We'll come to arguments for and against
the existence of God at the end of the
term. I think the two questions are related
but still separable.

Ancient Judiasm, for instance, believed in
a God without an afterlife. You don't find
any concept of an afterlife in the Torah
(first five books of the Bible). The idea is
that Man is earth animated by the divine
force and than upon death God withdraws
the animating force and Man returns to
the earth from which he was taken.

Some versions of Spiritualism don't
believe in a Divine Omnipotent Spirit.
They consider the world of souls to be
eternal, not made by any Greater Soul. It's
similar to the materialist idea of an
eternal universe, except for the universe
has a spiritual component. Where did
souls or the universe come from? They've
just always been here.

One way in which the two questions ARE
related is the following: If God exists, then
at least one disembodied consciousness
exists, making it more likley that human
consciousness could exist outside of a
material body as well.

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu