Immortality - Religious Traditions

Religious Traditions

Until the late 20th century, there were no creditable scientific forecasts that physical immortality was obtainable. As late as 1952, the editorial staff of the Syntopicon found in their compilation of the Great Books of the Western World, that "The philosophical issue concerning immortality cannot be separated from issues concerning the existence and nature of man's soul." Thus, the vast majority of speculation regarding immortality before the 21st century was regarding the nature of the afterlife.

Spiritual immortality is the unending existence of a person from a nonphysical source, or in a nonphysical state, such as a soul. Specifically "soul immortality" is a belief that is expressed in nearly every religious tradition. However any doctrine in this area misleads without a prior definition of "soul". Another problem is that "soul" is often confused and used synonymously or interchangeably with "spirit".

In both Western and Eastern religions, the spirit is an energy or force that transcends the mortal body, and returns to: (1) the spirit realm whether to enjoy heavenly bliss or suffer eternal torment in hell, or; (2) the cycle of life, directly or indirectly depending on the tradition.

The world's major religions hold a number of perspectives on spiritual immortality.