160-463: In many religious and philosophical traditions, the soul is the non-material essence of a person, which includes one's identity , personality , and memories , an immaterial aspect or essence of a living being that is believed to be able to survive physical death . The concept of the soul is generally applied to humans, although it can also be applied to other living or even non-living entities, as in animism . The Modern English noun soul
320-421: A Jiva is either samsari (mundane, caught in cycle of rebirths) or mukta (liberated). According to this belief until the time the soul is liberated from the saṃsāra (cycle of repeated birth and death), it gets attached to one of these bodies based on the karma (actions) of the individual soul. Irrespective of which state the soul is in, it has got the same attributes and qualities. The difference between
480-520: A ghost (tukap) who would haunt the living, to come to fulfillment from which it was excluded during life. Judaism does not have a specific doctrine about the afterlife, but it does have a mystical/Orthodox tradition of describing Gehinnom . Gehinnom is not hell, but originally a grave and in later times a sort of Purgatory where one is judged based on one's life's deeds, or rather, where one becomes fully aware of one's own shortcomings and negative actions during one's life. The Kabbalah explains it as
640-540: A mixture of saved and condemned people being raised from the dead and judged. Adventists reject the traditional doctrine of hell as a state of everlasting conscious torment, believing instead that the wicked will be permanently destroyed after the millennium by the lake of fire , which is called 'the second death ' in Revelation 20:14. Those Adventist doctrines about death and hell reflect an underlying belief in: (a) conditional immortality (or conditionalism), as opposed to
800-534: A resurrection . The oldest existing branches of Christianity, the Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, adhere to this view, as well as many Protestant denominations. Some Protestant Christians understand the soul as life, and believe that the dead have no conscious existence until after the resurrection (this is known as Christian conditionalism ). Some Protestant Christians believe that
960-547: A "waiting room" (commonly translated as an "entry way") for all souls (not just the wicked). The overwhelming majority of rabbinic thought maintains that people are not in Gehinnom forever; the longest that one can be there is said to be 12 months, however, there has been the occasional noted exception. Some consider it a spiritual forge where the soul is purified for its eventual ascent to Olam Habah ( heb. עולם הבא; lit. "The world to come", often viewed as analogous to heaven). This
1120-482: A Church, all those who adhere to them". Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits. On the contrary, a sacred thing can be "a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word, anything can be sacred". Religious beliefs, myths, dogmas and legends are the representations that express the nature of these sacred things, and the virtues and powers which are attributed to them. Echoes of James' and Durkheim's definitions are to be found in
1280-415: A body and a soul. Paul said that the "body wars against" the soul, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit" (Heb 4:12 NASB), and that "I buffet my body", to keep it under control. According to Thomas Aquinas , the soul is tota in toto corpore . This means that the soul is entirely contained in every single part of
1440-484: A concrete deity or not" to which the individual feels impelled to respond with solemnity and gravity. Sociologist Émile Durkheim , in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life , defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things". By sacred things he meant things "set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called
1600-489: A definition of religion. There are, however, two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical. The concept of religion originated in the modern era in the West . Parallel concepts are not found in many current and past cultures; there is no equivalent term for religion in many languages. Scholars have found it difficult to develop a consistent definition, with some giving up on
1760-560: A frozen lake of blood and guilt. But cold also played a part in earlier Christian depictions of hell or purgatory, beginning with the Apocalypse of Paul , originally from the early third century; the " Vision of Dryhthelm " by the Venerable Bede from the seventh century; " St Patrick's Purgatory ", "The Vision of Tundale" or " Visio Tnugdali ", and the "Vision of the Monk of Eynsham ", all from
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#17328370314091920-407: A heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel". Bahá'u'lláh stated that the soul not only continues to live after the physical death of the human body but is in fact immortal. Heaven can be seen partly as the soul's state of nearness to God, and hell as a state of remoteness from God. Each state follows as
2080-502: A life force. The concept of jiva in Jainism is similar to ātman in Hinduism; however, some Hindu traditions differentiate between the two concepts, with jiva considered as individual self, while atman as that which is universal unchanging self that is present in all living beings and everything else as the metaphysical Brahman . The latter is sometimes referred to as jiva-ātman (a soul in
2240-458: A life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Maat , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the heavenly reed fields . If found guilty the person was thrown to Ammit , the "devourer of the dead" and would be condemned to the lake of fire . The person taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of
2400-526: A living body). The Quran , the holy book of Islam , uses two words to refer to the soul: rūḥ (translated as spirit, consciousness, pneuma, or soul) and nafs (translated as self, ego, psyche, or soul), cognates of the Hebrew ruach and nefesh . The two terms are frequently used interchangeably, although rūḥ is more often used to denote the divine spirit or "the breath of life", while nafs designates one's disposition or characteristics. In Islamic philosophy,
2560-481: A natural consequence of individual efforts, or the lack thereof, to develop spiritually. Bahá'u'lláh taught that individuals have no existence prior to their life here on earth and the soul's evolution is always towards God and away from the material world. The traditional doctrine in Buddhism regarding the soul, self, or ego is that it is non-existent as a separate, permanent entity. The non-existence of self ( anatman ),
2720-488: A resurrection. Tartarus is held to be the metaphorical state of debasement of the fallen angels between the time of their moral fall (Genesis chapter 6) until their post-millennial destruction along with Satan (Revelation chapter 20). Bible Students and Christadelphians also believe in annihilationism. Christian Universalists believe in universal reconciliation , the belief that all human souls will be eventually reconciled with God and admitted to heaven. This belief
2880-424: A role in judgments on the morality of abortion . Some Christians espouse a trichotomic view of humans, which characterizes humans as consisting of a body ( soma ), soul ( psyche ), and spirit ( pneuma ); however, the majority of modern Bible scholars point out how the concepts of "spirit" and of "soul" are used interchangeably in many biblical passages, and so hold to dichotomy: the view that each human comprises
3040-429: A shadow. In some cases, it is connected to shamanistic beliefs among the various Inuit groups . Caribou Inuit groups also believed in several types of souls. Shinto distinguishes between the souls of living persons ( tamashii ) and those of dead persons ( mitama ), each of which may have different aspects or sub-souls. Sikhism considers soul ( atma ) to be part of God ( Waheguru ). Various hymns are cited from
3200-443: A similar union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. Though traditions, sacred texts, and practices have existed throughout time, most cultures did not align with Western conceptions of religion since they did not separate everyday life from the sacred. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and world religions first entered
