Human Nature And The Afterlife

While both Christians and Muslims agree on a life after death of either Heaven or Hell, the differences in their views of the afterlife reflect on how they each see God and what their main goal was to accomplish on earth. Both Christians and Muslims have a Holy Book to follow. Christians have the Bible and Muslims have the Qur’an. Both religions use these books as a guideline to eventually get to Heaven. Where the differences start to affect the afterlife is who each religion prays to. Christians pray to Jesus as God’s Son but Muslims pray to Muhammad. Because of this, Muslims say that Christianity is faulty (Schirrmacher). In the Bible, Christians are assured Salvation when they accept Christ as their personal Savior. Muslims are not assured

The question of Destiny, “Is there life after Death?”, “What happens to me when I die?” We as Christians believe that there are two outcomes to this question. One is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Heaven) (Revelation 21:1-7) while the other is eternal separation from God (Hell). This is totally dependent on our acceptance of Christ as our Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9).

Human nature is the free will of mankind. Free will to do and believe as one pleases is a gift from God. Free will does have consequences that result in the afterlife. Life does not end here as we know it. There is a heaven, which is where all live for eternity, who have followed and obeyed God and his divine word. Hell is a place of eternal punishment for those who reject God and his offer of love, life, and most important of all, the main key, Jesus Christ.

likely to go to hell for a period. In my opinion it would be unfair.

In the beginning when God created humanity, it was said that He created all humans in His image of goodness (Genesis 1:27). Dante then adds in his Divine Comedy that God has instilled a certain predetermined capacity of goodness in each human being as He wills, which should be utilized fully during life (Paradise 3:84). It would then be assumed, in Dantean thought, that all humans have the choice to live fully to this capacity and assume a place in heaven upon death, to fail to utilize this capacity and suffer in Hell for eternity, or to sin and seek repentance at some point in their lives, allowing them to enter Purgatory. Yet, this statement seems to have certain restrictions when we first look at

The aim of my report is to explain how the view of the afterlife in Ancient Greece has shaped works of art, books and the mentality of people. In order to do this I am going to explore how ancient Greek people saw the underworld as well as Roman people and the Renaissance period. Because Greeks saw the underworld as a dark, dreadful and gloomy place, many of the works that refer to it, either in Roman times or the Renaissance, are influenced by this view. In particular works like the Odyssey by Homer or The Phaedo by Plato, explained to a certain level the structure of the afterlife in ancient Greece. These two pieces of literature severely influenced works like the book VI of the Aeneid by Virgil where he depicts the underworld referencing to the Greek point of view. But a deeper description of the underworld is given by Dante in his Divine Comedy where he uses Virgil as his guide, from the depths of hell to the Purgatory while Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through heaven. All these time periods shared the idea of the underworld as being a place where souls pay the sins they committed during their lives.

The questions behind death and the afterlife have existed among all people from an immemorial time. Where do we go, what is it like, who or what is there, is what I’m doing today have an impact on where I end up?

The result of what happens to you after death is the consequence of a combination of the choices you made. It is believed that an individual can mold their own fate after their life ends you can either end the suffering by becoming enlightened by attaining nirvana or continue the cycle of life in rebirth over again. The biblical stance on the subject of destiny is different than the Buddhist. The Bible teaches us that if we repent our sins and give our life to God that once our earthly time is up that we will have eternal life in heaven with God. The other consequence would be that that if you live a life of sin and did not repent that you will not enter into heaven and will go to

Soon after creation humankind fell into sin. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sin is the universal condition of the human race. All people are born with a sinful nature. Sin has many serious consequences for humankind. Sin alienates humankind from God and keeps us from having a relationship with our Creator. Sin provides a sickness that keeps us from becoming the person we should be. People want to live good lives but are forced by sin to fall short. The ultimate consequence of sin can be found in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.” Having an understanding of the extent and effect of sin is key to developing a worldview. I know I cannot escape the confines of sin. It is my nature as a human being to sin. In his divine wisdom, God also knew that his creation could not keep the original covenant of obedience so he would have to set a new covenant with creation.

On the contrary, this view stems from looking at the punishment from the standpoint of human justice systems. This is not a valid way to view hell as a punishment because God determined what acts deserved what punish meant a great number of years before the creation of any human justice systems. Although you must “die” an earthly to be sent to Hell, you are not “dead” while in Hell because you can not be tormented if you are dead. The unsaved will have everlasting consciousness which enables them to suffer the torment.

There are many theories surrounding the perils of the afterlife. Depending upon a person’s belief the place where perils reside take many names, shapes, and forms. Although there are many descriptions of the types of peril that a deceased might come across in the afterlife there is a common theme. Whatever the peril may be it is infinite. Eternal punishment and peril for acts committed on earth. In Christianity it is called conditional immortality. The belief that a soul is born mortal but, from accepting salvation through Christ gains immortality (Gray). Those who are not saved are subjected to an eternity in hell. For the short amount of time on earth that humans live, a person can suffer an eternity of perils in the afterlife. There is a movement on an idea that tries to explain that conditional immortality doesn’t mean an infinite perils and punishment. In an article by the New York Times a Christian Minister Edward Fudge and his

​This paper will analyze afterlife in Hinduism and in Catholicism. Afterlife will be considered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1020-1060 and in Romans 10. Afterlife will also be considered in Bhagavad Gita 2:27, Obayashi page 146 and in Rig Veda 10.14.8. This topic is intriguing because death is a part of life and it is interesting to see the different perspectives of their two religions and of what happens in the afterlife. Besides the perspectives, this topic studies the greatest mystery of life, death which is an uncommon topic since people usually shy away from talking about this because of the emotional implications that it brings to people.

When it is performed on a dying person it is often referred to as the

     Considering my thoughts on the afterlife is something I have done several times in my life. My views and beliefs have changed over the years regarding this subject. My Catholic upbringing was probably where my first views came from. They were the traditional heaven and hell beliefs and also of purgatory. Today my thoughts are not so black and white.

     Before Adam and Eve’s decision there was no sin or death, because of their actions we now have to deal with both. This brings up the question of where original sin came from. We know that God cannot create evil, so it did not come from Him. He gave man free will. From this man went against God and therefore created sin. Because of this we know have inherited depravity. We can not