What is life after death? Since the beginning of time, many people have wondered what happens after death. I chose to read and provide a synopsis of the chapter “Life After Death” by William L. Rowe. There are four main parts discussed in the chapter: the varieties of immortality, the meaningfulness of immortality, the case for immortality, and the case against immortality. By the end of this synopsis, I will explain a better understanding of whether or not we can believe there is life after death.
The first topic to be discussed is the varieties of immortality. There are four varieties of immortality discussed in this section of the chapter. The Homeric view, the Platonic view, transmigration in the Hinduism belief, and resurrection of the body are the different ideas discussed. The Homeric view of immortality is based off of the Greek religion where there are gods (i.e. Zeus, Hades, etc.) who are immortal and the people who are not. Their belief is that some part of the body will survive in Hades, without having real life be present, since only the gods are immortal in their eyes. The Platonic view involves teachings of Plato and Socrates in which they believe the soul lives on after the human body dies. Transmigration is a belief in the Hindu faith where the soul of the body passes on to another body after death. Resurrection of the body is a belief in Christianity, Islam, and with the Jews where the soul is reunited with their resurrected body when the world