Death And The Afterlife Essay

Cassie Clark
Death & the Afterlife
24 April 2014

Essay #1: Death & the Afterlife
In a time where science and materialism reign, the topic of the soul is rarely mentioned, ostensibly left in the past with the philosophers of old. Nichols, however, candidly broaches this difficult topic and gives new life to the argument that humans do indeed have an immaterial, immortal soul. Nichols summarizes several popular arguments for the existence of the soul as he builds his own argument, which discusses a soul as limited in relation to its environment as well as a soul that is one with the mind and a controller of the body. He discusses both the strengths and challenges to his argument, offering rebuttals to the challenges. Because this soul is the organizing principle of the body it is involved in the Resurrection as well, bridging the gap between the material and spiritual worlds. However, I disagree with Nichols’ assessment, instead choosing the side of materialism where an immaterial soul does not exist.
Nichols has named his position “the soul as subject-in-relation,” which he categorizes as holistic dualism (Death and the Afterlife, 129). This viewpoint attempts to blend modern scientific and traditional theological beliefs into one comprehensive view of the human soul. In this view, he defines the soul as “the subject of personal consciousness (or personal identity),” the home of one’s mind and will (Death and the Afterlife, 129). In short, a person’s entire being, minus the physical aspects, is housed in this immaterial soul. However, the soul cannot exist on its own– it is limited by its environment, physical or otherwise.
Nichols states that in life, the soul is one with the mind and as such the brain and body, which limi...

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...physical processes. I am in awe of what the human brain can do, and I think it is absolutely amazing that such an advanced and beautiful system could develop over thousands of years.
I cannot say with any degree of certainty that we do not have an immortal soul – one can rarely be certain about anything of the sort either way. Our universe is beyond our current understanding and in fact could very well be capable of producing such a thing as a soul. I am open to the discovery of new knowledge, but I feel that, to be trusted, that knowledge must be well supported and be testable by producing consistent results. Similarly, although we may not have a physical explanation for consciousness yet, progress is being made in these investigations and there is still much work to do. In either case, I say just because there is no answer now does not mean there will never be.