Afterlife (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Religious Studies): Revision Note

What is a soul?

• For religious people, the soul is the spiritual aspect of a being

  • It is the part of a person that some religions believe connects a person to God

• The soul is often seen as non-physical

• People believe that the soul lives on in an afterlife after the physical death of a person

• Many religious traditions, including Christianity and Islam, believe in the existence of a soul

  • According to these faiths, only human beings have immortal souls, and other living creatures do not

• Humanists do not believe in the existence of a soul

• There are two different views about the relationship between human souls and physical bodies

  • Dualism is the belief that humans are made of two separate parts: body and soul

    • It is only the soul that lives on after the physical body dies

  • Materialism is the belief that there is only physical matter

    • A human is nothing but a physical body, with no soul or spirit

    • Therefore, death is the end of life, and there is nothing left when the brain and body stop functioning

Christian attitudes to death and the afterlife

• All Christians believe humans have a soul as the inner part of their beings

• The soul gives people their sense of “self”

  • It forms the personality and makes each person an individual

• For Christians, the soul is God-given. God breathes a soul into everyone as he did when he created Adam, the first man

• Through souls, humans can connect to God

• St Thomas Aquinas taught that the soul enters the body while the foetus is developing in the womb

  • This moment is known as ensoulment

• Some Christians are dualists

  • They believe humans are made of two separate parts: body and soul

  • The soul is the true, inner part of a person that is eternal, will live on after death, and will go to heaven

• Other Christians are non-dualists. They believe that:

  • The body and soul cannot be separated

  • The soul is an integral part of all people

  • Although the soul is temporarily separated from the body after death, it will be reunited with it on Judgement Day

  • At the resurrection, the body is physically resurrected, just as Jesus rose from the dead as a physical being and ascended into heaven that way

• Christians believe that humans have only one life on Earth

  • They believe there is eternal life after death

• Many Christians believe in a judgment by God after death, which will determine the fate of a person’s soul

Muslim attitudes to death and the afterlife

• Islam teaches that humans have both physical and non-physical aspects

• The Qur’an teaches that God made Adam “from the earth”, and therefore, people all have a physical body

• For Muslims, the soul, or ruh, is an invisible part of a person’s being that makes them a real person

• The Qur’an teaches that Allah “breathes” souls into people

  • This is called ensoulment

  • It happens in the womb 120 days after conception

• Muslims believe that when a child is born, it is imprinted with a natural belief in God, called fitrah 

  • Fitrah describes our human nature: We are born in a state of purity and have a natural instinct built into us to submit to God and live according to his laws

  • For Muslims, this shows that the true nature of a person’s soul is to be a Muslim and submit to God throughout life

• Muslims, like Christians, believe that humans have only one life on Earth

  • They believe there is life after death, called akhirah

• Muslims believe a person’s soul (ruh) is released at death, and Allah will judge each person’s deeds on a day of judgement

  • This will determine their fate