Is There Life After Death?

 HELLO, EVERYONE! Comin' right up is PHILOSOPHY PROBLEM #6!

Now, before I begin, I wanna say something. This was a special post, made on the requests of one of my readers. If any of my readers wish me to write on a certain topic, they can send me a request in the comments section below. With that out of the way, we can begin. Allons-y!

Is there life after death? Hmmm, I think this problem might just be too big for me, but let's try looking at this from a logical perspective.

Many cultures are centered around the belief that there is life after death. The Christian Heaven, the Muslim Jannat, the Sanatandharmavilambhi Moksha, the Greek Underworld, the Egyptian A'aru or Duat..... you get the point. Most of these religions focus mainly on ensuring the deeds done during the lifetime are good, so the dead may go to paradise. 

Our question, however is this- are all these concepts simply an incredibly efficient form of crowd-control, or is there any truth to them?

Before I begin, though, I need to explain something known as mind-body dualism or Descartian dualism, as some of my readers may not know what it is. 

Mind-body dualism holds that the mind is a non-physical, and therefore, a non-spatial substance, while the brain is physical, and therefore, a physical substance. The mind can be identified with consciousness and self-awareness, while the brain can be identified as the seat of intelligence.

I don’t think I need to define consciousness, but I think intelligence will require some explanation, so here we go. Intelligence is the ability to perceive and infer information, and to retain it as knowledge to be applied to adaptive behaviours within an environment or context. 

Now, I assume some people may even need help distinguishing between consciousness and intellect, so let’s do that too.

Intelligence reliably fits somewhere on a gradient, the gradient being quantified through IQ (Intelligence Quotient), whereas Consciousness is binary- something is either conscious or it is not. In simpler words, there are different degrees of Intelligence, ranging from, say, 1 to 10, but Consciousness is either 0 or 10.

Got that? I certainly hope so. Now, let’s begin.

I will present both sides of the argument and then present my own. It is up to you to decide, or keep your mind open until you have even more information.

Against: 
1) Nothing goes on in the brain that violates the predictions of physical science
2) If there was an immaterial soul affecting the brain, this would lead to a violation of physical formulae
3) Therefore, there is no SOUL that can survive death
4) Therefore, there is no afterlife

For: 
1) The concept of the soul explains many thing we currently cannot, like how some flesh (the brain) can create a consciousness.
2) We don't KNOW whether the observations in the brain are physical or metaphysical because we have never observed the brain of a MINDLESS person- in other words, a person with no consciousness. 
3) Therefore, the actions we observe in the brain could be a result of the metaphysical
4) Therefore, there can be a soul.
5) Therefore, there can be an afterlife.


Now, bear in mind that the arguments FOR the existence or credibility of an afterlife are based on "It could be possible", which means that there is a 50% chance that they are right.

Now, if we were to accept that the first point AGAINST the existence of an afterlife is plausible/credible, we would be in a really big dilemma. How so? Let me explain.

If this point is true, it means that everything that happens in the brain is a result of prior physical events, mainly prior brain-events (the state of the brain physically, the neurons firing and all that). However, this would mean that prior mental events (the state of the mind; what we are THINKING) play no role in determining the state of the brain. If that is true, it would mean that prior mental events play no role in determining the behaviour of an organism. And this, very clearly, is not possible.

Let's summarise that:
a) The arguments against the existence of an afterlife claim that everything that goes on in the brain is a result of physical events.
b) This means that prior mental events play no role in determining the state of the brain;
c) Which means that prior mental events play no role in determining the behaviour of an organism.
d) Which is false.
e) If that is the case, the whole reasoning is false.
f) Which means that the events that take place in the brain and in the world could be the result of a metaphysical soul.
g) Therefore, the existence of a soul is plausible and credible; more so than the non-existence of a soul.
h) Therefore, there COULD be an afterlife.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, summarises that. Thank you for your patience if you made it till the end, I know this was a little confusing. Anyway, thank you once more, and goodbye. It won't be too long till my next post, I promise.

Signing off, this is THE BIG V.