Sirochman,Sam

Sam Sirochman D-Band 10/23/09


 * Do different religions believe in different versions of the afterlife? **

People are always arguing over which religion is best. They argue over who is right and who is wrong, but people rarely take the time to compare the different promises each offers. In Judaism there is no definition of the afterlife, in Buddhism karma determines how you are reincarnated, and in Christianity the way you live your life determines whether you go to heaven or hell. The essay is set up with a brief introduction into what you will be reading and the interpretation is immediately after then it is the analysis.

The following quote is talking about the afterlife that most Christians believe: // “ //**// Christian beliefs about the afterlife //** // vary between denominations and individual Christians, but the vast majority of Christians believe in some kind of ** heaven **, in which believers enjoy the presence of God and other believers and freedom from suffering and sin. A slightly lesser majority of Christians believe in the existence of ** hell **, where unbelievers or sinners are punished. Views differ as to whether hell is eternal and whether its punishment is spiritual or physical. Some Christians reject the notion altogether. Catholic Christians also believe in ** purgatory **, a temporary place of punishment for Christians who have died with unconfessed sins. “ // The quotes are saying that there are two places of eternal rest and one place of judgment that results in spending your afterlife in paradise or spending your afterlife in eternal pain. That depending on how you lived your life it depends on how you spend your life after death. If you are good you go to a paradise named heaven if you are bad you go to a place where pain is abundant and no shortages of it named hell.
 * Christianity: **

The meaning of this quote though is that if you followed the laws of god and never tried to knowingly do wrong you will be rewarded with eternal happiness. If you don’t listen to god and break the Ten Commandments you will not be happy for the afterlife. Instead of prison, you would go to hell. In many ways this is just a more blunt version of how life in America is. The following quote is talking about the afterlife that most Buddhists believe: The following quote is about Buddhists and how everyone goes on, rather than actual souls, but rather that someone who is just like you is put here to get what you desired until everything you desired is acquired you will then experience Nirvana and cease to be.
 * Buddhism: **

My analysis is that Buddhists do not believe in reincarnation, but that they are just temporary, but how you live your life will determine what your rebirth will be, and that karma doesn’t happen in that life, but rather it happens when your next life will be determined as. Also that people are not put together by chance but rather by how they lived their life and that determines the nature of their rebirth. // “ //// Buddha accepted the basic Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and karma, as well as the notion that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Buddha asserted that what keeps us bound to the death/rebirth process is desire, desire in the sense of wanting or craving anything in the world. Hence, the goal of getting off the Ferris wheel of reincarnation necessarily involves freeing oneself from desire. //[|//Nirvana//]// is the Buddhist term for liberation. Nirvana literally means extinction, and it refers to the extinction of all craving, an extinction that allows one to become liberated. Where Buddha departed most radically from Hinduism was in his doctrine of " //[|//anatta//]// ", the notion that individuals do not possess eternal souls. Instead of eternal souls, individuals consist of a "bundle" of habits, memories, sensations, desires, and so forth, which together delude one into thinking that he or she consists of a stable, lasting self.” // // “ To Buddhists, the human person is but a temporary assemblage of various elements, both physical and psychical, and none of these individual aspects of a whole person can be isolated as the essential self; nor can the sum of them all constitute the self. Everything, all of reality, is in a constant state of change and decay. Because a human is composed of so many elements that are always in a state of flux, always dissolving and combining with one another in new ways, it is impossible to suggest that an individual could retain the same soul-self for eternity. Rather than atman, Buddhist doctrine teaches anatman/or, "no-self."//

//“Although the Buddha (c. 567–487 B.C.E.) denied the Hindu concept of an immortal self that passes through a series of incarnations, he did accept the doctrines of karma ("actions," the cause-and-effect laws of material existence) and samsara (rebirth). If the Buddha recognized rebirth into another lifetime but did not believe in an essential self or soul, then what would be reborn? The Buddhist answer is difficult to comprehend; the various components in the perpetual process of change that constitute human beings do not reassemble themselves by random chance. The karmic laws determine the nature of a person's rebirth.”//

The previous quotes are about Buddhists and how everyone goes on, rather than actual souls, but rather that someone who is just like you is put here to get what you desired until everything you desired is acquired you will then experience Nirvana and cease to be. Buddhism is a very difficult religion to understand when discussing the afterlife but in simplified words, your afterlife is defined by how you lived your previous life, and the term is karma.

