Life After Death by Terence Penelhum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Life After Death by Terence Penelhum - Essay Example The article opens with a brief history of the belief in immortality. Immortality of the soul predates Christianity, and therefore Christianity’s belief in life after death. Plato first describes the immortal soul in Phaedo, which details the death of Socrates. Before Socrates dies, he contemplates whether or not the soul can live without the body and if death is something to be feared. Socrates arrives to the conclusion that not only does the soul live on, but death should be embraced as it means that the soul is released from the prison of the body. Through moral reflection, people are able to tend to their soul, gradually releasing it from its physical form, but death ultimately completes this release. The aforementioned belief of death being embraced is what separates Plato’s belief of immortality with Christianity’s belief. Plato believes that death should be embraced, but Christianity, when using Jesus’ agonizing death as an example, suggests that death should be feared. Christianity perceives death as the most horrifying experience that someone can face because it is the destruction of a person. This goes against Plato’s theory that death is a release; Socrates did not fear death, but Jesus did. This concept is elaborated further when the Christian belief of resurrection is considered, which also goes against Plato’s theory of the immortal soul. Christians hope that God will completely re-create what he has permitted death to destroy. Penelhum focuses less attention on the soul and resurrection. He points out the fact that if the new body is drastically transformed from the original body, the concept of survival is defeated. The soul may be th e same, but if the new body is significantly different from the old body, resurrection is not as much of a success as people are led to believe. One’s soul cannot be identified by someone else, and if a transformed body cannot be recognized, the person did not necessarily survive. The soul living on without a body has sparked more controversy and speculation. Human intelligence, such as seeing, hearing, and being emotionally expressive, are all physical aspects and cannot be accessed with a body. If this is the case, survival is pointless and the soul would just simply exist. It is considered that disembodied survivors might have mental lives, that their thoughts can materialize in the world, but they would still lack the ability to perceive, which further points to a pointless existence. A disembodied soul may not even know if there are others nearby, nor would it be able to perceive a living human being. Self-identity of a disembodied soul is an even more difficult concept to grasp. Without physical characteristics, it becomes almost impossible to recognize a disembodied soul. There would have to be substitute for the feature that establishes an identity. We would have to use mental features instead of physical to identify someone, which may or may not be a possibility. Hume believes that humans retain some form of identity in terms of mental factors, as opposed to physical factors, which would be useful in the possibility of resurrection. He looks to memory as a method to identify a soul. Unfortunately, unless a person has concrete memories, nobody could survive a disembodied form. People are capable of remembering events that they were never part of or witnessed, which makes memory as a means of identity an uncertain method. For it to work, there would have to be something more stable beneath the thoughts, images, and feelings. Penelhum concludes that all of the theories of life

Organization change Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organization change - Assignment Example Employees will follow the guidance of a leader they believe in. Getting the respect of the employees is important in order to gain their trust. A leader must have superb communication skills to facilitate the change process in an organization. Often change requires that the employees gain new skills and capabilities to be able to handle the work challenges. The manager of a company can facilitate change by providing the employees of the firm with training and development opportunities. The use of training and development can help the employees accept change because the employees become better prepared. A technique that can be used to implement training and development faster at a lower cost is online training. Another technique that can be utilized to facilitate change at an organization is the use of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. To motivate the employees to achieve greater production the company can offer financial rewards to the employees. It is important to demonstrate to the employees that the company cares about their work-life balance. The use of flexible time is a way to change the operations of an enterprise to allow the employees to be able to better meet their family responsibilities. Change can also be enha nced at a company through the implementation of teamwork. Teamwork enhances the leadership and communication abilities of the employees and it offers the workers a new dynamic work environment. Teamwork has become a critical success factor in the work environment of the 21st century. The employees of a company can also get involved in the change process of the organization. The managers must keep the lines of communication open with the employees at all times. A way for the workers to get involved in the change process is through the implementation of a feedback system. Sometimes the employees are intimidated by the managers and they do not feel comfortable giving feedback. Implementing