Lesson video

Hello there, and welcome to this RE lesson.

I'm so glad to see you.

We have an really interesting lesson for you today.

Memory, what happens to us and our memories when we die.

And the purpose of this unit is to explore the whole idea of what different people believe happens when we die and what our options might be as we move into the future to think and remember those who have died.

We're starting today with this lesson called Views on the afterlife, where we're going to go over some big ideas about what different people believe happens when we die.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain different religious and non-religious beliefs about what may happen when we die.

We have three keywords in this lesson.

Our first word is afterlife.

And by afterlife, we mean what follows the physical life on Earth.

In other words, life after death.

Our next word is judgment, which is the belief that God will decide whether each person should receive eternal life or eternal punishment.

And finally, we have the idea of reincarnation, which is the rebirth of a soul or spirit into another body.

So our lesson on the afterlife has two parts.

In the first part of this lesson, we're going to be looking at religious views on the afterlife.

This question about what happens to us after death is one of the oldest questions that humanity has asked.

Many hundreds, thousands, probably millions of people have pondered this question.

I wonder what questions you think humans might ask about the afterlife.

What kind of things may they have wondered and still wonder today?

You might have come up with some things like, what happens to us after we die?

Do we continue to exist in some form, or is death the end?

Do we only live on in people's memories?

Is there a soul or form of consciousness that survives the body?

Do our actions in this life determine what happens in the next?

These are all huge questions, and many cultures have come up with different answers to that, and you probably have some thoughts yourself on those ideas.

And it's important when we think about this lesson that the response you have will be conditioned to a certain extent by what your own ideas are.

For the remainder of this lesson, we're going to look at some different religious and non-religious worldviews and consider how they answer some of these questions.

Now, worldviews, both religious and non-religious, have different views on the afterlife.

Some religions talk about the idea of a Judgment Day.

Some talk about an idea of resurrection.

Some talk about an idea of reincarnation or rebirth.

Some talk about the existence of a non-physical soul.

Some talk about living on in people's memories.

And some worldviews talk about death being the end.

So in short, you could see there is a huge variety of different responses from religions and non-religious worldviews about what and afterlife may or may not consist of.

I wonder if you can think of any other views on the afterlife from any religions or worldviews that you may have studied.

Okay, let's check our understanding so far.

Which one of the following is not a commonly held belief in the afterlife?

A, Judgment Day, B, death is the end, C, the existence of a physical soul, D, the existence of a soul.

Think back to what we've been saying so far.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, it's the existence of a physical soul, because a soul is normally held to be, by many worldviews, something non-physical that survives after death.

Now, most religious worldviews teach that there is an afterlife.

However, people's personal worldviews can sometimes differ from that organized worldview.

People may call themselves Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they follow all the teachings or practices of that religion.

Their personal worldview may be, like, slightly different.

A person's worldview is influenced by how they see or experience the world around them, the people they talk to, the experiences they have, the context in which they live, the culture or country, for example.

So Jacob is going to help us explore these ideas about worldviews and the afterlife.

He's going to bring together three Christians.

We're going to meet Asher, a Pentecostal Christian, Danielle, a Roman Catholic Christian, and Fergus, a liberal Protestant Christian.

So it's important that we speak to more than one Christian because if we just ask one Christian, we're just going to get their worldview and they can't speak on behalf of all Christians.

So we're speaking to a variety of Christians which will enable us to see some diversity of worldviews through different Christians.

So Asher is a Pentecostal Christian, and he's going to explain his belief in the afterlife.

Asher says, "I believe that heaven and hell are physical places.

Those who have accepted Jesus go to heaven and have eternal life with God.

Those who have rejected Jesus face eternal punishment in hell.

I also believe in the second coming of Jesus, where Jesus, the son of God, will return to judge the living and the dead.

" You might want to pause the video here and think, what does Asher's worldview tell us?

What does he as a Christian believe?

You may have noticed that for Asher, heaven and hell are real physical places.

He believes that when he dies, he will hope to go to heaven and experience a physical life with God.

But he also believes in this idea of judgment.

And those who don't believe or have done things wrong in their lives will face punishment in hell.

So for Asher, it's a very literal belief in an afterlife.

Let's meet Danielle, who's a Roman Catholic Christian, and let's hear what she says about the afterlife.

Danielle says, "I believe that when we die, God will judge us based on our actions in this life.

Most people are not good enough to go straight to heaven and need to go through a state of cleansing and purification before they're ready to go to heaven and be in the presence of God.

I see heaven and hell as spiritual states.

" Well, this is interesting, isn't it?

'Cause Danielle's view is ever so slightly different from Asher's.

Again, you might want to pause the video here.

What does Danielle believe the afterlife is like?

You may have noticed that she shares this idea of judgment, but for her, she's saying actually most people can't go straight to heaven, so they need to go through a period of purification.

But also she doesn't see heaven and hell as a physical place you can actually go to.

