Doctrine of bodily resurrection

“The doctrine of bodily resurrection, linked closely to the soul's nature and destiny, suffers like a fate. The ancients knew little or nothing about the human organism — its chemical constituents, its functioning parts, its psychology — and even less about the nature of death. Modern man has measured corruption, can detail the chemical changes that take place when bodily life ceases, has a clear idea of what precisely corruption and decay of the human frame connote, and defines human death precisely by the cessation of the observable functions of the body. The three religions define death as the moment when the soul leaves the body.

On the other hand, the scientist cannot accept the "outside" explanation: that a god will "resurrect" the corrupted body. He knows that in a living body today the actual molecules which compose it were not part of it some time ago. In another decade it will be made up of molecules which at present are elsewhere: in African lions, in passion-flowers of the Amazon, in Maine lobsters, in earth in Patagonia, and in the fur of a Polar bear. For the scientist, the body as such has truly ceased to exist. No "shade" or reduced form of the body exists in an "underworld" or in Elysian fields. The body has ceased to exist. He therefore finds the resurrection of the body unintelligible.”

Malachi Martin, The Encounter, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970, 286


 

If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the websites listed below where this topic titled "Doctrine of bodily resurrection" or related issues are discussed, commented, criticized or researched in detail to promote peace and progress in religious harmony and spiritual development for all humanity:

http://www.adishakti.org/
http://www.al-qiyamah.org/