Disembodied Existence After Death Is Incoherent
Disembodied existence after death is incoherent
The idea of disembodied existence is a dualist view; that the soul and the body are two separate things. Dualists believe that the soul can live on after the death of the body.
A prime example of a dualist would be Plato; he believed that the body was gross and unthinking object that has cravings and desires and it connected to sensory illusions. But he believed that the soul was in fact a thoughtful and eternal and craves intellectual stimulation and philosophy and originated from the world of the forms. Plato thought that in time the soul would go back to its origin of the world of forms. He showed his view through an analogy of a charioteer; the charioteer is the soul controlling two horses which are the body and the mind. The horses have separate desires; the body desires sex, food, water and physical gratification but the mind wants philosophy, ideas, concepts and intellectual stimulation; the soul is the controlling force that ensures the chariot meets its destination. The major criticism with Plato’s theory is the idea that the soul is immortal and came from the world of forms; how is it possible that something can remember the life in the world of forms if it doesn’t have any senses in order for it to have remembered. Gilbert Ryle would criticise this view and agree with the statement as he believed a soul was much like ‘a ghost in a machine’ and this was a ‘categorical mistake’ and a mistake in language.
John Hick believed that the body and soul were as one and if one were to die then the other will die. However he did believe that the body could live after death as an exact replica of themselves. Hick believed that resurrection is logically possible and aimed to show this as he explained that a replica of our body and memory in the afterlife. It could be argued that if god is all powerful it would be quite simply to recreate the same persons again and as heaven in the Bible is referred to as another
The idea of disembodied existence is a dualist view; that the soul and the body are two separate things. Dualists believe that the soul can live on after the death of the body.
A prime example of a dualist would be Plato; he believed that the body was gross and unthinking object that has cravings and desires and it connected to sensory illusions. But he believed that the soul was in fact a thoughtful and eternal and craves intellectual stimulation and philosophy and originated from the world of the forms. Plato thought that in time the soul would go back to its origin of the world of forms. He showed his view through an analogy of a charioteer; the charioteer is the soul controlling two horses which are the body and the mind. The horses have separate desires; the body desires sex, food, water and physical gratification but the mind wants philosophy, ideas, concepts and intellectual stimulation; the soul is the controlling force that ensures the chariot meets its destination. The major criticism with Plato’s theory is the idea that the soul is immortal and came from the world of forms; how is it possible that something can remember the life in the world of forms if it doesn’t have any senses in order for it to have remembered. Gilbert Ryle would criticise this view and agree with the statement as he believed a soul was much like ‘a ghost in a machine’ and this was a ‘categorical mistake’ and a mistake in language.
John Hick believed that the body and soul were as one and if one were to die then the other will die. However he did believe that the body could live after death as an exact replica of themselves. Hick believed that resurrection is logically possible and aimed to show this as he explained that a replica of our body and memory in the afterlife. It could be argued that if god is all powerful it would be quite simply to recreate the same persons again and as heaven in the Bible is referred to as another