It's more of a spiritual space, so maybe somewhere the soul might go, but it won't be like a new life on Earth.

So you can see it's similar and different to Asher's worldview.

Finally, let's meet Fergus.

Fergus is a liberal Protestant Christian.

I wonder what you think his view on the afterlife might be.

He says, "I'm not completely sure what happens in the afterlife, but I do believe there is life after death.

I believe that through my good actions and intentions, my spirit or soul will unite with God.

Some people call this heaven, but I'm not sure heaven is a physical place.

I also do not believe in hell.

A benevolent God would not want to judge and punish anyone for eternity.

" So again, we have a different view, don't we?

You may want to pause the video here and talk to the person next to you.

What is Fergus's view?

What does he believe the afterlife is like?

Well, interestingly, Fergus isn't completely sure, is he, about it?

He's much less certain than Asher and Danielle, but he does believe if he good leads a good life, he will unite with God in some way.

And again, like Danielle, he doesn't believe it's a physical place.

But in comparison to the other two, he also doesn't believe in hell, because for him, a good God, a loving God, would not want to judge and punish people.

So it's interesting, isn't it, how his view is slightly different again.

Thinking about those three views we've just heard, think about this statement.

True or false?

All Christians hold the same belief in the afterlife.

Excellent.

It's false, isn't it?

And why?

Well, we saw that Christians held different beliefs.

Some believes that heaven and hell are physical places and others spiritual.

Some Christians reject the belief in hell.

So we can see quite clearly that Christians do not all have the same views.

Now, I want us to think about a wholly different set of religions.

This is what we call Dharmic religions, such as Hindu Dharma and Sikhi.

And they have a very different idea of the afterlife compared to Christian worldviews.

Unlike Christians, who tend to see life as a straight line from birth to death with an afterlife perhaps, Dharmic worldviews see life more as a cycle.

Hindu Dharma teaches that when a person dies, their soul or energy is reborn into a new life.

This could be referred to as reincarnation or rebirth.

Many Hindus believe that this process will continue until spiritual freedom or release from the cycle is reached, which is known as Moksha.

And you can see that idea on the diagram there, a cycle of rebirth or reincarnation until release as Moksha.

So where do these ideas come from?

It's interesting when we're looking at religious traditions to see where the source of authority might be for this.

Now, one text which many Hindus will read is the Bhagavad Gita, and the Bhagavad Gita is a very short but important sacred text, and it talks a lot about the idea of life and the cycle of life.

Here is a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita.

It says, "As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one.

" Garments is a word for clothes.

I wonder what you think this sentence means?

What does this help us understand a little bit more about Hindu ideas?

Well, this passage suggests that just as people change clothes when old ones wear out, the soul changes bodies when a person dies.

The soul, or Atman, lives on in the afterlife, it never dies.

It's reborn into a new body.

Some people think that Hindus may be reborn as an animal if they collect bad karma, but actually it's not really the case.

By the time you've reached becoming human, you're more likely to be reborn as a human until you achieve Moksha.

Let's meet Dhanu.

She's a Hindu, and she explains her worldview on the afterlife.

Dhanu says, "I believe in reincarnation.

My karma impacts what I will experience in my future lives.

Karma means the good or bad actions a person has done.

My ultimate goal is to escape the cycle of samsara by achieving Moksha.

Achieving Moksha will mean liberation from samsara.

I believe my soul, or Atman, will be reunited with Brahman, or ultimate reality.

" So again, you might want to pause the video and think a little bit about what Dhanu is saying.

So Dhanu is talking about this idea of a cycle of existence, which many Hindus called samsara.

As we go through life, we collect karma depending on our actions.

Ideally, we want lots of good karma so that we can escape this cycle of life and be reunited with Brahman, which is ultimate reality.

Some Hindus may refer to that as the divine, or God.

Now, Mandeep is Sikh, so he has a different worldview, but it's still from a Dharmic tradition, and he explains his worldview on the afterlife.

Mandeep says, "I believe that my life on Earth is a gift from the divine.

I believe this life gives me the opportunities to connect with the divine and his creation.

I'm not really focused on the afterlife, but aim to live righteously and reject ego.

I do this by connecting with humanity and treating all of creation, including animals in the environment, with respect and compassion.

" So Mandy is really focusing on this life and living a good life.

He believes that he needs to get rid of his ego to escape the cycle of rebirth, which is a really important thing, to focused not on himself but other things.

And he tries to do that by connecting and treating everyone with compassion.

Jacob asks Mandeep a question on reincarnation.

He says, "As a Sikh, do you believe in reincarnation?

" Mandeep says, "Yes, I do believe in reincarnation.

I believe life is like a cycle and escaping from the cycle is called mukti.

Mukti is when I will be you united with Waheguru, the divine.

I believe that through good intentional actions and keeping Waheguru in my mind, I can achieve a good rebirth.

" So like Dhanu, Mandeep shares a belief in the cycle of life.

