Many religions, whether they believe in the soul's existence in another world like Christianity, Islam, and many pagan belief systems, or reincarnation like many forms of Hinduism and Buddhism, believe that one's status in the afterlife is a consequence of one's conduct during life.
The sacred texts in Christianity, Judaism and Islam talk of an afterlife - so for followers of these faiths life after death has been promised by God. For Buddhists, belief in reincarnation is based on the tradition that the Buddha remembered his past lives when he reached enlightenment.
Atheists believe that there is no God and no life after death and that death is the cessation of the existence of the individual.
At least in the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam, and some schools of Judaism, as well as Zoroastrianism, heaven is the realm of Afterlife where good actions in the previous life are rewarded for eternity (hell being the place where bad behavior is punished).
The major religions that hold a belief in reincarnation, however, are Asian religions, especially Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, all of which arose in India.
Generally, Buddhist teaching views life and death as a continuum, believing that consciousness (the spirit) continues after death and may be reborn. Death can be an opportunity for liberation from the cycle of life, death and rebirth.
The Afterlife
The Quran states that God will judge each individual by his or her deeds and that heaven awaits those who have lived righteously and hell those who have not. Belief in the afterlife is widespread among Muslims – majorities in all but one of the countries surveyed say they believe in heaven and in hell.
In Buddhism, there is no concept of punishment or reward and there is no divine being who decides who goes to hell or heaven. There is merely the illusory results of our thought, words and deeds, which we call karma.
Most Hindus believe that humans are in a cycle of death and rebirth called samsara. When a person dies, their atman (soul) is reborn in a different body. Some believe rebirth happens directly at death, others believe that an atman may exist in other realms.
Like Hinduism, Buddhism accepts there was no time when we were not bound to the cycle of birth and rebirth. But unlike Hinduism, it does not believe there is an eternal, unchanging “soul” that transmigrates from one life to the next.
Most Christian churches, aside form the Catholic Church, do not accept the idea of Purgatory, believing instead that once judgement happens, people will either be in Heaven or Hell for all eternity.
We enter heaven immediately upon our death, or our souls sleep until the second coming of Christ and the accompanying resurrection.
Atheists do not accept that there is an afterlife so do not have a future in it to fear. An atheist sees death as a full-stop, so it is the process of dying that matters".
Sikh beliefs about death
According to Sikhism, death is a natural process, it's only the physical body that dies, and the soul lives on through transmigration and reincarnation. For them, the purpose of life is to move closer to Waheguru, the Sikh name for God, and that death will help break the cycle of reincarnation.
Jews believe in a life after death - the immortality of the soul and the physical resurrection of the body at a time in the future. If the patient and family have already discussed their concerns, refer to them for your guidance. If not, discuss them now and ask them if they would like you to contact their rabbi.
During death, your body's vital functions stop entirely. Your heart no longer beats, your breath stops and your brain stops functioning. Studies suggest that brain activity may continue several minutes after a person has been declared dead. Still, brain activity isn't the same as consciousness or awareness.
Most Hindus, Muslims, Christians believe in heaven
Some religions teach that heaven is the final destination for those who have lived a good life, others teach that it is a temporary home between rebirths, and still others teach that heaven is a state of being that people can aspire to experience during this life.
Some high level Buddhists have drawn analogies between Jesus and Buddhism, e.g. in 2001 the Dalai Lama stated that "Jesus Christ also lived previous lives", and added that "So, you see, he reached a high state, either as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened person, through Buddhist practice or something like that." Thich ...
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit.
In life, the most perfect aim is for istishadi through jihad, and the martyr will receive bountiful gifts in paradise. Men will receive 72 virgins in the hadith corpus. There is some debate on the meaning of the Quranic passages according to Islamic jurisprudence.
The Bible speaks about death in two ways. There is death the way we normally think about it, the severing of the body and the spirit. Then there is what the Bible calls “the second death.” The second death is simply the judgment of God in which the body and the soul are cast into hell (Revelation 20:14; 21:8).
After death, most Muslims believe that the soul will enter Barzakh, a state of waiting, until the Day of Judgement. When a person dies, their soul is taken by Azra'il, the Angel of Death. God sends two angels to question the waiting soul.
Buddhism is a religion that is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. The main principles of this belief system are karma, rebirth, and impermanence.
There are inherent and fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity, one significant difference being that while Christianity is at its core monotheistic and relies on a God as a Creator, Buddhism is generally non-theistic and rejects the notion of a Creator God which provides divine values for the world.