Philosophy of Religion

an online textbook

Philip A. Pecorino, Ph.D.

  • CUNY:  Queensborough Community College

  • CUNY: Graduate School and University Center, School of Professional Studies,

  • SUNY, Suffolk County Community College

Chapter  7: The Existence of Souls and the Resurrection 

Section 2 The Questions

Here are some of the questions raised by the most common beliefs concerning the afterlife.

Will we survive in any way? As a soul or spirit?

Do souls exist? How do we know?

What evidence is there for the existence of the soul or spirit that can live apart from the body?

What evidence is there for the survival of the soul or spirit?

What evidence or support is there for the idea that a soul will exist for all eternity, i.e., forever or for an infinity?

Will we get our bodies back? If so, which one? What will life in the hereafter be like?

There are also the questions that are seldom raised or discussed in the West including such as:

If there is a deity is it still possible that there are no souls?

If there is a deity is it possible that the are souls but that they do not exist for all eternity or forever but instead that the souls cease to exist as individual entities and are either extinguished altogether or transformed or taken into the existence of the deity or the absolute?

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© Copyright Philip A. Pecorino 2001. All Rights reserved.

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