3. Immortality vs. the Afterlife
LIVING FOREVER on Earth
• The idea that we can gain
access to a “fountain of youth.”
• The hope that we will find a
cure for aging.
• The hope that our human body
can keep going forever, and
ever, and ever, and ever…
• Not promised by most
mainstream religious traditions.
LIVING FOREVER Elsewhere
• The idea that after our mortal life,
we will gain access to another kind
of life.
• The hope that we will rejoin loved
ones in another plane of existence.
• The hope we will continue to exist
forever, but not necessarily in our
current physical form….
• Commonly promised by religious
traditions.
4. Immortalists
People like Aubrey De Grey hope that
science will find a way to “cure” our
bodies of aging.
He believes that aging is a disease.
He would like to see the human body
live forever (though he accepts that we’d
still die of accidents.)
His particular “cure” for aging would
consist of a process that would be much
like periodic chemotherapy to
“regenerate” our body’s dying cells.
Who would get access to this
“treatment”? Do you think it would be
offered to people without money?
5. PROLONGEVISTS
Another word for “immortalists”, who want to extend our lifespan, and
“cure” us of mortality (and prolong the lifespan)…
6. IS NOT NEW
The hope that humans will find a way to live forever, here on Earth
7. The Fountain of Youth
The legend of a spring, that restores the
youth of anyone who bathes in it.
No one knows exactly where this myth
started, but versions of it have existed in
various cultures since at last the 5th
century BCE.
Eternal youth, in many tales and myths,
is both a gift and a punishment from
the gods.
10. Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient
Mesopotamian poem that dates back to
2100 BCE.
The story of a great hero who, broken-
hearted after the death of his friend,
goes searching for eternal life.
He’s powerful, but not powerful enough
to secure this treasure from the gods.
After a long journey, and much
searching, he learns that he cannot
escape mortality.
Underscores that mortality is inevitable
—even for the greatest of heroes.
11. Prometheus
The Ancient Greek legend of the Titan
(half man, half god) who brought fire—
and all its power—to humans.
He had to steal it from the gods.
For this, he was eternally punished.
Underscores the fact that there are
limits to our powers, as humans.
When we try to reach past these limits,
there are often consequences.
13. Tuck Everlasting
A 1975 novel by Natalie Babbitt.
Sold over 2 million copies, and has
been adapted into two films: once in
1981 and once in 2002.
Tells the story of a family who drinks
from a stream, and then lives forever.
They don’t consider immortality such a
great thing: they’re socially isolated from
other people, and all of the people they
love eventually die and leave them
behind.
14. Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray, an 1891 novel
by the British writer Oscar Wilde.
Tells the story of a man who never
ages… but a portrait of him does.
He lives a hedonistic life, but begins to
see the ugliness of his own soul
reflected in the painting.
It drives him insane, and eventually he
has to destroy it, to break its curse.
15. The Faustian Bargain
There are echoes of the “Faustian
bargain” here.
An old German legend of a man named
Faust who sells his soul to the devil, in
exchange for unlimited earthly
pleasures.
Popularized, in English, by Christopher
Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus (1604).
This has come to be the classical story
of the ambitious person who surrenders
all morality in the service of pleasure or
success.
16. The Vampire
A classic illustration of the moral
perversions often associated (especially
in a Christian culture) with living
forever.
Vampires can live eternally, but only by
killing others.
Their immortality is parasitic on the
deaths of others.
But many vampires are able to secure
their victims through seduction…
17. Americans Love Vampires
It would seem that contemporary
Americans are obsessed with vampires.
Americans seem to love the romance of
the tortured vampire: someone who
really would like to spare humans… but
still needs to feed on mammalian blood.
What do you think it is about vampires
that Americans love?
Are Americans seduced by the
possibility of living forever—like
vampires?
Or are Americana seduced by the
renegade figure who’s able to get away
with violations of the morality that
binds human community?
20. LIVE ON EARTH FOREVER…
In spite of these dark legends, people continue to hope that we will someday
21. Science & Immortality
Francis Bacon is considered one of the
“fathers” of modern science.
He was one of the first people
encouraging doctors in western culture
to actually examine sick patients…
rather than trying to cure them with
theories about the humors.
But he also believed that the purpose of
science was, ultimately, to help humans
live forever.
22. Even Good Old Ben!
Ben Franklin was an inventor who
fervently believed in the powers of
modern science.