3360-468: A spiritual soul with a corporeal soul. Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul. In Hindu philosophy , especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism , ātman is the first principle , the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation ( moksha ) , a human being must acquire self-knowledge ( atma jnana ), which
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#17328370314093520-655: A subject of interest to philosophers and theologians. The word myth has several meanings: Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome , and Scandinavia , are usually categorized under the heading of mythology . Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development, are similarly called myths in the anthropology of religion . The term myth can be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that they are less real or true than one's own religious stories and beliefs. Joseph Campbell remarked, "Mythology
3680-600: A transcendent deity and all else, between the creator and his creation, between God and man. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a: ... system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. Alluding perhaps to Tylor's "deeper motive", Geertz remarked that: ... we have very little idea of how, in empirical terms, this particular miracle
3840-543: A typical human concept of lifespan and time. According to Louis Ginzberg , the soul of Adam is the image of God . Every soul of human also escapes from the body every night, rises up to heaven, and fetches new life thence for the body of man. In Brahma Kumaris , human souls are believed to be incorporeal and eternal . God is considered to be the Supreme Soul, with maximum degrees of spiritual qualities, such as peace, love and purity. In Helena Blavatsky 's Theosophy ,
4000-450: A wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology , philosophy of religion , comparative religion , and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for its origins and workings, including the ontological foundations of religious being and belief. The term religion comes from both Old French and Anglo-Norman (1200s CE ) and means respect for sense of right, moral obligation, sanctity, what
4160-510: A word or even a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were written. For example, there is no precise equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. One of its central concepts is halakha , meaning the walk or path sometimes translated as law, which guides religious practice and belief and many aspects of daily life. Even though
4320-502: Is *nawa ("breath", "life", or "vital spirit"). It is located somewhere in the abdominal cavity , often in the liver or the heart (Proto-Austronesian *qaCay ). The "free soul" is located in the head. Its names are usually derived from Proto-Austronesian *qaNiCu ("ghost", "spirit [of the dead]"), which also apply to other non-human nature spirits. The "free soul" is also referred to in names that literally mean "twin" or "double", from Proto-Austronesian *duSa ("two"). A virtuous person
4480-453: Is a range of social - cultural systems , including designated behaviors and practices, morals , beliefs , worldviews , texts , sanctified places , prophecies , ethics , or organizations , that generally relate humanity to supernatural , transcendental , and spiritual elements —although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from
4640-400: Is accomplished. We just know that it is done, annually, weekly, daily, for some people almost hourly; and we have an enormous ethnographic literature to demonstrate it. The theologian Antoine Vergote took the term supernatural simply to mean whatever transcends the powers of nature or human agency. He also emphasized the cultural reality of religion, which he defined as: ... the entirety of
4800-471: Is also mentioned in the Kabbalah, where the soul is described as breaking, like the flame of a candle lighting another: the part of the soul that ascends being pure and the "unfinished" piece being reborn. According to Jewish teachings, hell is not entirely physical; rather, it can be compared to a very intense feeling of shame. People are ashamed of their misdeeds and this constitutes suffering which makes up for
4960-678: Is also relevant. Some modern Christian theologians subscribe to the doctrines of conditional immortality . Conditional immortality is the belief that the soul dies with the body and does not live again until the resurrection. As with other Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, the New Testament text distinguishes two words, both translated "hell" in older English Bibles: Hades , "the grave", and Gehenna where God "can destroy both body and soul". A minority of Christians read this to mean that neither Hades nor Gehenna are eternal but refer to
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5120-461: Is also the product of the dominant Western religious mode, what is called the Judeo-Christian climate or, more accurately, the theistic inheritance from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The theistic form of belief in this tradition, even when downgraded culturally, is formative of the dichotomous Western view of religion. That is, the basic structure of theism is essentially a distinction between
5280-453: Is an entity or "spiritual spark" or "light" in the human body - because of which the body can sustain life. On the departure of this entity from the body, the body becomes lifeless – no amount of manipulations to the body can make the person make any physical actions. The soul is the "driver" in the body. It is the roohu or spirit or atma , the presence of which makes the physical body alive. Many religious and philosophical traditions support
5440-461: Is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber. Adventists teach that the resurrection of the righteous will take place shortly after the second coming of Jesus , as described in Revelation 20:4–6 that follows Revelation 19:11–16, whereas the resurrection of the wicked will occur after the millennium , as described in Revelation 20:5 and 20:12–13 that follow Revelation 20:4 and 6–7, though Revelation 20:12–13 and 15 actually describe
5600-437: Is called animism . In the ancient Egyptian religion , an individual was believed to be made up of various elements, some physical and some spiritual. Similar ideas are found in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian religion. The Kuttamuwa stele , a funeral stele for an 8th-century BCE royal official from Sam'al , describes Kuttamuwa requesting that his mourners commemorate his life and his afterlife with feasts "for my soul that
5760-429: Is called a tzadik . Therefore, Judaism embraces the commemoration of the day of one's death, nahala / Yahrtzeit , and not the birthday , as a festivity of remembrance, for only toward the end of life's struggles, tests and challenges could human souls be judged and credited for righteousness. Judaism places great importance on the study of the souls. Kabbalah and other mystic traditions go into greater detail into
5920-401: Is called good—happiness, wisdom, love, compassion, harmony, peace, and so on. While the spirit is eternal and incorruptible, the soul is not. The soul acts as a link between the material body and the spiritual self, and therefore shares some characteristics of both. The soul can be attracted either towards the spiritual or towards the material realm, being thus the battlefield of good and evil. It
6080-426: Is cognate with other historical Germanic terms for the same idea, including Old Frisian sēle, sēl (which could also mean "salvation", or "solemn oath"), Gothic saiwala , Old High German sēula, sēla , Old Saxon sēola , and Old Norse sāla . Present-day cognates include Dutch ziel and German Seele . In Judaism and in some Christian denominations, only human beings have immortal souls. Immortality
6240-612: Is composed of two elements: * xaljō (* haljō ) and * rūnō , the Proto-Germanic precursor to Modern English rune . The second element in the Gothic haliurunnae may however instead be an agent noun from the verb rinnan ("to run, go"), which would make its literal meaning "one who travels to the netherworld". Proto–Germanic * xalja-wītjan (or * halja-wītjan ) is reconstructed from Old Norse hel-víti 'hell', Old English helle-wíte 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon helli-wīti 'hell', and
