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.