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Materialism and Monism
Believe there is only one substance and argue against any concept of an afterlife.
Why does life end after death?
Identity is linked to the physical body, when the body dies the person's life ends. Emotions, feelings and thoughts are linked to the brain and when this shuts down there is nothing left.
Identity Theory
All mental activities are centred in the brain. This approach is supported by the fact that drugs and alcohol affect our behaviour, mood and character which suggests that mental activity is not linked to an immaterial soul but to our own brain.
Richard Dawkins
- said there is no survival post mortom
- the only way humans can survive death is in other people's memories of them or through their genes which are passed on to the next generation
- genes are the only things that are 'potentially immortal' - the role of the body is a survival machine for the genes.
John Hick: Replica Theory
- rejects dualism but believes in bodily resurrection
- says that humans are a 'psycho-somantic unity' and this meant that humans are a unity of physical body and mind or soul. The two cannot be separated
- resurrection is a divine action that is an exact replica of ourselves in a different place, the replica is in all aspects the same as us but the location is not on earth
- the resurrection could take place instantaneously at death or after a period of time
Replica Theory (c)
- word replica is used because only one person can exist at a time, many replicas cannot be present at once
- analogy: if a person disappears in London and then reappears in New York they need to have the same qualities and charcteristics as the original person in order for them to be recognisable
- Hick then says that if you imagine someone who dies in London and is recreated in New York, it is easier to identify the person as the one in New York rather than the dead person. Resurrected people do not doubt that they are the same person they were before.
Identification of Replica Theory with the Original Person
- Hick argued that the replica and the original person cannot exist at the same time because they are individuals. For the replica to be the same person they have to have the same 'consciousness, emotion and memory'
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