6400-462: Is created immediately by God." Protestants generally believe in the soul's existence and immortality, but fall into two major camps about what this means in terms of an afterlife . Some, following John Calvin , believe that the soul persists as consciousness after death. Others, following Martin Luther , believe that the soul dies with the body , and is unconscious ("sleeps") until the resurrection of
6560-508: Is derived from religare : re (meaning "again") + ligare ("bind" or "connect"), which was made prominent by St. Augustine following the interpretation given by Lactantius in Divinae institutiones , IV, 28. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders : "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece , of a knight 'of
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6720-560: Is derived from Old English sāwol, sāwel . The earliest attestations reported in the Oxford English Dictionary are from the 8th century. In King Alfred 's translation of De Consolatione Philosophiae , it is used to refer to the immaterial, spiritual, or thinking aspect of a person, as contrasted with the person's physical body; in the Vespasian Psalter 77.50, it means "life" or "animate existence". The Old English word
6880-520: Is disputed within Judaism and the concept of immortality was most likely influenced by Plato . For example, Thomas Aquinas , borrowing directly from Aristotle 's On the Soul , attributed "soul" ( anima ) to all organisms but argued that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Hinduism and Jainism ) believe that all living things from the smallest bacterium to the largest of mammals are
7040-546: Is found in texts from the 17th century due to events such as the splitting of Christendom during the Protestant Reformation and globalization in the Age of Exploration , which involved contact with numerous foreign cultures with non-European languages. Some argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply the term religion to non-Western cultures, while some followers of various faiths rebuke using
7200-440: Is held by some Unitarian-Universalists . According to Emanuel Swedenborg 's Second Coming Christian revelation, hell exists because evil people want it. They, not God, introduced evil to the human race. In Swedenborgianism , every soul joins the like-minded group after death in which it feels the most comfortable. Hell is therefore believed to be a place of happiness for the souls which delight in evilness. Members of
7360-424: Is immortal, and eternal, and capable of receiving a fulness of joy. Latter-day Saint cosmology also describes "intelligences" as the essence of consciousness or agency. These are co-eternal with God, and animate the spirits. The union of a newly-created spirit body with an eternally-existing intelligence constitutes a "spirit birth", and justifies God's title "Father of our spirits". Some Confucian traditions contrast
7520-573: Is in this stele". It is one of the earliest references to a soul as a separate entity from the body. The 800-pound (360 kg) basalt stele is 3 ft (0.91 m) tall and 2 ft (0.61 m) wide. It was uncovered in the third season of excavations by the Neubauer Expedition of the Oriental Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The Baháʼí Faith affirms that "the soul is a sign of God,
7680-405: Is no beginning or end to the existence of soul. It is eternal in nature and changes its form until it attains liberation. In Jainism, jiva is the immortal essence or soul of a living organism, such as human, animal, fish, or plant, which survives physical death. The concept of Ajiva in Jainism means "not soul", and represents matter (including body), time, space, non-motion and motion. In Jainism,
7840-463: Is of greatest value in [them], that by which [they are] most especially in God's image: 'soul' signifies the spiritual principle in [humanity]." All souls living and dead will be judged by Jesus Christ when he comes back to earth . The Catholic Church teaches that the existence of each individual soul is dependent wholly upon God, stating: "The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul
8000-431: Is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray hell as cold. Buddhist – and particularly Tibetan Buddhist – descriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. Among Christian descriptions Dante 's Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of hell as
8160-408: Is often thought of as other people's religions, and religion can be defined as misinterpreted mythology." Hell In religion and folklore , hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punitive suffering , most often through torture , as punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations,
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#17328370314098320-617: Is only when the soul is attracted towards the spiritual and merges with the Self that it becomes eternal and divine. Rudolf Steiner claimed classical trichotomic stages of soul development, which interpenetrated one another in consciousness: In Surat Shabda Yoga , the soul is considered to be an exact replica and spark of the Divine. The purpose of Surat Shabd Yoga is to realize one's True Self as soul (Self-Realisation), True Essence (Spirit-Realisation) and True Divinity (God-Realisation) while living in
8480-526: Is possible to understand why scientific findings and philosophical criticisms (e.g., those made by Richard Dawkins ) do not necessarily disturb its adherents. The origin of religious belief is an open question, with possible explanations including awareness of individual death, a sense of community, and dreams. Traditionally, faith , in addition to reason , has been considered a source of religious beliefs. The interplay between faith and reason, and their use as perceived support for religious beliefs, have been
8640-467: Is sacred, reverence for the gods. It is ultimately derived from the Latin word religiō . According to Roman philosopher Cicero , religiō comes from relegere : re (meaning "again") + lego (meaning "read"), where lego is in the sense of "go over", "choose", or "consider carefully". Contrarily, some modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell have argued that religiō
8800-408: Is said to be one whose souls are in harmony with each other, while an evil person is one whose souls are in conflict. The "free soul" is said to leave the body and journey to the spirit world during sleep, trance-like states , delirium , insanity , and death. The duality is also seen in the healing traditions of Austronesian shamans, where illnesses are regarded as a " soul loss " and thus to heal
8960-399: Is said to have mental illness or unconsciousness , while a dead soul may reincarnate to a disability , lower desire realms , or may even be unable to reincarnate. In theological reference to the soul, the terms "life" and "death" are viewed as emphatically more definitive than the common concepts of " biological life " and "biological death". Because the soul is said to be transcendent of
9120-519: Is the allegory of the long spoons . Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed during life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each sin committed, such as in Plato's Myth of Er or Dante's The Divine Comedy , but sometimes they are general, with condemned sinners relegated to one or more chamber of hell or to a level of suffering. In many religious cultures, including Christianity and Islam, hell
9280-415: Is the belief that humans have two or more souls, generally termed the "body soul", or "life soul", and the "free soul". The former is linked to bodily functions and awareness when awake, while the latter can freely wander during sleep or trance states. In some cases, there are a plethora of soul types with different functions. Soul dualism and multiple souls are prominent in the traditional animistic beliefs of
9440-431: Is to realize that one's true self ( ātman ) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman according to Advaita Vedanta . The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is ātman (self, essence) in every being. In Hinduism and Jainism , a jiva ( Sanskrit : जीव , jīva , alternative spelling jiwa ; Hindi : जीव , jīv , alternative spelling jeev ) is a living being, or any entity imbued with
9600-682: Is used: the Greek words Tartarus or Hades , or the Hebrew word Gehinnom . In the Septuagint and New Testament, the authors used the Greek term Hades for the Hebrew Sheol, but often with Jewish rather than Greek concepts in mind. In the Jewish concept of Sheol, such as expressed in Ecclesiastes, Sheol or Hades is a place where there is no activity. However, since Augustine , some Christians have believed that