In 1780 he wrote a letter to a friend
stating, that through the power of
modern science, “all diseases may by
sure means be prevented or cured, not
excepting that of old age, and our lives
lengthened at pleasure, even beyond the
antediluvian standard.”
The “antediluvian” refers to the biblical
era before the flood: when patriarchs
were said to have lived to be as old as
900.
24. Apologists
• To be an apologist means that you encourage someone to
accept an idea or position.
• An apologist for Christianity, for instance, will try to give you
reasons why you should accept Christianity (and become a
Christian).
• An apologist for mortality will encourage you to accept your
inevitable mortality.
• Religious traditions often take an apologetic stance on
mortality.
25. The Fall
This is an apologetic account of
mortality.
It explains to us why we’re mortal.
When we’re given a reason, or an
explanation, for something, we’re often
more likely to accept it.
The narrative of the Fall (that we’re
punished for the sins of Adam & Eve)
may suggest that mortality is a kind of
curse.
But does it also help us to accept
mortality—knowing that we’ve inherited
mortality from our most ancient
mythical ancestors?
26. The Afterlife as Reward
But religious traditions such as
Christianity also teach that, if we’re
willing to accept our mortality, good
things await us on the other side.
We’re not simply cursed, in other words.
We might be forced to be mortal
because of Adam & Eve. But if we take
responsibility for this curse, and prove
ourselves to be worthy, we can expect
eternal life in another world.
27. Cultural Functions of the Afterlife
• PERSONAL: It gives us a sense of comfort, in the
present. It gives us hope that there’s more to life than the
suffering we undergo here on earth.
• SOCIAL: It gives us a place to gather again with friends
and family who’ve passed on. It allows for us to continue
our most valued relationships.
• LEGAL: By giving access only to those who were good, in
this life, the afterlife has historically served as a place
where justice—that wasn’t served in this life—can be
served in the end.
30. What Americans Believe
According to a 2014 CBS News poll,
most Americans believe that there is a
heaven.
But many don’t believe that there’s a
hell.
It seems that hell doesn’t capture as
much loyalty from Americans as heaven.
Is hell disappearing, like purgatory?
3 out of 4
Americans believe
in heaven
But only
66%
believe in
BOTH
heaven &
hell
Of those who
believe in
heaven, 82%
believe they
will end up
there
31. Purgatory
In medieval Christian culture, the
Catholic Church taught that the cosmos
had three levels: hell, purgatory, and
heaven.
Purgatory was an in-between place.
Terrible people went to hell, wonderful
people went to heaven. But most of us
went to purgatory.
Protestant Reformers challenged the
belief in purgatory because the Church
was selling “Indulgences”—you could
buy an Indulgence from the Church, so
that your dead relatives could pass more
quickly into heaven.
People like Martin Luther believed that
selling Indulgences was a way of taking
advantage of grieving Christians.
32. THE AFTERLIFE AS A PLACE OF
JUDGMENT
The idea that we’re earning our way to a kind of reward is religiously ubiquitous
34. Mortality & Morality
• Religious traditions have often taught that we
escape our mortal condition by becoming more
moral.
• If we are good, in this life, we will be rewarded. We
can achieve a kind of spiritual perfection—the
reward of eternal life, and union with the divine.
• This gives a kind of purpose, or structure, to good
actions.
35. Judaism
Jewish teachings on the afterlife are diverse.
It’s possible for an orthodox Jew to believe
a number of different things about the
afterlife.
But the most ancient of Jewish texts do
affirm that there is a “world to come.”
Given that Jesus came from a Jewish
community, this must have also given
shape to Christian views on the afterlife.
While it’s not clear what the afterlife is like,
what is clear is that moral goodness in this
life is what will earn you a place in it.
We will be judged for our actions in this
life, and given opportunities accordingly.
36. Islam
Heaven is the destination for only the
righteous, in Islam.
The American media has made much of
the image in the Qur’an: that men will
be rewarded with the company of
virtuous women. Certainly, some hold
to this belief. But the Qur’an says many
other things about the afterlife, and
many Muslims do not read this imagery
so literally.
There is held to be a Day of Judgment,
where evil will finally be defeated, and
the righteous will rise in the afterlife.
Prior to this, the righteous might receive
a taste of the afterlife, in the grave.
