Death And Religion

Compare and Contrast Essay. Shirley Chong
Death is with us, it follows us, and it obsesses us. It is our eternal companion and we cannot escape from it, not only because it will come to us sooner or later, but also because of all of the people we see dying every day. Obviously for most of us, death is not indifferent and we react and cope with it differently according to our beliefs andreligions. Muslims and Christians think that after death, our souls go to heaven or hell. Hinduisms believe in reincarnation, for Buddhists death is nothing but a transitional path and for Spiritualists our souls have the ability to communicate with the living. Each religion responds differently to the mystery of ceasing to exist.
What happens after death? What is next? Each religion agrees to respond tothe most asked question in the history of humanity. To Christians death is a transit between life on earth and life on heaven, alongside with God. Christians think that after death, our soul survives our body, and that death is the eternal rest of our soul in God’s company. But before earning the right to go to heaven we must fulfill The Ten Commandments that Jesus, the Son of God, gave to hisDisciples. A strong belief among Christians and Catholics is that there is an eternal life and that our behavior on earth will determine the place where we will finally end up after dying. There is a hell for those who did badly and there is a heaven for those who did well. They also think that some souls remain in the purgatory “(Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance withCatholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions” (The Catholic Encyclopedia). In this state of limbo between heaven and hell, our souls remain until we earn the right to go to heaven. Whatever the case is, according toChristianity, our actions on earth will determine the place where we deserve to be after death.
As well as Christians, Muslim people also believe that after death we will be judge for our behavior on earth. Our good or bad actions will takes us to either heaven or hell, and that the Prophet Muhammad, who delivered Ala’s message to the humankind, will intervene for us so we are not condemned to hell.According to the Muslims, death is the end of the physical life and the beginning of a resting period, where we stay until the resurrection day, which is the day when Ala judges lives and dead. In other words they believe that our souls remain in a kind of a “dreaming soul state” until the day of the final judgment.
For a religion that is followed by around 750 million people in the world, death isnot about going to heaven or hell but is about reincarnating. According to Hinduisms our soul will reborn in this world many times and no necessarily in the same body. They believe in Karma. “Karma is an ancient concept, a Sanskrit word meaning 'act', 'action', or 'word'. The law of karma teaches us that all of our thoughts, words and actions begin a chain of cause and effect, and that we willpersonally experience the effects of everything we cause. We may not experience the effect (the returning karma) right away, and it may not even be in this lifetime, but you can count on it just the same. Karma is a cosmic law, which means that it applies to everyone, everywhere, all the time” (Spiritual Encyclopedia). Karma then will determine how and when we will reborn, as a result of our pastactions, good or bad. The main goal in life however, is the liberation of our life cycle in this material world and the entrance to Nirvana or paradise. To do so, Hinduisms think that we can save ourselves in three ways: fulfilling our duties with ourselves and family, reaching a conscious state of mind through practicing meditation and acknowledging Brahma as our helper and the creator of the...