9760-443: The material existence, and is said to have (potentially) eternal life , the death of the soul is likewise said to be an eternal death . Thus, in the concept of divine judgment , God is commonly said to have options with regard to the dispensation of souls, ranging from Heaven (i.e., angels ) to hell (i.e., demons ), with various concepts in between. Typically both Heaven and hell are said to be eternal, or at least far beyond
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#17328370314099920-481: The Abrahamic religions Christianity, Islam, and Judaism , while others are arguably less so, in particular folk religions , indigenous religions , and some Eastern religions . A portion of the world's population are members of new religious movements . Scholars have indicated that global religiosity may be increasing due to religious countries having generally higher birth rates. The study of religion comprises
10080-508: The Ainu religion , as stated by missionary John Batchelor . However, belief in hell does not appear in oral tradition of the Ainu. Instead, there is belief within the Ainu religion that the soul of the deceased (ramat) would become a kamuy after death. There is also belief that the soul of someone who has been wicked during lifetime, committed suicide , got murdered or died in great agony would become
10240-513: The Anglican church such as N. T. Wright and as denominations the Seventh-day Adventists , Bible Students , Jehovah's Witnesses , Christadelphians , Living Church of God , Church of God International , and some other Protestant Christians . The Catholic Catechism states "The souls of sinners descend into hell, where they suffer 'eternal fire ' ". However, Cardinal Vincent Nichols ,
10400-625: The Austronesian peoples , the Chinese people ( hún and pò ), the Tibetan people , most African peoples, most Native North Americans , ancient South Asian peoples, Northern Eurasian peoples, and in Ancient Egyptians (the ka and ba ). The belief in soul dualism is found throughout most Austronesian shamanistic traditions. The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian word for the "body soul"
10560-491: The Kabbalah , describe seven "compartments" or "habitations" of hell, just as they describe seven divisions of heaven. These divisions go by many different names, and the most frequently mentioned are as follows: Besides those mentioned above, there also exist additional terms that have been often used to either refer to hell in general or to some region of the underworld: Maimonides declares in his 13 principles of faith that
10720-509: The Methodists , Baptists and Episcopalians , and some Greek Orthodox churches, hell is taught as the final destiny of those who have not been found worthy after the general resurrection and last judgment , where they will be eternally punished for sin and permanently separated from God. The nature of this judgment is inconsistent with many Protestant churches teaching the saving comes from accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, while
10880-598: The Punishment of the Grave , and that the spiritual pain caused by this can lead to purification of the soul. Not all Muslims and scholars agree whether hell is an eternal destination or whether some or all of the condemned will eventually be forgiven and allowed to enter paradise. Over hell, a narrow bridge called As-Sirāt is spanned. On Judgment Day one must pass over it to reach paradise, but those destined for hell will find too narrow and fall into their new abode. Iblis ,
11040-405: The divine , sacredness , faith , and a supernatural being or beings. The origin of religious belief is an open question, with possible explanations including awareness of individual death, a sense of community, and dreams. Religions have sacred histories , narratives , and mythologies , preserved in oral traditions, sacred texts , symbols , and holy places , that may attempt to explain
11200-596: The galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. The later Mesopotamians knew this underworld by its East Semitic name: Irkalla . During the Akkadian Period , Ereshkigal's role as the ruler of the underworld was assigned to Nergal , the god of death. The Akkadians attempted to harmonize this dual rulership of the underworld by making Nergal Ereshkigal's husband. The hells of Europe include Breton mythology 's "Anaon", Celtic mythology 's "Uffern", Slavic mythology 's "Peklo", Norse mythology 's Náströnd ,
11360-453: The immortality of the soul ; and (b) the monistic nature of human beings , in which the soul is not separable from the body, as opposed to bipartite or tripartite conceptions, in which the soul is separable. Jehovah's Witnesses hold that the soul ceases to exist when the person dies and therefore that hell (Sheol or Hades) is a state of non-existence. In their theology, Gehenna differs from Sheol or Hades in that it holds no hope of
11520-414: The lake of fire . Christian mortalism and annihilationism are directly related to the doctrine of conditional immortality, the idea that a human soul is not immortal unless it is given eternal life at the second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead . Biblical scholars looking at the issue through the Hebrew text have denied the teaching of innate immortality. Rejection of the immortality of
11680-553: The medieval period . In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations, but up to the mid-1600s translators expressed din as "law". The Sanskrit word dharma , sometimes translated as religion, also means law. Throughout classical South Asia , the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions . Medieval Japan at first had
11840-574: The origin of life , the universe , and other phenomena. Religious practices may include rituals , sermons , commemoration or veneration (of deities or saints ), sacrifices , festivals , feasts , trances , initiations , matrimonial and funerary services, meditation , prayer , music , art , dance , or public service . There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, though nearly all of them have regionally based, relatively small followings. Four religions— Christianity , Islam , Hinduism , and Buddhism —account for over 77% of
12000-584: The reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun * xaljō or * haljō ('concealed place, the underworld'). In turn, the Proto-Germanic form derives from the o-grade form of the Proto-Indo-European root * kel- , * kol -: 'to cover, conceal, save'. Indo-European cognates include Latin cēlāre ("to hide", related to the English word cellar ) and early Irish ceilid ("hides"). Upon the Christianisation of
12160-527: The religion of Avys '". In classic antiquity, religiō broadly meant conscientiousness , sense of right , moral obligation , or duty to anything. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religiō was understood as an individual virtue of worship in mundane contexts; never as doctrine , practice, or actual source of knowledge . In general, religiō referred to broad social obligations towards anything including family, neighbors, rulers, and even towards God . Religiō
12320-487: The torment of a rich man , who lacked charity, when he dies and compares it to the blessed state of a poor man who has also died. Divine pardon at judgment always remained a central concern for the ancient Egyptians. Modern understanding of Egyptian notions of hell relies on six ancient texts: The Sumerian afterlife was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue "a shadowy version of life on earth". This bleak domain
12480-488: The 1500s to distinguish the domain of the church and the domain of civil authorities ; the Peace of Augsburg marks such instance, which has been described by Christian Reus-Smit as "the first step on the road toward a European system of sovereign states ." Roman general Julius Caesar used religiō to mean "obligation of an oath" when discussing captured soldiers making an oath to their captors. Roman naturalist Pliny
12640-547: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teach that hell is a state between death and resurrection, in which those spirits who did not repent while on earth must suffer for their own sins (Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–17 ). After that, only the Sons of perdition , who committed the Eternal sin , would be cast into Outer darkness . However, according to Mormon faith, committing
