Afterlife in Context

Religions throughout the ages have included a belief in an afterlife. In some cultures, the afterlife is regarded as a place of pleasure and joy. In others, it is a gloomy shadow of earthly existence, a slow fading away, or a remote and unknowable realm. Expectations about the organization of the afterlife also differ. In some societies, everyone is thought to meet the same fate. In others, people are believed to take different paths, depending on how they conducted their earthly lives. Sometimes a judgment by a deity determines the individual’s final destiny, or what will happen to them.

These statues depict the spirits of Aztec women who died in childbirth. The Aztecs believed that the spirits of these women joined the sun in the heavens. THE ART ARCHIVE/NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM MEXICO/GIANNI DAGLI ORTI/THE PICTURE DESK, INC.

Varying visions of the afterlife reveal much about each culture’s hopes and fears for the afterlife, and often contain lessons about how people should live. Generally, religions have rules, laws, commandments, or philosophies that ordinary people must follow in order to obtain a good afterlife. Hindus and Buddhists, for example, believe in rebirth and follow the law of karma. Karma, which in the original Sanskrit language means “actions,” refers to the good and bad acts an individual performs during his or her many lives, and the effects, or consequences, of those acts for future lives. Karma does not depend on the judgment of a deity, but is a rational law of nature that simply accepts that humans are

Responsible for their behavior and will reap the consequences of their actions in their afterlives. The law of karma provides a positive incentive for individuals to do good acts, since they can shorten the number of rebirths they must endure and more quickly achieve nirvana, or liberation from rebirth and unity with the divine.

In contrast, Christianity presents a linear notion of life and death, which occur only once for each human. In this view, humans have only one chance, or lifetime, to either be rewarded or punished, and Christians must abide by the Ten Commandments in order to achieve a good afterlife. Upon death, individuals will be judged by a deity and assigned either to heaven, hell, or purgatory. Christianity emphasizes punishment and judgment, and the fear of hell is a strong motivator for many to avoid sin and its consequences.