The Immortality of the Soul—History of the Doctrine

THE Peruvians were among the oldest and most civilized of the nations of South America at the time of its discovery by the Spaniards. A high authority thus states their faith: "They did not understand that the future life was spiritual, but believed it to be corporeal, like this one." "The Incas believed in a universal resurrection, not for glory or punishment, but for a reward of this temporal life. They took extreme care to preserve the nail-parings and the hairs that were shorn off or torn out with a comb, placing them in holes or niches in the walls; and if they fell out, any other Indian that saw them picked them up and put them in their places again. I very often asked different Indians, at various times, why they did this, in order to see what they would say; and they all replied in the same words, saying, 'Know that all persons who are born must return to life, and the souls must rise out of their tombs, with all that belonged to their bodies.'" (Garcilasso de la Vega, First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Incas [1609], London. Book ii, chap. 2.)

They believed in the sleep of the dead and the resurrection.

THE CHIBCHAS.

The Chibchas were another nation of South America. They believed the same as the Peruvians on this point. They "acknowledged that there was something immortal in man, but they did not distinguish the soul from the body." (Descriptive Sociology, by Spencer, No. 2, p. 43.)

"These Indians had the tradition from their ancestors that there would be a universal judgment. They believed that the dead were then to be raised and to live forever in this earth in the same way as they live now." (Ibid.)

They received these doctrines from tradition, and how remarkably their views harmonize with the Bible!

THE AFRICANS.

Even among some of the degraded negro tribes of Central Africa, the notion of a resurrection is still held from tradition. "The negroes in Ardrach carefully preserve nails and hair which have been cut off, in order that souls, which on rising out of their graves have to be united with their former bodies, may not need to search long for them." (Bastian Mensch, ii, p. 357.)

The Ashantees "supposed that their friends live over again in the other world the lives which they led on earth." (Beecham, p. 180.)

The Bushmen regard death as a sleep. One of their proverbs is, "Death is only a sleep." (Descriptive Sociology, No. 4, p. 28.)

THE HAWAIIANS.

These Islanders believe in the resurrection of the dead. Mr. Ellis relates a long conversation with them upon this point, in which he says they told him that "all the people who had died would be restored to life," and live in Hawaii again. (Polynesian Researches, by Wm. Ellis, vol. iv, chap. vi, pp. 110, 111.)

Thus it will be seen that traditions of the resurrection of the dead are still to be found in all parts of the world, even among the most barbarous nations. This was the ancient and true doctrine. In many cases this doctrine of the resurrection has been lost sight of, while the idea of a future life by some means has been retained. If we bear this in mind, it will be readily seen that the proof of a universal belief in the immortality of the soul is much less than is generally claimed. Indeed, a careful investigation shows that most barbarous nations have only an undefined idea of a future life of some kind.

On this slender foundation is based the bold assumption that all nations believe the soul is immortal.

The custom so universally observed, among barbarous nations particularly, of burying with the dead valuables, implements, weapons, food, and money, indicates that they had some indistinct idea that in some way the bodies would live again, and these articles would be used. Even if these practices are kept up simply from custom, as may be the case in some instances, it is still evident that the custom originated in the idea that the dead would need these things. They certainly did not suppose that weapons of war, implements of husbandry, and articles of food, have spirits which could go with their departed friends. Hence it is evident that the sentiment that underlies this practice points to the resurrection.

Thus the Ostyaks, of Africa, bury with their dead a tinder-box, pipe, and tobacco. The Samoieds inter with the dead his dresses, his bows, his arrows, and whatever belongs to him, because, they say, he will need them in the next world. The Damaras lay the arms and property of the deceased on the grave. The Kaffirs bury household utensils with the dead. The Congo people embalm their dead. The coast negroes take great care in wrapping up their dead, and a large share of their property is buried with them.

The Australians also bury the property of the deceased with him. The Sandwich Islanders bury provisions with the body. They think the future life is like the present. The Tahitians embalm the bodies of their chiefs, clothe them; and take great care of the body. The Samoans also embalm the body. The Dyaks bury the property of the deceased with him. The Tasmanians bury their spears with the dead, whom they believe to be asleep.

The ancient Mexicans buried with the corpse, slaves and all kinds of property, saying that they were going to keep house in the other world.

The early inhabitants of Britain buried weapons of war, jewelry, and food with the deceased. In later times the Saxons buried valuable articles with their dead. The Normans, about the year 1000, embalmed their dead.

It is well known that all the Indian tribes of America bury various articles with the dead bodies of their friends.