12800-472: The Elder used the term religiō to describe the apparent respect given by elephants to the night sky . Cicero used religiō as being related to cultum deorum (worship of the gods). In Ancient Greece , the Greek term threskeia ( θρησκεία ) was loosely translated into Latin as religiō in late antiquity . Threskeia was sparsely used in classical Greece but became more frequently used in
12960-508: The English language. Native Americans were also thought of as not having religions and also had no word for religion in their languages either. No one self-identified as a Hindu or Buddhist or other similar terms before the 1800s. "Hindu" has historically been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people indigenous to the Indian subcontinent . Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of religion since there
13120-506: The Eternal sin requires so much knowledge that most persons cannot do this. Satan and Cain are counted as examples of Sons of perdition. In Islam, Jahannam (in Arabic : جهنم) (related to the Hebrew word gehinnom ) is the counterpart to heaven and likewise divided into seven layers, both co-existing with the temporal world, filled with blazing fire, boiling water, and a variety of other torments for those who have been condemned to it in
13280-768: The Germanic peoples , extensions of the Proto-Germanic * xaljō were reinterpreted to denote the underworld in Christian mythology (see Gehenna ). Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic * xalja-rūnō(n) , a feminine compound noun, and * xalja-wītjan , a neutral compound noun. This form is reconstructed from the Latinized Gothic plural noun * haliurunnae (attested by Jordanes ; according to philologist Vladimir Orel , meaning ' witches '), Old English helle-rúne ('sorceress, necromancer ', according to Orel), and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. The compound
13440-486: The Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches teach that the judgment hinges on both faith and works. However, many Liberal Christians throughout Mainline Protestant churches believe in universal reconciliation (see below), even though it contradicts the traditional doctrines that are usually held by the evangelicals within their denominations. Regarding the belief in hell, the interpretation of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
13600-685: The Jewish notions of nephesh (נפש) and ruah (רוח), meaning spirit, (also in the Septuagint, e.g. Genesis 1:2 רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים = πνεῦμα θεοῦ = spiritus Dei = "the Spirit of God"). Christians generally believe in the existence and eternal, infinite nature of the soul. The "origin of the soul" has provided a vexing question in Christianity. The major theories put forward include soul creationism , traducianism , and pre-existence . According to soul creationism, God creates each individual soul directly, either at
13760-539: The Middle High German feminine noun helle-wīze . The compound is a compound of * xaljō (discussed above) and * wītjan (reconstructed from forms such as Old English witt 'right mind, wits', Old Saxon gewit 'understanding', and Gothic un-witi 'foolishness, understanding'). Hell appears in several mythologies and religions . It is commonly inhabited by demons and the souls of dead people. A fable about hell which recurs in folklore across several cultures
13920-441: The Quran. Each is assigned for a different type of sinners. The concept later accepted by Sunni authorities list the levels of hell as follows, although some stages may vary: The highest level ( jahannam ) is traditionally thought of as a type of purgatory reserved for Muslims. Polytheism ( shirk ) is regarded as a particularly grievous sin; therefore entering Paradise is forbidden to a polytheist ( mushrik ) because his place
14080-538: The West (or even in the West until after the Peace of Westphalia ). The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions states: The very attempt to define religion, to find some distinctive or possibly unique essence or set of qualities that distinguish the religious from the remainder of human life, is primarily a Western concern. The attempt is a natural consequence of the Western speculative, intellectualistic, and scientific disposition. It
14240-441: The afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave , a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth (for example, see Kur , Hades , and Sheol ). Such places are sometimes equated with the English word hell , though a more correct translation would be "underworld" or "world of the dead". The ancient Mesopotamian , Greek , Roman , and Finnic religions include entrances to
14400-439: The afterlife must not be denied, but simultaneously asserting its exact nature remains unknown. Other modern Muslims continue the line of Sufism as an interiorized hell, combining the eschatological thoughts of Ibn Arabi and Rumi with Western philosophy. Although disputed by some scholars, most scholars consider jahannam to be eternal. There is belief that the fire which represents the own bad deeds can already be seen during
14560-492: The bad deeds. When one has so deviated from the will of God , one is said to be in Gehinnom. This is not meant to refer to some point in the future, but to the very present moment. The gates of teshuva (return) are said to be always open, and so one can align his will with that of God at any moment. Being out of alignment with God's will is itself a punishment according to the Torah . Many scholars of Jewish mysticism, particularly of
14720-422: The belief in spiritual beings exists in all known societies. In his book The Varieties of Religious Experience , the psychologist William James defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine". By the term divine James meant "any object that is god like , whether it be
14880-430: The beliefs and traditions of Judaism are found in the ancient world, ancient Jews saw Jewish identity as being about an ethnic or national identity and did not entail a compulsory belief system or regulated rituals. In the 1st century CE, Josephus had used the Greek term ioudaismos (Judaism) as an ethnic term and was not linked to modern abstract concepts of religion or a set of beliefs. The very concept of "Judaism"
15040-444: The biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam , whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations , as is the case in the Indian religions . Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth 's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven , paradise , purgatory , limbo , and the underworld . Other religions, which do not conceive of
15200-412: The body are the soul of man." Latter-day Saints believe that the soul is the union of a pre-existing, God-made spirit, and a temporal body, which is formed by physical conception on earth. After death, the spirit continues to live and progress in the spirit world until the resurrection , when it is reunited with the body that once housed it. This reuniting of body and spirit results in a perfect soul that
15360-444: The body is a collection of elements and the soul is the essence. Soul or psyche ( Ancient Greek : ψυχή psykhḗ , of ψύχειν psýkhein , "to breathe", cf. Latin anima ) comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, free will , feeling, consciousness , qualia , memory, perception, thinking, and so on. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal . The ancient Greeks used
15520-601: The communication of supernatural beliefs, defining religion as: ... the communicated acceptance by individuals of another individual’s “supernatural” claim, a claim whose accuracy is not verifiable by the senses. Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as das schlechthinnige Abhängigkeitsgefühl , commonly translated as "the feeling of absolute dependence". His contemporary Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel disagreed thoroughly, defining religion as "the Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through
15680-468: The complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." The Seventh-day Adventist Church 's official beliefs support annihilationism . They deny the Catholic purgatory and teach that the dead lie in the grave until they are raised for a last judgment , both
