What are the different beliefs about the afterlife?

Answer 1

In the Christian beliefs, a person's soul will either spend eternity in heaven or hell. In pagan beliefs, the person's soul is reincarnated many times, until all of lifes lessons are learned, then the soul will travel to the summerlands.

In Judaism, the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he or she was alive. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.

Answer 2

Judaism: One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as codified by Rambam (Maimonides, 1135-1204), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he/she was alive.

Our ancient sages emphasized the importance of being aware of this: "This world is a mere entranceway before the afterlife" (Mishna, Avot ch.4).

All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.

The afterlife is detailed at length in the Talmud. A full 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110) are given to this subject. The afterlife is also referred to briefly in Torah (Bible) verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good (ripe; full) old age." This does not mean merely to be buried with one's forefathers, since Abraham was not buried with them. Such verses are stated many times.

The prophets are more explicit with such references (see Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:13, Zechariah 3:7, 1 Kings 8:30, 2 Kings ch.2, Ecclesiastes 12:7).

The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous, because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. See the Kli Yakar commentary to Leviticus ch. 26 for a fuller discussion.

Answer 3

Christian belief:

John 3:16-21 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have bot believed in the name of God's one and only Son.This is the verdict: Light has come to this world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Jewish belief:

One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as codified by Rambam (Maimonides, 1135-1204), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he/she was alive.

Our ancient sages emphasized the importance of being aware of this: "This world is a mere entranceway before the afterlife" (Mishna, Avot ch.4).

All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.

The afterlife is detailed at length in the Talmud. A full 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110) are given to this subject. The afterlife is also referred to briefly in Torah (Bible) verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good (ripe; full) old age." This does not mean merely to be buried with one's forefathers, since Abraham was not buried with them. Such verses are stated many times.

The prophets are more explicit with such references (see Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:13).

The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous, because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. See the Kli Yakar commentary to Leviticus ch. 26 for a fuller discussion.

Atheist belief:

There is no afterlife. Death is the end. The atoms and molecules that make up your body will go on to be part of other bodies, but the unique living being that is you will have ceased to exist. For that reason, your focus should be on your current life, rather than worrying about some mythical afterlife.

Biblical View:

In many places of Scripture, death is likened to sleep until awakened for the promised Resurrection of all mankind. King Solomon was inspired to tell us this upon the death of anyone (mankind has a 'spirit' component):

Ecclesiastes 12:7

New King James Version (NKJV)

7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

The above is in line with our being awakened for the Judgment process of Revelation 20:11-15, etals. Then in the very next chapter, Revelation 21, we read how all who remained (perhaps 100 billion or more humans) will be changed into spiritual members of the God Family - which is spirit - as sons and daugthers (see John 1:12; 2 Corinthians 6:18). This is the promised 'afterlife' for mankind...

Answer 4

What religions don't believe in life after death? In the end isn't that the reason people follow a religon in the first place? So they no longer need to be scared of issues in reality nor death it's self.

Answer 5

Most religions believe in some sort of afterlife - that is, that we have a soul that survives the death of our bodies - although details vary. Look some articles about individual religions for more details - for example, read the summaries on Wikipedia about different religions.

Answer 6

All mainstream religions believe in an afterlife.

Answer 7

if you mean reincarnation it would be either Buddhism or Hinduism. if you mean everlasting life in paradise (or heaven) after death, it would be Christianity, islam, judiasm, or mormanism.

Answer 8

Probably all of them. The afterlife is a tradition of mankind all over the world; all ancient societies believed in it.