Christian beliefs

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A key topic: beliefs about life
after death, mainly in Christianity

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Overview:

Is there life after death? What form does it take?

Various Christian denominations and leaders have taught conflicting answers to those two questions:

	We eventually land up in Heaven, Hell, Limbo, Purgatory, Sheol, or some other place, state, or condition.
	We simply disappear and cease to exist in any form.
	Our souls separate immediately from our body and go to Heaven or Hell while our bodies remain on Earth to decay.
	We sleep for a long time after death before waking up for a final judgment.
	We are reincarnated into new bodies to live another lifetime on Earth, either as a human or animal.
	We go through a number of steps after death before we end up in our final destination.
	Infants who die go to Limbo, where they remain in an infant state forever.

Unfortunately, the Bible seems hopelessly ambiguous on matters related to life after death. This can be proven by the variety of scenarios, covering the above options and more, which have been proposed by different Christian faith groups and writers over almost two millennia.

Each group has based their beliefs on what they regard as true interpretations of key biblical passages, supported by church tradition, reason and personal experience. Most faith groups teach that their beliefs are correct, while all others are wrong. It is obvious that most or all of the tens of thousands of faith groups around the world are mistaken in their beliefs.

To answer the original questions:

	Just about every devout churchgoer is absolutely certain that there is life after death and that they know what form it takes. Generally, these beliefs match the teachings of their faith group.
	Any priest, priestess, pastor, minister, etc. would probably be happy to fill you in with the details of what their particular faith group teaches.
	One might try to determine the truth via prayer to God. However, a pilot study that we conducted some years ago indicated that getting such answers from God througy prayer is unreliable.
	No human may really know where the truth lies. If life after death exists, it might be necessary to die first before we learn the truth. Even worse: if there is no afterlife to experience, then we will never know, because -- after death -- we will not have a functioning brain to realize that there is no afterlife.

Topics in this section:

	Introduction
	Beliefs about the afterlife: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Limbo Conservative & liberal interpretations of Biblical passages. Beliefs of specific denominations: Diverse Christian beliefs in salvation: Who gets to go to Heaven; who to Hell? Comparing the strengths & weaknesses of belief systems about salvation. Do any make sense? What happens to a person immediately after death? Overview. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church beliefs Conservative Protestant, Christadelphian, Progressive Christian, Skeptical & secularist beliefs A personal essay donated by Cary Cook, titled: "After Pascal. Thoughts on an afterlife"
	Hell: About Hell itself: Descriptions of Hell in the New Testament (location and temperature) Descriptions of Hell's other torments. A Catholic publication about Hell. Hells in other religions Is Hell endothermic or exothermic. Is Hell hotter than Heaven?   Beliefs about Hell: The diversity of conservative Protestant beliefs Is punishment temporary or eternal? (Annihilationism or Traditionalism) Conflicts between secularism and conservative Christianity Beliefs by the American public according to polls
	Beliefs unique to Roman Catholics: Purgatory Limbo

Related topics elsewhere in this web site:

	Divisions within Protestant Christianity
	Inerrancy of the Bible
	Biblical inspiration
	American religious beliefs according to opinion polls
	Comparison of American Christian beliefs with those of other Christian cultures
	Salvation Who will be saved and thus attain Heaven and avoid Hell? Beliefs of modern and ancient Christians Can non-Christians be saved?

Copyright © 2001 to 2011 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-FEB-24
Latest update: 2011-JUN-10
Author: B.A. Robinson

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