15840-433: The dead . Various new religious movements deriving from Adventism including Christadelphians , Seventh-day Adventists , and Jehovah's Witnesses , similarly believe that the dead do not possess a soul separate from the body and are unconscious until the resurrection. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the spirit and body together constitute the Soul of Man (Mankind), stating: "The spirit and
16000-561: The dead to drink. Nonetheless, funerary evidence indicates that some people believed that the goddess Inanna , Ereshkigal's younger sister, had the power to award her devotees with special favors in the afterlife. During the Third Dynasty of Ur , it was believed that a person's treatment in the afterlife depended on how he or she was buried; those that had been given sumptuous burials would be treated well, but those who had been given poor burials would fare poorly. The entrance to Kur
16160-425: The deceased were judged after they paid for crossing the river of the dead and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. As a place of punishment, it can be considered a hell. The classic Hades , on the other hand, is more similar to Old Testament Sheol. The Romans later adopted these views . The hell of Swahili mythology is called kuzimu , and belief in it developed in the 7th and 8th century under
16320-509: The eternal damnation which he has incurred..." The Catholic Church defines hell as "a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed". One finds oneself in hell as the result of dying in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love, becoming eternally separated from him by one's own free choice immediately after death. In the Roman Catholic Church, many other Christian churches, such as
16480-450: The finite spirit." Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion in 1871 as "the belief in spiritual beings". He argued that narrowing the definition to mean the belief in a supreme deity or judgment after death or idolatry and so on, would exclude many peoples from the category of religious, and thus "has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than with the deeper motive which underlies them". He also argued that
16640-410: The fires of hell. Muhammad said that the fire of Jahannam is 70 times hotter than ordinary fire, and is much more painful than ordinary fire. The seven gates of jahannam , mentioned in the Quran, inspired Muslim exegetes ( tafsir ) to develop a system of seven stages of hell, analogue to the seven doors of paradise. The stages of hell get their names by seven different terms used for hell throughout
16800-573: The good people continue to live in the ancestral realm, Orun Baba Eni ( heaven of our fathers). The Bagobo of the Philippines have the otherworld "Gimokodan", where the Red Region is reserved who those who died in battle, while ordinary people go to the White Region. According to a few sources, hell is below ground, and described as an uninviting wet or fiery place reserved for sinful people in
16960-537: The hell of Sami mythology and Finnish " Tuonela " ("manala"). In classic Greek mythology , below heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus , or Tartaros ( Ancient Greek : Τάρταρος ). It is either a deep, gloomy place, a pit or abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides within Hades (the entire underworld ) with Tartarus being the hellish component. In the Gorgias , Plato (c. 400 BC) wrote that souls of
17120-554: The hells of the rabbinic literature were pedagogically motivated inventions to encourage respect of the Torah commandments by mankind, which had been regarded as immature. Instead of being sent to hell, the souls of the wicked would actually get annihilated. The Christian doctrine of hell derives from passages in the New Testament . The English word hell does not appear in the Greek New Testament; instead one of three words
17280-497: The hereafter. In the Quran, God declares that the fire of Jahannam is prepared for both mankind and jinn . After the Day of Judgment, it is to be occupied by those who do not believe in God, those who have disobeyed his laws , or rejected his messengers . "Enemies of Islam" are sent to hell immediately upon their deaths. Muslim modernists downplay the vivid descriptions of hell common during Classical period, on one hand reaffirming that
17440-545: The holy book Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) that suggests this belief. "God is in the Soul and the Soul is in the God." The same concept is repeated at various pages of the SGGS. Example include that "The soul is divine; divine is the soul. Worship Him with love", and "The soul is the Lord, and the Lord is the soul; contemplating the Shabad, the Lord is found." The atma or soul according to Sikhism
17600-500: The human body, and therefore ubiquitous and cannot be placed in a single organ, such as heart or brain, nor it is separable from the body (except after the body's death). In the fourth book of De Trinitate , Augustine of Hippo states that the soul is all in the whole body and all in any part of it. The present Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "[The term 'soul'] refers to the innermost aspect of [persons], that which
17760-484: The immortal rūḥ "drives" the mortal nafs, which comprises temporal desires and perceptions necessary for living. Several verses of the Quran that mention the rûh occur in chapters 17 ("The Night Journey") and 39 ("The Troops"). And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the Rûh. Say, "The Rûh is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except a little. And remember your Rabb inside your-self Allah takes
17920-565: The impermanence of all things ( anitya ), and the suffering ( dukkha ) experienced by living beings due to attachment to ideas of self and permanence are central concepts in almost all Buddhist schools . The doctrine of Buddha-nature , while sometimes misinterpreted as referring to a "true self" or "soul" of some kind, actually depends upon acceptance of the concept of anatman to be properly understood. According to some Christian eschatology , when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to go to Heaven or to Hades awaiting
18080-494: The inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those considered justified appears in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where humans experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits but there is no suggestion of eternal torture; the weighing of the heart in Egyptian mythology can lead to annihilation. The Tale of Khaemwese describes
18240-503: The influence of Muslim merchants at the East African coast. It is imagined as a very cold place. Serer religion rejects the general notion of heaven and hell. In Serer religion, acceptance by the ancestors who have long departed is as close to any heaven as one can get. Rejection and becoming a wandering soul is a sort of hell for one passing over . The souls of the dead must make their way to Jaaniw (the sacred dwelling place of
18400-454: The liberated and non-liberated souls is that the qualities and attributes are manifested completely in case of siddha (liberated soul) as they have overcome all the karmic bondages whereas in case of non-liberated souls they are partially exhibited. Souls who rise victorious over wicked emotions while still remaining within physical bodies are referred to as arihants . Concerning the Jain view of
18560-482: The limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals "an award of joy or sorrow drawing near" in dreams. Erwin Rohde writes that an early pre- Pythagorean belief presented the soul as lifeless when it departed the body, and that it retired into Hades with no hope of returning to a body. Plato was the first thinker in antiquity to combine the various functions of the soul into one coherent conception:
18720-424: The linguistic expressions, emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being or supernatural beings. Peter Mandaville and Paul James intended to get away from the modernist dualisms or dichotomous understandings of immanence/transcendence, spirituality/materialism, and sacredness/secularity. They define religion as: ... a relatively-bounded system of beliefs, symbols and practices that addresses
18880-477: The moment of conception or at some later time. According to traducianism, the soul comes from the parents by natural generation. According to the preexistence theory, the soul exists before the moment of conception. There have been differing thoughts regarding whether human embryos have souls from conception, or whether there is a point between conception and birth where the fetus acquires a soul , consciousness , and / or personhood . Stances in this question play
