Essay Sample: Where Do Different Religious Say the Soul Goes After Death?

Regardless of religion, time period, geographical area, or race, every breathing human has to die. According to (Schoenheit, John, 04), the end of life is not death rather than, a departure from the spirit world, which is the true home afterlife. A human being has no power to overcome or oppose death no matter our mightiest efforts to prevent ourselves from it. However, the destination of the soul after death varies, depending on the belief and religious background of the person, an expert spirit will come and take him or her. Different religion has different thoughts on where the soul goes after death.

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Christian have a strong belief in the bible. The bible claims that God is the originator and the source of life and he created man and placed a spirit being inside him. Additionally, it says that a man also has a soul inside of him. According to many Christian, they think of the soul as an immortal entity that goes on living within us after death. Christians believe that man was formed from the dust and the LORD God breathed into his nostrils and the man became a living soul.

Some Christians believe that when a person dies the body separates itself from the soul. The deceased stands before God in judgment. The soul is said to be who we really are, while the body lies in death, however, our soul lives on. Each person receives his judgment in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death. The Christian belief that when one die, the soul stands for judgment.

Everyone will have to account for his or her live for the sins that he or she has committed or for the good he or she has done. If one is free of sin or hurt caused by sin, immediately we will be welcomed into heaven, where we will be seeing God and enjoy the beauty vision of heaven. If one died with hurt caused or venial sins, the lord with his mercy and love will purge and heal their soul in purgatory, the healing, and the purgation will happen and thereafter their soul will be welcomed back with happiness in heaven. However, if one has died to reject the Lord, with mortal sins with no reason, then the soul will be damned to hell (Schoenheit, John, 04).

Additionally, Christian believe that there will be the end of times where the Lord will come again to judge the dead and the living. They believe that an hour is coming where Son of God will judge each person differently, whereby whose souls is clean he will take him along with him and whose souls have sinned God will reject them (Newton, Michael, 10). Therefore, every soul should be clean to have an eternal life after death.

Buddhist is a religion that believes that all of us will pass on after all, in the natural process of birth, old-age and death and we should keep that in mind. Death according to Buddhist is not the end of life rather than it is the end of the body we inhabit in this life. The spirit will still remain due to the need for attachment to a new life and body. They will be born depending on the result of the past and the accumulation of negative and positive action and the resultant karma is a result of a person past actions.

They believe that life does not end merely because of you're dead but it goes on in other forms that are brought about by the accumulated karma. Buddhist emphasizes the impermanence of life, and with that in mind, we should not fear death as it leads to rebirth or enters nirvana. The Buddhas who have attained enlightenment are only ones who achieve nirvana.

After the death of the departed according to Tibetan Buddhism, the spirit goes through a process which takes forty-nine days, which is divided into stages called Bardos (Jayatilleke, Kulatissa, 09). At bardo, the dead either return to earth for rebirth or enters nirvana. If one doesnt archive nirvana upon death, one will proceed to state where he or she will have visions of the past.

Lastly, Buddhist believes that everything changes and nothing are permanent. This means that they do not believe in eternal gods and everlasting souls. Their Buddha taught them that human beings are born several times unless they achieve Nirvana.

Islam believes that death is inevitable. Death is the only thing that we can be sure about in life. Every person was born to die and each soul shall have a taste of it no matter how powerful they are. Only the day of the judgment shall one be paid fully recompense. Islam believes that death is a mere move from one world to another. It can be said that its a walk through a wormhole to separate existence of a being.

They believe that after conception the soul is placed into the fetus. According to (Spitz, Elie, 14), an angel is sent by Allah and ordered to write four things, deeds, your livelihood, date of death and whether he or she will be wretched or blessed. After we are born, at the age of puberty we are given the ability to make choices which after we die will have consequence. They believe that when one is asleep the soul leaves the body and come back in the morning or the soul may be taken by Allah. Allah gives us another chance to live when we wake up in the morning and for those who dont wake up he keeps back the soul.

The soul of someone is taken by the angels when he is about to die by the angel of death or Izraeel and they put it in a place called the Barzakh. Wherever you are, death will find you and the angel of death in charge of you will take your soul, and it will be taken to your Lord. For the evildoers, the removal of the soul is tough and difficult. He is punished questioned, beaten and cries out loud. All this happens around his family members but neither can they see nor hear him. However, for the ones who lived a good life, the soul yearns with happiness to meet its Lord and the body is left at ease.

When one has a pure soul, it is taken, if he has relatives and friends in the next world, they come and meet the soul with great joy. The angels then take the soul back to Allah, where it is shown the washing of its body and the funeral procession, the soul either say where are you taking me or take me forward. After the body is placed in the grave the soul inserts itself so that the questioning can happen. The believer soul is prayed for by the angels just like the living people pray over the body for him.

Hinduism religion believes that death is a series of changes which everyone passes. They believe in reincarnation and rebirth of souls. According to (Masumian, Farnaz, 02), the soul is imperishable and immortal. They believe that when a person passes on his soul leaves the body through an opening in the head. The soul disappears to another world where it returns after staying for some time there.

There two paths that Bhagavad-Gita says that the soul travels along. There is the moon known as the darkest path of ancestors and the path of the sun known as the bright path or the god's path. The soul that travel along the sun never returns again, while the one that travels through the path of the moon returns again.

They believe that what happens to the soul after death depends upon various factors. If the deceased has committed bad deeds in life, he will suffer depending on the evil actions he committed and he will go to the lower world, however, if he did good things he will go to the sun world and enjoy the life to the fullest there. There is also the state of mind that the person died thinking or reasoning about, what were his desires and thoughts. His consciousness upon his death decides the direction the jiva will head and the form it will be and appear with. The time of his death is another factor and circumstances that are related to the death are important. Lastly the activities of his children if whether they did the funeral rites in a good manner that satisfied the scriptural injunctions is also another factor.

Hindus believes that it is not necessary after death a jiva goes to only one world, rather than depending on the activities done on earth, it may stay in different worlds before coming back to the earth. It may stay in bad worlds before moving to good worlds or vice versa. Anything that happens through the pattern, the soul should have learned crucial lessons for its continuous journey on earth.

In conclusion, what matters is how faithful and committed you are in your religion. The believes that your religion have, should be followed to the maximum so as to attain the best after life after death.

Work cited

Schoenheit, John W. The Christian's Hope: The Anchor of the Soul. BookBaby, 2004.

Newton, Michael. Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life between Lives. Llewellyn, 2010.

Jayatilleke, Kulatissa N. Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1998.

Spitz, Elie K. Does the Soul Survive?: A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose. 2014.

Masumian, Farnaz. Life After Death: A Study of the Afterlife in World Religions. Kalimat P, 2002.

www.swami-krishnananda.org/bgita/bgita_26.htm.

"Location of Souls After Death Encyclopedia of Searchable Islamic Q & A Islamhelpline." www.islamhelpline.net/node/8734.