Personal Immortality: Arguments

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Personal Immortality Arguments
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

• Socrates/Descartes unlike the body, the soul is
  simple, immaterial, does not come apart
• Objection death is not dissolution of material
  parts, only the end of bodily (brain) activity
• Peter van Inwagen God re-creates our
  same body after we die
• Objection no re-creation would be identical

(1942- )
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Personal ImmortalityArguments (continued)
Kant

• If there is a loving God, he would give us more
  than the brief span of our time on earth
• Objection this assumes that there is such a God
• Kant morality requires that the injustices of
  this life be balanced in an afterlife
• Objection morality does not require happiness to
  match virtue so eternity is unnecessary

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Personal ImmortalityArguments (continued)

• The fact that the belief in an afterlife is found
  almost universally argues in its favor
• Objection this shows only widespread desire
• Reports of near death experiences are too
  common, similar, and accurate to ignore
• Objection such reports are explainable in purely
  psychological terms

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Personal ImmortalityArguments (continued)

• Reports of reincarnation are also widespread
• Objections why dont babies remember their past
  lives? Furthermore, not enough people have lived
  in the past to account for everyone today
• Reports of communication with the dead and
  miracles are likewise widespread
• Objection (Hume) these are due to
  wishful thinking and deception

David Hume