19040-631: The most senior Catholic in England and Wales, said "there's nowhere in Catholic teaching that actually says any one person is in hell". The 1993 Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called 'hell ' " and "they suffer the punishments of hell, 'eternal fire ' ". The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God" (CCC 1035). During an Audience in 1999, Pope John Paul II commented: "images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show
19200-583: The nature of existence, and in which communion with others and Otherness is lived as if it both takes in and spiritually transcends socially-grounded ontologies of time, space, embodiment and knowing. According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions , there is an experiential aspect to religion which can be found in almost every culture: ... almost every known culture [has] a depth dimension in cultural experiences ... toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for
19360-402: The nature of the soul. Kabbalah separates the soul into five elements, corresponding to the five worlds : Kabbalah proposed a concept of reincarnation, the gilgul ( nefesh habehamit – the "animal soul"). Some Jewish traditions assert that the soul is housed in the luz bone, though traditions disagree as to whether it is the atlas at the top of the spine, or the sacrum at bottom of
19520-678: The physical body. Similarly, the spiritual teacher Meher Baba held that "Atman, or the soul, is in reality identical with Paramatma the Oversoul – which is one, infinite, and eternal ... [and] [t]he sole purpose of creation is for the soul to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul consciously." Eckankar , founded by Paul Twitchell in 1965, defines Soul as the true self; the inner, most sacred part of each person. George Gurdjieff taught that humans are not born with immortal souls but could develop them through certain efforts. Greek philosophers, such as Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , understood that
19680-428: The possibility of a definition. Others argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply it to non-Western cultures. An increasing number of scholars have expressed reservations about ever defining the essence of religion. They observe that the way the concept today is used is a particularly modern construct that would not have been understood through much of history and in many cultures outside
19840-419: The rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience—varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture. Anthropologists Lyle Steadman and Craig T. Palmer emphasized
20000-473: The righteous and wicked await the resurrection at the Second Coming . Seventh-day Adventists believe that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, it
20160-433: The sick, one must "return" the "free soul" (which may have been stolen by an evil spirit or got lost in the spirit world) into the body. If the "free soul" can not be returned, the afflicted person dies or goes permanently insane. The shaman heals within the spiritual dimension by returning 'lost' parts of the human soul from wherever they have gone. The shaman also cleanses excess negative energies, which confuse or pollute
20320-435: The soul (ψυχή, psykhḗ ) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence ( Apology 30a–b). Aristotle reasoned that a man's body and soul were his matter and form respectively:
20480-574: The soul , and advocacy of Christian mortalism, was a feature of Protestantism since the early days of the Reformation with Martin Luther himself rejecting the traditional idea, though his mortalism did not carry into orthodox Lutheranism . One of the most notable English opponents of the immortality of the soul was Thomas Hobbes who describes the idea as a Greek "contagion" in Christian doctrine. Modern proponents of conditional immortality include some in
20640-549: The soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material. According to Chinese traditions, every person has two types of soul called hun and po ( Chinese : 魂and 魄 ; pinyin : Hún and Pò ), which are respectively yang and yin . Taoism believes in Ten souls, Sanhunqipo ( Chinese : 三魂七魄 ; pinyin : Sān hún qī pò ) ( 三魂七魄 ) "three hun and seven po ". A living being that loses any of them
20800-414: The soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn ( metempsychosis ) in subsequent bodies; however, Aristotle believed that only one part of the soul was immortal, namely the intellect ( logos ). The Platonic soul consists of three parts: Religion Antiquity Medieval Early modern Modern Iran India East-Asia Religion
20960-554: The soul is "thetan", derived from the Greek word theta , symbolizing thought. Scientologists practice a form of counselling (called auditing ) which aims to address the soul to improve abilities, both worldly and spiritual. Soul dualism, also called "multiple souls" or "dualistic pluralism", is a common belief in Shamanism , and is essential in the universal and central concept of "soul flight" (also called "soul journey", " out-of-body experience ", " ecstasy ", or " astral projection "). It
21120-445: The soul is that which moves things (i.e., that which gives life, on the view that life is self-motion) by means of its thoughts, requiring that it be both a mover and a thinker. Drawing on the words of his teacher Socrates, Plato considered the psyche to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how humans behave. He considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of our being. Plato said that even after death,
21280-399: The soul is the field of our psychological activity (thinking, emotions, memory, desires, will, and so on) as well as of the paranormal or psychic phenomena, such as extrasensory perception or out-of-body experiences; however, the soul is not the highest, but a middle dimension of human beings. Higher than the soul is the spirit, which is considered to be the real self; the source of everything
21440-549: The soul or spirit. In Judaism , there was originally little to no concept of a soul. As seen in the Genesis , the divine breath simply animated bodies. Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being. Judaism relates the quality of one's soul to one's performance of the commandments ( mitzvot ) and reaching higher levels of understanding, and thus closeness to God. A person with such closeness
21600-439: The soul). Only those who have lived their lives on earth in accordance with Serer doctrines will be able to make this necessary journey and thus be accepted by the ancestors. Those who cannot make the journey become lost and wandering souls, but they do not burn in "hell fire". In Yoruba mythology, wicked people (guilty of e.g. theft, witchcraft, murder, or cruelty ) are confined to Orun Apaadi ( heaven of potsherds), while
21760-528: The soul, Virchand Gandhi said that "the soul lives its own life, not for the purpose of the body, but the body lives for the purpose of the soul. If we believe that the soul is to be controlled by the body then soul misses its power." The Hebrew terms נפש nefesh (literally "living being"), רוח ruach (literally "wind"), נשמה neshamah (literally "breath"), חיה chayah (literally "life") and יחידה yechidah (literally "singularity") are used to describe
21920-451: The soul. In some ethnic groups, there can also be more than two souls. Like among the Tagbanwa people , where a person is said to have six souls – the "free soul" (which is regarded as the "true" soul) and five secondary souls with various functions. Several Inuit groups believe that a person has more than one type of soul. One is associated with respiration, the other can accompany the body as
22080-551: The souls and bodies of the unrighteous will be destroyed in Hell rather than suffering eternally ( annihilationism ). Believers will inherit eternal life either in Heaven, or in a Kingdom of God on earth, and enjoy eternal fellowship with God. Other Christians reject the punishment of the soul. Paul the Apostle used psychē ( ψυχή ) and pneuma ( πνεῦμα ) specifically to distinguish between
22240-403: The souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep. Then He keeps those for which He has decreed death and releases the others for a specified term. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought.. In Jainism, every living being, from plant or bacterium to human, has a soul and the concept forms the very basis of Jainism. According to Jainism, there
