Immortality is an issue that has raised a lot of debate among religion experts and historian. Most frequently asked questions are as outlined below. Can we say that a particular species was immortal in the past? In other words, is it right to say that a particular kind of creatures living in the world emanated from nowhere hence having no starting point? My argument involves an entire group of creatures such as the elephants.
Opinion 1
Some religious philosophers and scholars had the same arguments about this issue 8 centuries ago. Some said that it was impossible to have things that were immortal in the past besides the creator. A number of statements made include the following.
Suppose that we have two chains whose lengths are infinity denoted as chain A and B. Chain A starts from the birth of Jesus and goes all the way to infinity past where there is no starting point. Chain B on the other hand starts from Noah’s flood going to the past, which has no starting point.
Chain A ———————————————————————à
Jesus’ Birth Noah’s Flood Adam Creation No Starting Point
Chain B ————————————————à
Noah’s Flood Adam Creation No Starting Point
If we could pull Chain B and put its first ring on the first ring of Chain A and the second ring of chain A on the second ring of chain B and so forth, then we will end up with two possible end results as follows:
- We might stop at the last ring of the shorter chain, which is Chain B.
- We might continue putting rings of Chain B on the corresponding rings of Chain A forever without reaching the end of each chain.
If End 1 happened, we say that Chain B is not immortal and it has a starting point at the last ring we stopped at. So, it is clear that the chain is mortal.
If End 2 happened, we say that the shorter chain B is equal in length to the longer chain A. Logically, it is impossible that a shorter thing is equal to another that is longer.
Therefore, in case any of the ends took place then we can prove that it is impossible to have species of creatures that were immortal in the past besides the creator. This means that every species must have a starting point of existence. The philosophical idea of immortality is a very debatable issue. Abraham Lincoln is a philosopher said, “No man was made for immortality”. He portrayed that before creation, things were immortal. Before creation, we can say that human beings were immortal. This kind of immortal stipulated that an object had neither the starting nor the end. When the creator decided to make human beings in his own image, it was the end of the immortality of the things that had previously been immortal. God himself remained immortal an action that depicts that the living things that existed before creation was immortal (Davies 38).
Another philosopher by the name Carl Sagan depicted that “Immortality is a wishful thinking.” He comes up with some argument such as the one discussed below. A human being for instance is born without the capacity to operate individually and so are many species of animals around the world (Davies 38). However, this does not rule out that in the past thing were not immortal. After God created the world causation theory came into being where the aftermath was as a result of causation. The efficiency causality is among the ideas that philosophers use to support their idea that everything has a starting point in life. The reactions among the three factors constituting the material universe trigger the existence and the extinction of things in life (Davies 79).
Works Cited
Davies, Julian A. A philosophy of the human being. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009. Print.
Lagerlund, Henrik. Encyclopedia of medieval philosophy. Dordrecht London: Springer, 2010. Print.