Edward J. Hughes is
Assistant of Philosophy at the University of LaVerne. And Jerry A.
Irish is Vice-President and Dean of the College and Professor of
Religion at Pomona College.
Do we live after bodily death? Bishop Butler (in his Of Personal
Identity) called that question 'the most important question which can
possibly be asked'. Those of us who have contributed to this book
may or may not agree with Butler's statement; we surely do agree,
however, that the question of life after death is a very important
question indeed. We are all of us professionally as well as personally
interested in it. Our hope is that the book will help readers
understand the various available answers to it, see the strengths and
weaknesses of each position, and decide on a plausible answer.