Indeed, this universal custom of which we have been speaking is so well known that we need not mention more instances. The great care that has always been bestowed not only upon the dead body, but upon the tomb or grave where it is deposited, points to the same idea, the resurrection of the dead. The world over, without an exception, the notion has always obtained that the ghost, or phantom, of the deceased hovers around the grave. All these facts indicate the universal sentiment of the race that in some way the future life is connected with the dead body.

While searching into the doctrines of the various nations and tribes of the earth concerning the future life, I have been struck with the fact that most of the barbarous nations which are set down by Christians as believers in the immortality of the soul, have only very confused ideas of the future life. They do expect to live hereafter in some way, but that is all that can truthfully be said about it. The advocates of the doctrine that the soul is immortal, seizing upon the slightest notion of a future life held by these people, immediately report them as believers in the immortal soul. But in fact there is no ground for such an assertion. A confused, indistinct idea of a future life by no means proves a faith in the immortality of the soul.

We shall now show by overwhelming evidence that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, as at present held, has not been generally believed by the human race.

Let us bear in mind, however, what the present orthodox doctrine of the immortality of the soul is, for which universal belief is claimed. It is that every man is born with an immaterial, spiritual, immortal soul, which simply lives in this body as in a house or cage. This soul, whether righteous or wicked, will live eternally as an individual, personal, conscious soul. It will never die, neither will it lose its personality. Such a doctrine, it is claimed, has been the common sentiment of mankind. This we deny, and now offer the proof. Paul says of the Gentiles that they were without God and having no hope. Eph. 2:12. Had they believed the soul immortal, they would have had a hope of a future life. But they had no such hope, hence no such faith.

THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS.

When we go back to a period a few centuries before the birth of Christ, to the early ages of the world, we find no evidence that in the infancy of such nations as the Greeks and Romans the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was believed among them. It cannot be proved that they did believe it. All their ideas and traditions of a future world, so far as they had any, represented it as a material place, and the people as material, corporeal beings, the same as in this world.

On this point the learned Dr. Priestly says: "It is expressly asserted by Aristotle, and others, says Mr. Toland (Letters to Serena, p. 22), that the most ancient Greek philosophers did not dream of any principle or actuating spirit in the universe itself, no more than in any of the parts thereof; but explained all the phenomena of nature by matter and local motion, levity and gravity, or the like; and rejected all that the poets said of gods, demons, souls, ghosts, Heaven, hell, visions, prophecies, miracles, etc., as fables invented at pleasure, and fictions to divert their readers." (Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit, vol. i, pp. 318, 319.)

Says a learned author: "The Greeks sometimes depicted death and sleep as twin boys, one black, one white, borne slumbering in the arms of their mother, night." (Alger, p. 18.) This was their idea of death,—a deep sleep. But many ages, even thousands of years, passed away before we learn of anyone who had any notion of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It first originated with a few priests and lawgivers; was taken up by poets and philosophers, and finally was acknowledged by the people.

THE EGYPTIANS.

Herodotus, the oldest historian, says: "The Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal." (Herodotus Uterpe, 2, sec. 123, p. 144.) Other nations did not believe it till they learned it of the Egyptians, as I show in another article. This was not till a few centuries before Christ, about the time of Socrates and Plato, both of whom advocated that doctrine. They lived about B. C. 400. These philosophers confessed that their doctrine was not generally believed. One of Socrates disciples, Cebes, told him that the doctrine he taught concerning the immortality of the soul and a future state, "met with little credit among men;" that "most men seemed to think that the soul was immediately dissolved at death, and that it vanished and was dissipated like the wind or smoke, or become nothing at all; and that it needed no small persuasion and faith to believe that the soul exists and has some power and intelligence after the man is dead." Socrates himself had said the same thing just before,—that his doctrine was not believed by the generality of the people.

Simmias, another of the dialogists in the Phaedo, represents it as the opinion of many that the soul is dissipated when a man dies, and that this is the end of its existence. And Socrates, speaking of the soul's being blown away, and perishing with the body, declares that this was what was said by most men. (Plato, Translated by Clay, Bohn's Class. Lib. vol. i. pp. 68, 69, 79, 83.)

"From these testimonies it plainly appears," says Leland in his admirable work on the "Necessity of a Divine Revelation," vol. ii. p. 383, "that the mortality of the soul was a doctrine which prevailed among the Athenians in the time of Socrates, who were looked upon as the most learned and polite of all the Grecians."

Plato complained that his argument on the subject met with little credit. But did not Socrates and Plato succeed in converting all men to their new ideas of the soul? By no means. The above author, on page 384, continues: "There is no great reason to think that the state of things among the Athenians grew better afterward, but rather the contrary."