J.P. Moreland - Does a Soul Have an Afterlife?

Is there a soul? Is there an afterlife? The two questions are likely related. No soul, no afterlife. Is there any evidence for either? Any argument? However, the two questions—soul and afterlife—might be separated. A soul but no afterlife? Or an afterlife but no soul? According to science, you cannot have either. But is science the last word?

James Porter Moreland is an American philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[slingblade]

The world's greatest thinkers are always in the comment section.

[Eraserhedd]

I have to say he expresses an impressive clarity of viewpoint given the vague nature of the topic. Some of these videos are so abstract I find it challenging to pragmatically understand

[theotormon]

I agree and disagree, but I really appreciate how concretely he broke it all down. Excellent guest.

[googolplex]

Science has absolute and incontrovertible answers about what is measurable. If something can be measured, science is the way to take. BUT nor everything that we know is measurable. That's the problem.

[PetraKann]

….and why would anyone alive today KNOW the answer to that question?

[quicktastic]

I would absolutely love to believe in the existence of a 'soul' as an entity that exists beyond our brain. I have never seen any evidence of that. I have seen situations of dementia where parents no longer have any recognition of their children or anyone else in their life. I feel that if a soul beyond our brain and body existed, it would not, and could not, be touched or altered by a brain deficit. We certainly imprint our personalities and compassion on other people and they/we retain that after a person passes away. So, the memory of people we love exists in our brains. Even to say that such an entity as a soul or spirit exists, we would say that fully knowing that there is no known plane of existence that such entities would dwell. There is the idea of 'heaven', but it is a theoretical place that whose existence is admittedly taken on faith, not fact.

[branimirsalevic]

"Immortal soul" exists only as a thought in the mind, as a concept, a figure of speech. It borrows its reality from our imagination.Its existence is the same as that of a Unicorn.

[vatirhea]

Have any of you read Plato? How can you have such a discussion without mentioning the Crito and Phaedo dialogues. The Soul is Life, and Life can never be it's opposite (dead). Just as something can't be so hot, that it is cold, and nothing can be so bright that it is dark, so too Life can never be dead. Death is the disassociation of the body and Soul. The body dies because the Soul (Life) has left, but Life (Soul) itself lives on because the Soul can never be so alive that it dies. This is a retroductive ontological truth because it can be no other way.

[jeffcokenour]

Gnosticism has been around since time began. Humankind has been deceived into thinking they have more knowledge than God for a very long time

[Ekam-Sat]

Q: Does the Soul have an afterlife?
A: After and before are all Self; Self is deathless, eternal and everlasting.

[Akira-jdzr]

Nonsense, he gave zero reasoning, beyond speculation, to conclude that a soul exists. He is simply a Christian apologist who really wants there to be a soul...

[andrewmoran]

🧐Great discussion and topic, J P Moreland impressive, I’m in his corner wish I could explain and speak as well 🤔👍

[Existidor.Serial]

I think this is one of those questions that have the answer in itself because it's not formulated in the right way. The answer is yes. The whole purpose of a soul is to survive death. The excuse for the existance of a soul for people that believe in it is only because they need to believe there is life after death. The real question is IS THERE A SOUL?

[Greg-xspy]

The deeper you study fundamental physics, the more you realize that what we call matter looks more an more like some kind of soul. Apparantly all that really exists in the physical world are fields. A field is just a function that assigns numbers to every point in spacetime and is constrained by the equations of physics. If correct then there is no trouble with the spirtual world interacting with the physical world, matter itself is mysterious.

[UriyahRecords]

They are philosophical questions, 100% agree. Examining the physical realm by itself( keyword by itself) can't answer the questions.

[rogernelson]

I am curious as to whether consciousness or "freewill" were contributing factors in Mr. Moreland's choice of ties.

[sustainabilityaxis]

The honourable guest is trying to reinvent the wheel. Same old paradox of separating meaning from the word. It is a pure domain of science now and for which we are struggling to find appropriate language and laws. Thanks for good work Closer To Truth Team.

[coachafella]

First provide actual evidence that such a thing as a "soul" exists, then move on to whether it survives the death of the body. The question as posed is like asking whether Bigfoot can be 8 ft tall or whether unicorns have pink tails.

[johanneshennig]

The video game isn't the same as my game console, the video game correlates within my console when its running the game merely show a bidirectional causal relationship between the two. So far so good. Why this then suddenly becomes a question outside of scientific inquiry eludes me.

[DanBrandenburg]

He feels very self-satisfied with his answers hahah.