Death and the Afterlife

Death and the Afterlife
Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Publisher: Union Square + ORM
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 145491727X

The acclaimed science author’s illustrated exploration of death from ancient burial practices to the latest theories of immortality, resurrection and more. Throughout history, the nature and mystery of death has captivated artists, scientists, philosophers, physicians, and theologians. This eerie chronology ventures right to the borderlines of science and sheds light into the darkness. Here, topics as wide ranging as the Maya death gods, golems, and séances sit side by side with entries on zombies and quantum immortality. With the turn of every page, readers will encounter beautiful artwork, along with unexpected insights about death and what may lie beyond.

Death and the Afterlife

Death and the Afterlife
Author: Samuel Scheffler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2013-09-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019998252X

Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children? In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.

Life After Death

Life After Death
Author: Farnaz Masumian
Publisher: Oneworld Publications Limited
Total Pages: 153
Release: 1995
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781851680740

This volume looks in detail at the life-after-death doctrines of seven world religions and asks many questions such as: are there important parallels between the many accounts of near-death experiences, and what happens to us when we actually die?; is there a part of us that conquers death?; If so, will that entity have a personal or universal encounter with it's creator at some point? The author draws out many corresponding features in reported near-death experiences, and demonstrates the unity of all religions in their approach to death and the afterlife.

Death and Afterlife

Death and Afterlife
Author: Hiroshi Obayashi
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1992
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN:

Examines the subject of death and immortality in Africa, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece. Also from the point of view of the Old Testament, New Testament, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Tibetan Trantric and Chinese religions.

The Myth of an Afterlife

The Myth of an Afterlife
Author: Michael Martin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 709
Release: 2015-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0810886782

Because every single one of us will die, most of us would like to know what—if anything—awaits us afterward, not to mention the fate of lost loved ones. Given the nearly universal vested interest in deciding this question in favor of an afterlife, it is no surprise that the vast majority of books on the topic affirm the reality of life after death without a backward glance. But the evidence of our senses and the ever-gaining strength of scientific evidence strongly suggest otherwise. In The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life after Death, Michael Martin and Keith Augustine collect a series of contributions that redress this imbalance in the literature by providing a strong, comprehensive, and up-to-date casebook of the chief arguments against an afterlife. Divided into four separate sections, this collection opens with a broad overview of the issues, as contributors consider the strongest evidence of whether or not we survive death—in particular the biological basis of all mental states and their grounding in brain activity that ceases to function at death. Next, contributors consider a host of conceptual and empirical difficulties that confront the various ways of “surviving” death—from bodiless minds to bodily resurrection to any form of posthumous survival. Then essayists turn to internal inconsistencies between traditional theological conceptions of an afterlife—heaven, hell, karmic rebirth—and widely held ethical principles central to the belief systems supporting those notions. In the final section, authors offer critical evaluations of the main types of evidence for an afterlife. Fully interdisciplinary, The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life after Death brings together a variety of fields of research to make that case, including cognitiveneuroscience, philosophy of mind, personal identity, philosophy of religion, moralphilosophy, psychical research, and anomalistic psychology. As the definitive casebookof arguments against life after death, this collection is required reading for anyinstructor, researcher, and student of philosophy, religious studies, or theology. It issure to raise provocative issues new to readers, regardless of background, from thosewho believe fervently in the reality of an afterlife to those who do not or are undecidedon the matter.

Life After Death

Life After Death
Author: Alan Segal
Publisher: Image
Total Pages: 882
Release: 2010-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307874737

A magisterial work of social history, Life After Death illuminates the many different ways ancient civilizations grappled with the question of what exactly happens to us after we die. In a masterful exploration of how Western civilizations have defined the afterlife, Alan F. Segal weaves together biblical and literary scholarship, sociology, history, and philosophy. A renowned scholar, Segal examines the maps of the afterlife found in Western religious texts and reveals not only what various cultures believed but how their notions reflected their societies’ realities and ideals, and why those beliefs changed over time. He maintains that the afterlife is the mirror in which a society arranges its concept of the self. The composition process for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam begins in grief and ends in the victory of the self over death. Arguing that in every religious tradition the afterlife represents the ultimate reward for the good, Segal combines historical and anthropological data with insights gleaned from religious and philosophical writings to explain the following mysteries: why the Egyptians insisted on an afterlife in heaven, while the body was embalmed in a tomb on earth; why the Babylonians viewed the dead as living in underground prisons; why the Hebrews remained silent about life after death during the period of the First Temple, yet embraced it in the Second Temple period (534 B.C.E. –70 C.E.); and why Christianity placed the afterlife in the center of its belief system. He discusses the inner dialogues and arguments within Judaism and Christianity, showing the underlying dynamic behind them, as well as the ideas that mark the differences between the two religions. In a thoughtful examination of the influence of biblical views of heaven and martyrdom on Islamic beliefs, he offers a fascinating perspective on the current troubling rise of Islamic fundamentalism. In tracing the organic, historical relationships between sacred texts and communities of belief and comparing the visions of life after death that have emerged throughout history, Segal sheds a bright, revealing light on the intimate connections between notions of the afterlife, the societies that produced them, and the individual’s search for the ultimate meaning of life on earth.

Life After Death

Life After Death
Author: Deepak Chopra
Publisher: Harmony
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2006
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0307345785

Deepak Chopra turns to the most profound mystery confronting humankind: What happens after we die? By marrying science and wisdom, Chopra builds his case for afterlife, in which one's most essential self uses the end of life to "pass over" into the next lifetime.

Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt

Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
Author: John H. Taylor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2001-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780226791647

Of all the ancient peoples, the Egyptians are perhaps best known for the fascinating ways in which they grappled with the mysteries of death and the afterlife. This beautifully illustrated book draws on the British Museum's world-famous collection of mummies and other funerary evidence to offer an accessible account of Egyptian beliefs in an afterlife and examine the ways in which Egyptian society responded materially to the challenges these beliefs imposed. The author describes in detail the numerous provisions made for the dead and the intricate rituals carried out on their behalf. He considers embalming, coffins and sarcophagi, shabti figures, magic and ritual, and amulets and papyri, as well as the mummification of sacred animals, which were buried by the millions in vast labyrinthine catacombs. The text also reflects recent developments in the interpretation of Egyptian burial practices, and incorporates the results of much new scientific research. Newly acquired information derives from a range of sophisticated applications, such as the use of noninvasive imaging techniques to look inside the wrappings of a mummy, and the chemical analysis of materials used in the embalming process. Authoritative, concise, and lucidly written, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt illuminates aspects of this complex, vibrant culture that still perplex us more than 3,000 years later.

Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament

Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament
Author: Jaime Clark-Soles
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2006-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567029123

There is no systematic theology in the New Testament regarding death and aftelife. Therefore, the appropriate question, as it turns out, is not: What does the New Testament say about death and afterlife, but what do various New Testament texts say about it? She explores anthropology, cosmology, eschatology, and, where relevant, theology and Christology.