22400-538: The souls of those who die either rest peacefully, in the case of Christians, or are afflicted, in the case of the damned, after death until the resurrection . While these three terms are translated in the KJV as "hell" they have three very different meanings. According to the Roman Catholic Church, the Council of Trent taught, in the 5th canon of its 14th session, that damnation is eternal: "...the loss of eternal blessedness, and
22560-509: The souls themselves ( Atman and jiva ) and have their physical representative (the body) in the world. The actual self is the soul, while the body is only a mechanism to experience the karma of that life. Thus, if one sees a tiger then there is a self-conscious identity residing in it (the soul), and a physical representative (the whole body of the tiger, which is observable) in the world. Many people believe that non-biological things, such as rivers and mountains, also possess souls. This belief
22720-445: The spine. The Scientology view is that a person does not have a soul, it is a soul. It is the belief of the religion that they do not have the power to force adherents' conclusions. Therefore, a person is immortal, and may be reincarnated if they wish. Scientologists view that one's future happiness and immortality, as guided by their spirituality, is influenced by how they live and act during their time on earth. Scientology's term for
22880-401: The temporary ruler of hell, is thought of residing in the bottom of hell, from where he commands his hosts of infernal demons. But contrary to Christian traditions, Iblis and his infernal hosts do not wage war against God, his enmity applies against humanity only. Further, his dominion in hell is also his punishment. Executioners of punishment are the 19 zabaniyya , who have been created from
23040-413: The term superstitio (which meant too much fear or anxiety or shame) to religiō at times. When religiō came into English around the 1200s as religion, it took the meaning of "life bound by monastic vows" or monastic orders. The compartmentalized concept of religion, where religious and worldly things were separated, was not used before the 1500s. The concept of religion was first used in
23200-449: The term " ensouled " to represent the concept of being alive, indicating that the earliest surviving Western philosophical view believed that the soul was that which gave the body life. The soul was considered the incorporeal or spiritual "breath" that animates (from the Latin anima , cf. "animal") the living organism. Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar by saying that the soul sleeps while
23360-495: The twelfth century; and the "Vision of Thurkill" from the early thirteenth century. With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom , the "democratization of religion" offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability. At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they had led
23520-499: The ultimate destruction of the wicked in the Lake of Fire in a consuming fire after resurrection. However, because of the Greek words used in translating from the Hebrew text, the Hebrew ideas have become confused with Greek myths and ideas. In the Hebrew text when people died they went to Sheol , the grave and the wicked ultimately went to Gehenna and were consumed by fire. The Hebrew words for "the grave" or "death" or "eventual destruction of
23680-691: The underworld from the land of the living. The modern English word hell is derived from Old English hel , helle (first attested around 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead) reaching into the Anglo-Saxon pagan period . The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages , including Old Norse hel (which refers to both a location and goddess-like being in Norse mythology ), Old Frisian helle , Old Saxon hellia , Old High German hella , and Gothic halja . All forms ultimately derive from
23840-430: The view that the soul is the ethereal substance – a spirit; a non-material spark – particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly even within a given religion as to what happens to
24000-426: The wicked", were translated using Greek words and later texts became a mix of mistranslation, pagan influence, and Greek myth. Christian mortalism is the doctrine that all men and women, including Christians, must die, and do not continue and are not conscious after death. Therefore, annihilationism includes the doctrine that "the wicked" are also destroyed rather than tormented forever in traditional "hell" or
24160-513: The word to describe their own belief system. The concept of "ancient religion" stems from modern interpretations of a range of practices that conform to a modern concept of religion, influenced by early modern and 19th century Christian discourse. The concept of religion was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries, despite the fact that ancient sacred texts like the Bible , the Quran , and others did not have
24320-502: The world's population, and 92% of the world either follows one of those four religions or identifies as nonreligious , meaning that the remaining 9,000+ faiths account for only 8% of the population combined. The religiously unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists , and agnostics , although many in the demographic still have various religious beliefs. Many world religions are also organized religions , most definitively including
24480-400: The writings of Josephus in the 1st century CE. It was used in mundane contexts and could mean multiple things from respectful fear to excessive or harmfully distracting practices of others, to cultic practices. It was often contrasted with the Greek word deisidaimonia , which meant too much fear. Religion is a modern concept. The concept was invented recently in the English language and
24640-439: The writings of, for example, Frederick Ferré who defined religion as "one's way of valuing most comprehensively and intensively". Similarly, for the theologian Paul Tillich , faith is "the state of being ultimately concerned", which "is itself religion. Religion is the substance, the ground, and the depth of man's spiritual life." When religion is seen in terms of sacred, divine, intensive valuing, or ultimate concern, then it
24800-586: Was believed to be located in the Zagros mountains in the far east. It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. The god Neti was the gatekeeper. Ereshkigal's sukkal , or messenger, was the god Namtar . Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe
24960-485: Was invented by the Christian Church , and it was in the 19th century that Jews began to see their ancestral culture as a religion analogous to Christianity. The Greek word threskeia , which was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament . Threskeia is sometimes translated as "religion" in today's translations, but the term was understood as generic "worship" well into
25120-473: Was known as Kur , and was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal . All souls went to the same afterlife, and a person's actions during life had no effect on how the person would be treated in the world to come. The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing
25280-434: Was most often used by the ancient Romans not in the context of a relation towards gods, but as a range of general emotions which arose from heightened attention in any mundane context such as hesitation , caution, anxiety , or fear , as well as feelings of being bound, restricted, or inhibited. The term was also closely related to other terms like scrupulus (which meant "very precisely"), and some Roman authors related
25440-467: Was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning, but when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this idea. According to the philologist Max Müller in the 19th century, the root of the English word religion, the Latin religiō ,
25600-424: Was originally used to mean only reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety (which Cicero further derived to mean diligence). Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as having a similar power structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Scholars have failed to agree on
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