This Month on Viewpoint - November

Sunday, November 28 @ 12:00 PM
Thursday, December 2 @ 7:30 PM


The Afterlife
What happens when we die?
This question is found repeatedly in the field of religion.  Different systems of belief claim to have an answer but how do we really know for certain? We gathered a panel to discuss death, final judgment and the afterlife.

Guests:
Rita das Mittal, South Florida Hindu Temple
Lesley Northup, Ph.D., Florida International University
Rabbi Eliot Pearlson, Temple Menorah
Mary Carter Waren, D.Min., St. Thomas University

Comments

[Jerry V. Wilkey]

The program was excellent, in that, it clearly demonstrated the fantasy land of religions. Even some of the participants seemed unsure of their "afterlife" potentials.

One lady said something to the effect that "this" is what separates us humans from animals. Please let her know that we are indeed part of the animal kingdom. Otherwise, one could make a monkey of himself.

Chris Hitchens warns that "...religions poison everything..." How well History bears this out. Currently, Islam wants to bomb the hell out of Christians and Jews, and so on. Heaven help us!

Keep up the good work!! Jerry Wilkey Palm Beach

[Rev. Dr. Eugene E. Roberts]

Dear Friends,
I caught the last 1/2 hour of the program tonight. I have a couple of problems with your assumption that these guests could speak for Christianity or Judaism. There is no one person or particular denomination that can speak authoritatively, surely not for Christian thought.
I presume that Dr. Northrup was intended to represent Protestant theology, but some of her comments are simply do not accurately reflect current scholarship in mainline traditions. There is no serious Protestant theologian that I have ever incountered who would suggest that reincarnation could in anyway be accomodated. Secondly, modern Protestant theology goes back to the church fathers understanding that there is no "soul" that is able to be separated from the body. The Bible describes a spiritual body, not a spirit. Thirdly, the new life (creation)that Paul talks about is not after the resurrection but something that is experienced in the present when one believes. What life will look like after the return of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead is not something that the Bible addresses, as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 15. Rebirth, in Christian thought is not what happens at the resurrection of the dead.