37. Reincarnation
The idea that, when the body dies, the
soul becomes reincarnated in a new
body.
The Hindu tradition (and Buddhism,
which developed out of Hinduism) both
hold a belief in reincarnation.
American New Age culture has
interpreted this as something desirable:
a way to live forever, here on Earth.
But in the Hindu and Buddhist
tradition, reincarnation is not the
ultimate aim or goal. It’s something that
happens as a soul waits for true
liberation.
38. Samsara
The soul is reincarnated for Hindus and
Buddhists because of samsara: the never
ending cycle of birth and death.
During our life, our karma (the quality
of our actions: something like our moral
character) determines our next phase of
life.
Bad karma might lead to reincarnation
as a species considered to have a lesser
consciousness (a plant, an insect, or
another animal). Good karma might
lead to reincarnation as a human with
better life circumstances.
The ultimate aim is moksha (Hinduism)
or nirvana (Buddhism): liberation from
the cycles of life and death, or a kind of
spiritual perfection/enlightened state.
39. WITHOUT JUDGMENT?
Are contemporary American views (that de-emphasize hell) working to turn
the afterlife into a more positive and egalitarian, or democratic space?
Where anyone can gain entry? Into a place…
40. SCIENTIFIC SCRUTINY
Regardless of the answer to that question, it does seem that Americans are
changing traditional views of the afterlife. For one thing, more and more
Americans are trying to subject the afterlife to
41. Science & the Soul
Increasingly, popular American beliefs
about the afterlife accept scientific
evidence about the body’s death: the
body dies, and decays.
But Americans have become
increasingly interested to see whether
science can offer empirical evidence of
the soul’s immortality.
This is complicated, of course, because
the soul is said to exist apart from the
body. So it’s impossible to see or touch a
soul. There’s no way to prove that a soul
exists, or put it under a microscope.
42. The NDE
The most popular way to investigate the
reality of the soul has become the NDE:
the Near Death Experience.
People who’ve been registered as
clinically dead (for very short periods of
time) have reported that they encounter
an alternate reality during that time of
death. Common descriptions include a
realm of white light.
Many argue that this offers proof of an
afterlife: that there is a realm where the
soul transfers to, after death.
Of course… these accounts are
completely based upon subjective
experience (i.e.; personal narration). All
we have to go on are the stories that
people tell us about this. This still
doesn’t constitute scientific proof.
46. OTHER WAYS TO LIVE ON
Many non-religious people do believe that there are…
47. Other People
One of the ways that both religious &
non-religious people think about “living
on” after death is through the existence
of other people, primarily your family.
Through family, we pass on both genes,
habits, and practices.
We “become” like the people we live
with, and when they’re gone, they
continue to live on in our memories
and practices.
48. The “Collective Afterlife”
The American moral & political
philosopher Samuel Scheffler (that’s his
photo, to the right!) calls the belief that
other humans will continue to exist
after we’re gone the “collective afterlife.”
He contrasts this with the “personal
afterlife”: where your own personal
body or soul continues to exist after
death.
He argues that most human beings
(both religious people who believe in
the personal afterlife, and the non-
religious people who don’t) take the
“collective afterlife” for granted.
In other words: most of us believe in
this kind of afterlife, to some extent.
49. The Doomsday Scenario
As a way to prove that we all kind of
believe in (and value) the collective
afterlife of the human species, Scheffler
asks us to consider the doomsday
scenario.
What if the Earth (and all human life
on it) were to be destroyed by a giant
asteriod 30 days after your death?
If you knew (for some reason) that this
was going to happen: would it change
how you live, the choices you make, and
how you feel about your impending
death?
Scheffler argues that most of us would be
deeply affected by this—even if we
believed that we were going to live on in
a personal afterlife.
50. We Live as if Life Will Last
Part of what Scheffler’s theory of the
“collective afterlife” is asserting is this:
most of us (religious or non-religious) live
as if there is something more infinite than
us, bigger than us, that will outlast us and
contain us after we’re gone.
Time shapes the way we live.
Even if we know that we’re mortal, and we
live as if our time on Earth is finite, both
the religious and the non-religious tend to
find some way to be in conversation with
the infinite or the immortal.
We might believe in the personal afterlife,
the collective afterlife, or we might strive
for the immortality of our physical body.
But part of coping with mortality is
figuring our what it is that we believe
outlasts, exceeds, or contains, our
mortality.
