Doctor Who and Philosophy by Courtland Lewis; Paula Smithka

Author:Courtland Lewis; Paula Smithka
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780812696882
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Published: 2010-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Not Impossible … Just a Bit Unlikely

Belief in some form of life after death is very common in the religions of the world, and for good reason. Suppose it’s true that there is a god (or a pantheon of gods), intimately concerned for the welfare of human beings and possessed of mighty supernatural powers. Such a god couldn’t fail to be moved by the appalling and pointless suffering, unjustly distributed goods, unpunished cruelties and unrewarded kindnesses characteristic of life as we know it. So it’s fair to expect that he will, at some point, intervene in human affairs to right wrongs, remedy ills, and reward virtue. He can’t do this merely by transforming the conditions of life on earth for some future generation, or even for the present one, because this would leave out of account the agonies and injustices suffered by previous generations. What’s needed is the establishment of a heavenly realm in which the dead are given new life, human nature is perfected, and health, happiness and justice are enjoyed by all. Life after death is therefore strongly implied by the existence of a benevolent deity.

Since almost everyone who believes in an afterlife also believes in a god of some sort, the fact that coming back from the dead contravenes the laws of nature isn’t especially troubling. Gods, after all, are in the business of working miracles; that they aren’t bound by the laws of nature is just what’s meant by saying that their powers are supernatural. What is, or should be, troubling to believers in an afterlife is the suggestion that their belief may contravene the laws of logic, that life after death may be logically as well as scientifically impossible.

The problem, in a nutshell, is whether it makes sense to suppose that the Joe Bloggs who will live eternally in heaven could really be the same person as the Joe Bloggs who currently lives next door to me. There are at least two reasons for thinking he couldn’t. First, one of the things we know about the afterlife (in the form suggested by belief in a god) is that human nature will be perfected: those who populate it won’t harm one another, won’t pursue their interests at one another’s expense and won’t suffer injustices at one another’s hands. At present, however, my neighbor Joe is some way off perfection. Although a jovial fellow, he’s hard-living and hedonistic, gives little thought to the consequences of his actions and is largely insensitive to the feelings of others. His life is geared to pleasures of the flesh, dominated by basic instincts and unreflective desires, and he frequently, albeit inadvertently, upsets, fails and disappoints the people who care about him. He is, in short, the sort of person one hopes not to be approached by for a character reference. No doubt an all-powerful god could change Joe from the person he is now into a person fit for heaven: but this, one is tempted to say, would be to turn him into someone else.

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