Introduction
According to the traditional perception of immortality, the after-life or eternal life follows the physical death of a body, but the soul stays immortal. In conformity with the religious or philosophic fellowship, the personal identity of a human either stays the same, either disappears. The idea of the hereafter is connected to the understanding of the absolute and its influences on memory and body levels. Meanwhile, the concepts of existence and death can relate to God or have no spiritual background.
Immortality and Personal Identity
The after-death understanding of personal identity can be regarded from absolutist, memory, and body points of view and depend on religion. The philosophy of absolute requires individual souls to dissolve in space without memories left. This concept is common for such religions as Hinduism and Buddhism, and such philosophies as Absolute idealism and British idealism. The real-world body may decay, stay the same, or disappear depending on the techniques the dying one uses (Goetz & Seachris, 2020). For example, in yoga through meditations, the enlightened can get to the rainbow body when the physical body completely vanishes from the material world.
Such religions as Christianity regard death from the position opposite to the absolute. Conventional Christianity studies death as the transition of a spirit to Heavens or Hell, depending on actions a human has done during mortal life. In Buddhism, a soul gets through numerous regenerations till it releases from its karma, and becomes a part of absolute, with no personality, ego, or thoughts. Consequently, with the complete decay of the physical form, Christianity seeks the preservation of individuality with its memory as a measure and a burden. Contrary to this, with physical death as an optional occurrence, Buddhism stands for the complete liberation from memory.
God, Death, and the Meaning of Life
All religious dogmas can be classified as supernaturalism, while non-religious religious concepts of God, death, and the meaning of life are regarded from different points and include objective naturalism, subjective naturalism, and pessimistic naturalism. These views have either material-related, spiritual-related ideas of eternity with God either non-existing, either being the starting point of life (Ruse, 2019). To understand the concepts clearly, more detailed descriptions are required.
Supernaturalism
Supernaturalism stands for the existence of the non-material world with extraordinary powers, and creatures. According to this concept, God is the creator of life and the maker of events. His will determines consequences, while humans are not able to unriddle his puzzles. Their target is to praise the mysteries of life as miracles, to escape from evil, to commit no sins, to do good deeds, and to prepare for the sacrament of death (Benatar, 2017). The idea of decease is not regarded as the end of existence, but as a transition to the afterlife. Consequently, God is a key figure for this doctrine of absolute certainty in immortal souls.
Objective Naturalism, Subjective Naturalism, and Pessimistic Naturalism
Apart from supernaturalism, all types of naturalism relate to the visible meatspace. The objective requires an empiric attitude to the world with no God or afterlife. Death is a physical process after which only scientifically proven. Subjective has similar basics with the same understanding of disease but is marked by the non-material core — love. In concordance with this philosophic system, the meaning of life without God is centered on neighborly charity. Such contrasting ideas lead to the conclusion that, though subjective naturalism rejects God, it is seeking him. Contrary to this optimistic concept, pessimistic naturalism, or Nihilism, is based on the idea that God is the must for a meaningful life, but he does not exist, and nothing has its value, including death.
Conclusion
In different religious denominations and schools of thought concepts of after-life depend on the materialistic or supernaturalistic attitude and the connection with the absolute. The science-related approach eliminates the idea of the hereafter but does not suspend such ephemeral notions as love. Meantime, spiritual-oriented dogmas explore the after-time both from the physical and ecclesiastical points.
References
Benatar, D. (2017). The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions. Oxford University Press.
Goetz, S. & Seachris, J. (2020). What is This Thing Called The Meaning of Life? Routledge.
Ruse, M. (2019) A Meaning to Life.Oxford University Press.