Many of us have thought about life after death. What happens to us after we die? Where do we go? What happens to our body? Do we go to heaven? Do we go to hell? Does our spirit live on? Does our soul find a different person? Many questions can arise from the thought of immortality. For those who believe in life after death, those beliefs may differ greatly. William Rowe’s article Life After Death focuses on the various beliefs of immortality and the problems with those beliefs. In researching William Rowe, the author of the article I chose, I found that he was a professor of philosophy at Purdue University. Rowe converted from Christian to an atheist. I found it interesting that he chose this conversion because of the fact that …show more content…
How can any of this be true? The questions mentioned in the article are legitimate and cause me to ruminate what I believe. I begin to feel skeptical about what my beliefs have been all my life. The two questions Rowe asks are in reference to a person surviving the death of their body. He questions whether a person surviving the death of their body is significant? And he questions whether the belief is true. Issues arise concerning whether the belief is significant or meaningful, as Rowe words it. It depends on what characteristics are essential to consider someone a person or rather a body. And what makes that person the same person. According to Rowe, a person must have certain traits to consider them an actual person. Some traits he believes are important include the ability to have actions, to have feelings and senses, to be able to remember information, to have thoughts and to present a physical identity such as shape, weight, height and others. And because a soul does not have these characteristics, there is doubt on how it can be considered a person. Rowe also brings up the issue with “something being the same person”, where he points out that there is no evidence to prove this. Philosophers have no way of accepting this until it is proven