The Concept of Surviving Death Without the Body Is Meaningless Discuss

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The concept of surviving death without the body is meaningless, discuss The argument ‘do we survive after death’ has always challenged the human mind. Countless theories have attempted to prove this, and a large part of this argument is about the soul. The soul is the principle of activity and life of our body; it also gives the body its form, or structure and shape. For some, within the body there is a soul. The belief is that when we die our soul leaves us, leaving the body to rot and decay, whereas others believe that one cannot live without the other; if one dies so does the other. This is split into two different theories, monism and dualism. I will be applying these arguments to the above question, analysing the strengths and weaknesses. Hick began by explaining his replica theory by suggesting there was a problem with continuity. The idea is that when someone dies their form is replicated on an alternate universe, or the resurrection world. The significance of Hicks theory was that it rejected dualism, dualism is the belief that a human person consists of two distinct elements: the mind/soul and the body. The mind/soul is immaterial whereas the body is physical. At the same time Hick presents a defence of the belief in bodily resurrection. This contrasts with both dualism and monism which is the belief that human beings are a single unity of the body and the mind. The mind’s existence is less dependent on the body. Hick’s starting point was that humans are a ‘phyco-somatic unity’. By this Hick means that human beings are a unity of physical body and the mind/soul. ‘The concept of mind or soul is thus not that of a ‘ghost’ in the ‘machine’ but of the more flexible and sophisticated ways in which human beings behave and have it in them to behave’ (Hick ‘Resurrection of the Person’) Yet when proving life after death it is difficult to actually prove with
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