Death in Different Religions
Death has a great impact on people's lives in such a way that they learn to value life or even live it to the fullest. But what happens to us after we die? Many religions have answered this question for us according to their faiths. Buddhism is a religion where Buddhists believe in the concept of death and reincarnation or rebirth. On the other hand, Christians believe that after you die you go into a period of dormancy and until the second coming of Jesus will you be woken up and decided your fate whether you go to heaven or hell according to how you have lived your life. Christianity teaches salvation from sin through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Through Him, the gift of eternal life is also attained.
Christianity started as a missionary religion and has now become the world's most widespread faith. It focuses on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The traditional story of Jesus tells of his birth in a stable in Bethlehem in the Holy Land, to a young virgin called Mary who had become pregnant with the son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit. The story of Jesus' birth is told in the writings of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. The New Testament, a collection of twenty-seven books written in the century after Jesus' death in 30 C.E., has had importance by shaping the church's teachings, ethics, ritual, organization, and mission in the world (Van Voorst 245). His birth is believed by Christians to be the fulfillment of prophecies in the Jewish Old Testament which claimed that a Messiah would deliver the Jewish people from captivity ("The Basics").
Christians ultimately believe in two places to go after death, Heaven where eternity is spent in a state that is beautiful beyond our ability to conceive, or Hell, where eternity is spent with Satan and his demons. All are tormented and tortured, in isolation from God, without any hope of mercy or relief (Robinson).
Many Christians believe that when a person dies, they enter into complete oblivion - a state of non-existence. They remain in dormancy. At the time of the second coming of Jesus, the dead are resurrected and judged. Those who had been saved while on earth will be given special bodies and go to Heaven unlike the unsaved who will go to Hell for eternal punishment (Robinson).
From birth, Jesus of Nazareth was known to be special, something the world had never seen. The legendary birth, his mother being the Virgin Mary, that night in the manger in Bethlehem presented the world with the man who would become known as the Messiah, the one who, according to Christianity, would rescue the world and offer it everlasting life. Jesus knew of his calling and his holy purpose on Earth. While Mary and her husband, Joseph, a carpenter, raised Jesus as a child, much is not known of the early life of Jesus through scripture, or accounted for through historical evidence. It is not...
Each religion has its own idea of what will happen in the afterlife. In Buddhism, they believe that dying is apart of an ongoing cycle until the dead receive enlightenment. This cycle is called Samsara and by definition means an ongoing cycle of life and death until that person reaches enlightenment (heaven). There is a three stage cycle that occurs from the moment you die until you are reincarnated; This process is called The Three Bardo's. The first bardo is when the soul goes into a trance and often doesn't realize that they have passed away. People recall seeing a bright light once in this trance and if that person welcomes the light then they will not be reincarnated, but most people flee from this light. The second bardo begins when the person realizes they are dead. The deceased will see everything that they have done or throughout their life. The third bardo and final stage contains a longing for possessing someone. When they do posses someone the rebirth occurs and they are reincarnated as a living
Many religions and philosophies attempt to answer the question, what happens after a person dies? Some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, believe there is an afterlife. They believe that good and moral people enter Heaven or Paradise and that bad and immoral people go to Hell. Other religions and cultures believe that death is final, and that nothing happens after a person dies. Buddhism and Hinduism have different ideas about death.
The five Eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto have some similarities when it comes to the their beliefs on death. Hinduism and Buddhism both believe in karma and reincarnation, while Daoism and Shintoism revolve their beliefs around nature. Confucianism chooses not to focus on things we do not know, so their beliefs on death are limited. In deciphering the different beliefs on death associated with each religion, it is important to understand the different belief systems and their origins. While some religions merged the views of the other religions, some came from the views of an originating founder. Each religion has their own view on life after death and whether or not their followers should be concerned
The New Testament teaches about who Jesus is and what he did on the earth. John wrote the last of the four gospels which recount Jesus’ life and what is to come. The gospel of John is somewhat different from the other three gospels, in that it is more symbolic and less concrete. For example, John expresses Jesus as the Passover Lamb when Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not. This gospel is showing that Christianity is moving away from the long-practiced Jewish traditions. John’s gospel can be laid out into four parts: the prologue or the incarnate word, signs of the Messiah with teachings about life in him, the farewell teaching and the passion narrative, and the epilogue or the roles of Peter and of the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Gospel of John is arguably the most
“You will be with me today in paradise,” Jesus Christ told this to the thief on the cross while they were dying. However, can people believe that there is truly life after death? In many different religions there are different perceptions of life after death. For example in the Buddhist religion, the Buddhist people believe that life is practice for death. Professor Brown, of California State University of Northridge stated, “The Buddhist people cultivate positive, happy virtuous states of mind and abandoning non-virtuous, harmful, suffering states of mind.” This teaching is mirrored by Christianity teachings as well. Professor Brown also stated, “Death is an opportunity for great spiritual achievement if one is prepared and remembers one’s spiritual practices and beliefs and understandings during the death process.”
