Heaven and Hell Debate Guide

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1 The soul
2 Christianity
3 Judaism
4 Islam
5 Eastern religions
6 Secularism
7 Terms

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The soul

Does the soul or person survive after physical death? Why do you think so, or not?
What is the physiology of living and dying and how does it contribute to a sense of self-consciousness?
Is this sense of self, of interior life, the basis for postulating the soul?
What motivates a sense of survival? A sense of lived continuity makes no sense to end? Fear of absolute annihilation? Fear of punishment? “God, I have to be myself for all eternity?”

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Christianity

What does the New Testament say about heaven and hell?
What did Jesus say about heaven and hell?
In the Christian view, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell; and why?
Is there purgatory? What about the latest church pronouncement retracting the concept of limbo?
Does Satan exist? Did Jesus meet Satan as told in the Bible? What is Satan's role?
Does predeterminism exist, as described in Calvinism?
Does faith or good works get one into Heaven? (Matthew 7:21: Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven)
What does Christianity predict for the end of the world? Will the visions of Revelations come to pass? Will there be a Second Coming?
Are the predictions of Nostrodamus accurate? Are the predictions of Cayce accurate?

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Judaism

What is the Jewish view of “heaven and hell?” How does it differ from the Christian view?
What does Judaism predict for the end of the world?

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Islam

What does Islam believe concerning “heaven and hell?”
What does Islam predict for the end of the world?

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Eastern religions

Eastern religions such as Hinduism believe in reincarnation; how does this doctrine relate to the monotheistic religions’ teachings on “heaven and hell?”
Buddhism proposes a possible “way of escape” from the never-ending cycle of repeated reincarnations: Nirvana. How is this concept significant in the discussion of “life after death?”
Given that Buddhism does not beleive in an eternal self, what reincarnates? If our "bundles of causes" karma clusters if you will reincarnates is this the basis of a self in other religions or lived experience? Also, Buddha said: “I have not said the Arhant [one who has achieved nirvana] exists after death, and I have not said that he does not exist ... because this is not edifying, neither does it tend to supreme wisdom.” (Basham, page 270)
What is Confucianism’s view of the “afterlife?”
What do the Eastern religions predict for the end of the world?
Daoism has plenty to say about immortality?

Discuss the differentiation between Eastern and Western religions in terms of the essential understanding of history as being either cyclical (Eastern) or linear (Western) as it relates to the issue of the “afterlife.”

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