Life, Death and Beyond
By: Renaldo C. McKenzie
From the reading of Plato in the Phaedo on “Life, Death and the afterlife, I’ve come to certain assumptions leading from Socrates philosophy of life and death.
Firstly, if people knew that death would bring so much glory, godlikeness, and beauty why wouldn’t they kill themselves? Why wouldn’t they want to commit suicide. And if they knew the richness that awaits them then life here would be nothing… because people would make a life out of killing themselves… why waste it on the pain of living in this world. But the Gods in their wisdom created a system or stop gap of which Socrates alludes to as the philosophical preparation or Plato’s process of coming to know so as to perpetuate life.
Secondly, that Christian theology about eternal life and salvation has this Socratic-platonic philosophical underpinnings. In Protestantism, Calvinist theology of salvation is a theology of the already but nothing yet. Similarly, you find this in Arminianism where the believer has to work towards his salvation.
To be continued… read the paper via rmckenzie.academia.edu
Written By Renaldo McKenzie