Immortality

Immortality implies the continued existence in some form of consciousness of the rational unity of an individual personality for an unlimited period of time; this in turn implies belief in the personality's survival of death of the body, a belief which is and has been held in most societies and civilizations. Belief that terrestrial life is not the only life profoundly affects the way in which terrestrial life is lived. For example, materialism and concern for events in this life are diminished in the wider view of immortality, although fulfilment of duties and enjoyment of benefits in this life are nonetheless considered by many to be consistent with such belief. Lack of concern for events in this life has lead to great acts of altruism. The transcendent experience of the soul as a more exalted function than materiality is taken as evidence of immortality. Ultimately, most religions posit salvation, paradise or heaven (which are not identical in all systems) as the result of accepting God, and hell as the result of rejecting him. Again, some systems would declare that hell as immortal suffering while others look on it as temporal or as annihilation.