Is There Life After Death? Essay

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Is there life after death? One of the many questions asked by humans from all races, cultures, and generations is what happens next? Similar to creation myths, death myths were created to answer a question science and reason could not. To this day, we believe many of the myths and live our lives/rituals based off these myths or religions. Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to experience different cultures and their rituals for death. One that really stands out to me is the Afghan (Islamic) rituals after a person passes. The people grieve for forty days, and during the forty days, the dinner of the dead is given to the poor. This appears to be a way to help the soul gain some more good deeds prior to it heading to the afterlife. This compares to the Greek tradition of burying a person with a coin in their mouth for the ferryman. Where the soul ends up depends on their level of faith in Allah or deeds if they had not practiced Islam for very long. Afghans who practice Islam believe that life is a test to determine worthiness of whether or not they go to heaven or hell. Another culture with myth of how you do in this life, determines your position in the afterlife is Hindu. Hindu myths, like the Greeks and Egyptians have a cyclic view on life and death. The end of the cycle is where the souls stay with the god at final salvation. During the cycle, records are kept of each person’s deeds in a ledger. A soul’s rebirth is based on the amount of good and bad deeds performed in the previous birth. Prior to a soul being reborn, it travels down a dark tunnel to the south. In death, a family will leave a lamp near the body so the soul has a light to travel down the tunnel. Traveling down the tunnel is similar to the Greek underworld. To get to Hades, you have to travel across/through rivers. Once the soul arrives at

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