(December 13, 2008 at 7:09 am)Darwinian Wrote: If it were somehow proved that there was an afterlife but no other information was given, what sort of explanation would you give to account for this phenomenon?
How many different theories can you come up with and how do you define 'afterlife'?
What I'm really trying to do is to probe other peoples imagination and understanding of the Cosmos and how this knowledge would affect their world view.
"Under the earth, beyond the abyss of the Apsu [full of fresh water and encircling the earth], lay the infernal dwelling place to which men descended after death. It was the 'Land of no return' . . . In these regions of eternal darkness the souls of the dead - edimmu - 'clad, like birds, in a garment of wings' are all jumbled together." -
The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology
That was what the Assyro - Babylonian culture believed regarding an afterlife. This subterranean world was ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal, the "Princess of the great earth."
The Egyptians believed that before the soul could reach a happy haven it had to be weighed against Maat, the goddess of truth and justice. Either Anubis the jackal headed god or Horus the falcon headed would help in the procedure. If Osiris approved then the soul sould go on to share bliss with the gods.
Ancient Chinese mythology included the belief in not only survival after death but also the need to keep ancestors happy. Ancestor's spirits lived on and could punish the living if angered. The dead were given aid, even including being buried with live attendants who would die and serve them in the afterlife. Kings in Egypt, Africa, Japan and other places were buried with victims for this reason.
The Greeks, of course, believed that Hades, the son of Cronus and brother of Zeus and Poseidon, was in charge of the realm named after him. Charon rowed the ferry that transported the newly dead from the land of the living to the underworld - across the river Styx. For a price, so the dead were buried with coins for the toll. If you couldn't pay you were left on the wrong side of the river to roam no man's land and haunt the living.
Greek mythology went on to influence the Roman's and philosophers such as Plato who would in turn influence early Xian apostate philosophy. The Bible doesn't teach the immortal soul.
The Aztecs, Maya and Iccas also believed in the immortal soul. They believed that the dead were actually living but had only passed from one phase to another. Invisible, impalpable, invulnerable. Unseen members of the clan.
Incans believed in immortality, not just of the soul but of the person. One never died but the dead body merely became undead and took on unseen powers. Maya believed in a soul that went to 13 heavens and 9 hells.
African mythologies believed the soul to survive and continue in existance. Souls can be called upon by magicians in order to aid them in their powers. Souls often transmigrate into the bodies of animals or be reincarnated in animals and plants. For this reason the Zulu will not kill snakes for fear of killing their dead relatives.
The Masai believ in a creator called Ng ai, who places a guardian angel for each Masai as protection. At the moment of death the angel takes the soul to the herafter.
Under your hypothetical - where I had to guess about the afterlife without having any information - I have to go back to before I discovered the Bible which teaches that the soul dies and the person may be resurrected to eternal life or for a small number of people who will go to heaven in spiritual form, I would have to guess that the afterlife was simply a moving on to another form in another place. I used to think this would most likely be to another planet where we were more advanced and everything was different.
I think that reincarnation and transmigration of the immortal soul is simply a need to ignore the fact that we die. Typical in that it doesn't answer any questions but presents a lame attempt to explain something we can't understand.
LIKE EVOLUTION!
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