My analysis is that Buddhists do not believe in reincarnation, but that they are just temporary, but how you live your life will determine what your rebirth will be, and that karma doesn’t happen in that life, but rather it happens when your next life will be determined as. Also that people are not put together by chance but rather by how they lived their life and that determines the nature of their rebirth. Another major concept needed to be understood for any of this to make sense is “anatta” which is a person’s likes/dislike, sensations, memories, and so forth which makes someone believe that they are in fact a being from a previous life.

The following quote is talking about the afterlife that most Jews believe: // “ //// Traditional Judaism firmly believes that //[|//death//]// is not the end of human existence. However, because Judaism is primarily focused on life here and now rather than on the afterlife, Judaism does not have much dogma about the afterlife, and leaves a great deal of room for personal opinion. It is possible for an //[|//Orthodox//]// Jew to believe that the souls of the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian heaven, or that they are reincarnated through many lifetimes, or that they simply wait until the coming of the //[|//messiah//]//, when they will be resurrected. Likewise, Orthodox Jews can believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented by demons of their own creation, or that wicked souls are simply destroyed at death, ceasing to exist.” // // “the afterlife is less essential for Judaism than for other world religions. It would, in fact, be relatively easy to imagine Judaism without any afterlife beliefs whatsoever.” // // “Because of the non-centrality of the afterlife for Judaism, this tradition has been able to entertain a //[|//wide variety of different afterlife notions//]// throughout its history, more so than perhaps any other religion.” // // “The ancient Hebrews emphasized the importance of the present life over the afterlife. As with both the ancient Greeks and Mesopotamians, the afterlife, if it was considered at all, was conceived of as a pale shadow of earthly life, much like the Greek Hades. Also similar to the Greek Hades, in the Hebrew afterlife no distinction was made between the treatment of the just and the unjust after death. Instead, rewards and punishments were meted out in the present life, and in the covenant "contract" Yahweh promised to do just that.” // Jews believe that there is no need for an after life; all rewards will be given on earth. Jews could live their entire lives without believing there was an afterlife and they would be happy, because in the Torah there is no definition of the afterlife. There is room for Jews to believe what they want to believe, because there is no rule against it. My analysis is Jews simply don’t care about the after life; they care about what’s happening here and now. Forget eternal happiness, all good deeds will be rewarded on earth. Death is not the end, but there is no way to predict what happens after death. Some Jews believe in Christian afterlife some believe in other things, it’s all about how you want to think about it. Jews are leaving it a clean slate so that people won’t lose faith and realistically the afterlife is whatever they want it to be. This was a particularly hard paper to write, but because it was so difficult means I am taking much more away from it. I learned that Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhists all have beliefs in afterlife, that greatly differ from one another. I learned that Christianity is very much like American government, in if your good you stay in paradise, and if your bad you go to hell which would be prison. I learned that Judaism is more of a “no day is better than today” mindset, because of their undefined belief in afterlife. Finally I learned that Buddhism is a very, very complex religion, because there is no such thing as reincarnation but rather “samsara” which means rebirth, because you do not come back with the same mentality different body, you come back as something depending on how you lived your previous life (what you can come back as is also very fuzzy), you will come back as a bundle of what you liked, did not like, memories/sensations that give the appearance of steady life. A connection I made was that all religions are reminiscent of some type of judicial system, Christianity is like American Judicial system as in you get what you deserve, Buddhism is reminiscent of some type of middle eastern judicial system as in if you act poorly, and decide to steal you lose your hands, because you did something wrong, which is similar to Buddhism because of how you acted your life is different after the crime. Judaism is reminiscent of a tribe because they are not telling you we will lock you up and keep you away from life, but rather as in they will just exile you and not keep you from any promises but instead just ruin your life right now. They are important in today’s world because in times of fiscal irregularities and declines and all the hardships going on there is still something to believe and make you stay straight and live a good life.
 * Judaism **