Each month our educational center section provides the Hinduism Today staff with a 'kind of group meditation. Individually we ponder our subject, and together we discuss it in detail. These past 30 days our meditation was on death. You might think we had a morbid March. Not so, since, as U.S. General George Patton rightly noted, "For Hindus death is the most exalted experience of life."
Afterlife myths explain what becomes of the soul after the body dies, as humans have a problem accepting the possibility that the soul becomes nothing.
There are multiple views on death and the afterlife and each view is different depending on the religion or belief that someone practices. Some religions believe in a heaven but not a hell, some believe in both and others do not believe in either. The religions that are practiced today were created by our ancient ancestors who had the ability to think beyond themselves. Practicing a religion and having an idea of death and an afterlife back in ancient times laid a foundation on how religion is seen and practiced today. Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Hindu’s created the concept of death and life after death through what they believed and practiced in ancient times.
Most cultures generally share a universal belief that there is some form of an afterlife. In the gospel of Matthew, the idea of life after death is shown through the teachings of Jesus. Since Jesus is considered to be the Son of God, he preaches that once the body of a human has died, their soul continues to live on. Although they are physically dead on Earth, the spirit of the person moves on to the next life. Jesus says to his followers “I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). His Father’s kingdom refers to the notion of heaven, where all souls gather after their death on Earth. The Christian belief in the gospel of where the soul goes after death is very different from the Greek view portrayed by Homer.
Christians, for example, believe that souls that have lived by the words of their God will exist eternally in heaven as divine beings themselves. This conception of an afterlife is generally what we people who are residents of the Unitied States hold to be true. For American culture has its roots in Europe and European culture was and is still influenced by Christian faiths. Similar to Christianity, the Hinduism also eases the fear of death by presenting a life after death. Disimilarities present themselves in the two faiths concerning exactly what kind of afterlife is lived. Believers of the Hindu faith expect to be reincarnated after their demise, either as an animal or human being depending on the manner in which their lives were carried out.
The Bible contains two parts, which are the Old Testament, the so-called the Jewish Bible, and the New Testament. Though many different writers involved in writing the Bible, the two Testaments are not independent; they are cross-referenced to each other. Christians often treat the Old Testament not only as the historical documents or literatures of the Israelites, but also as an important element of the foundation of the New Testament, because the writers of the New Testament lay strong emphasis on the relationship of Jesus with the prophecies of the Old Testament, which includes "the birth of Jesus, the place of His birth, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the role of John the Baptist in preparing Jesus for His public ministry," the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus.
Socrates and Christians both believe that you should anticipate death and prepare for it. But Socrates’ view on death is far different from the view that Christians have in the fact that Socrates states that you will become nonexistent when you die. On the other hand, Christians believe that your soul lives on in either Heaven or Hell. Socrates view in not accurate because your soul lives on in Heaven or Hell, it doesn’t just become nonexistent, your soul lives forever.
What is going to happen to us when we will die? Some people never considered what it could happen to them after life. For many people, death is a redoubtable event because they do not know what to expect after their death. However, other persons, such as religious people are conscious of what to expect after their death because of their beliefs. Each religion has different ideas and different ways of looking life. Death, therefore, is viewed by different religions in many ways. Although, different religions have a distinct conception of death, they all have something in common: they all give hope to people. Among all different religions in the world, four of the most common ones - Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, and Hindu- view death in different ways.
Death is one of the hardest things to over come; while others have developed paganism for death it’s ultimately the scariest thing to face in life. Losing a best friend, a family member, or the love of your life. Therefore the death of someone special is definitely the hardest thing to face. Many people believe when someone dies, they’re sleeping, and they wake up when Jesus comes again and brings you to heaven with him, this is called Christianity, however, Buddhism believe when the body dies it disappears, but the mind goes on, which means you have no after life to experience. I personally believe after you die, you will go to a very special place, with past family members who have passed away. I also believe if you don’t think there is a God you will go to