For Mandeep, it's particularly important to be reunited with Waheguru, and so he wants to do two things, lead a good moral life, but also to keep God in his mind at all times.

And then he believes he will achieve a good rebirth or escape this cycle.

Let's see if we can find three Hindu beliefs in the afterlife.

We have A, reincarnation, B, mukti, C, moksha, and D, karma.

Which of those was mentioned by Dhanu?

Can we remember?

Excellent.

It was reincarnation, moksha, and karma.

Moksha is liberation from the cycle of life and karma is your good or bad actions.

Brilliant if you got that right.

Okay, I'd like you to think a little bit about everything we've learned so far.

We've learned about different worldviews.

We've looked at what Christians might think and their differing ideas about the afterlife.

We've also met a Hindu and Sikh.

I'd like you to either work with a partner or even in a group and think about which worldview on the afterlife is most similar and different to your own.

You might want to think of these as sentence starters.

"The worldview that is the most similar to mine is, because.

.

" "The worldview that is the most different to mine is, because.

.

" Think about what you've heard.

Which ideas in there do you relate to?

It may be that neither big worldviews are yours at all, because perhaps you don't believe in the afterlife at all, in which case you might want to think about what it is that makes you have that view.

Really look forward to hearing what you've said.

So I imagine you're going to have lots of different responses to this.

So you may have said something like, "The worldview that is most similar to mine is the concept of reincarnation and having a soul that moves on when I die.

This belief gives me hope and comfort that when I die, my life will not end completely.

" And you may have said, "The worldview that is most different to mine is that God will punish someone in hell.

I find it difficult to believe in heaven and hell as physical places.

I agree with the worldview that a benevolent God would not want someone to suffer for eternity" And of course, you may have totally different ideas to that.

But the important thing is that you've thought a little bit about your own worldview and you've considered why it is that you think that.

Where do those ideas come from?

For the second part of this lesson, we're going to be looking at non-religious views on the afterlife.

So a non-religious worldview is a way of understanding life and the world without following an organized religion or belief in God.

People with non-religious worldviews may base their ideas on personal experiences or scientific ideas, for example, instead of religious teachings.

But non-religious people may still think deeply about the meaning of life and what happens after death, but without looking to holy texts or religious leaders for answers.

Non-religious people may identify as atheists, which is someone who disbelieves in the existence of a god or gods.

They may identify as agnostic, which means they're uncertain.

They're not sure whether there is a God or not.

Or they may identify as spiritual but not religious, which means they look for ideas of spirituality, they feel ideas are being moved beyond themselves, or there being something special in the world, but they wouldn't follow an organized religion.

They may build their own worldview or have their own ideas.

True or false?

Let's just check our understanding.

Spiritual but not religious refers to a person who seeks spirituality inside organized religion.

Think about what we just heard.

Excellent.

That's false, isn't it?

Because people who are spiritual but not religious refer to a person who seeks spirituality outside an organized religion.

Now, the Pew Research have done lots of amazing research about different non-religious people to find out what they think about life after death.

And in 2025, Pew Research carried out some investigations in 22 countries, and they looked at people who didn't identify with any religions, but still had some spiritual and religious beliefs.

In 7 of the 22 countries surveyed, 50%, which is more than half of all non-religious people, believed in life after death.

I wonder if you think that's surprising.

Is that the sort of figure that you'd expect, that half of the people who would say, "Well, I'm not really religious," actually still believe in life after death?

It's interesting, isn't it?

This data shows the results from five countries and the percentage of adults who do not identify with a religion, but say there is definitely or probably life after death.

I wonder if you can identify two things that you can learn from this data.

You might have noticed that in the United Kingdom, 33% of adults who said they don't identify with a religion still think there is probably or definitely life after death.

That's one in three adults who don't have a religion.

Now, in Peru, that's 65%.

So we're still seeing that a really big number of people who are not religious believe that there may well be life after death.

So this suggests to us that even if you don't believe in a god or you're not certain there's a god, you still may think that there is something that happens after death.

And that's fascinating, isn't it?

Now, let's just check for our understanding of that data.

A true or false question for you here.

Non-religious people do not believe in an afterlife.

Is that true or false?

Excellent.

It's false, isn't it?

And why?

Well, the Pew Research data showed that 50% or more of all non-religious people believe in life after death.

So actually, we can't say that non-religious people do not believe in an afterlife.

It's more mixed and complicated than that.

We need to find out a little bit more detail, because data is really interesting, but it's not gonna help us completely.

Let's meet some actual people.

Zoe is an atheist, and Toby is spiritual, but not religious, and they're going to talk about their non-religious views on the afterlife.

Zoe says, "I'm not part of a religion and I do not believe in an afterlife.

I believe that death is the end of our physical and conscious existence.

I do not think there is evidence for an afterlife.

" Toby says, "I'm not part of a religion either.

However, I believe in reincarnation.

I believe I've had many lives.

I believe this because I remember some of my past lives.

These memories often come to me in my dreams.

" So looking at Zoe and Toby, I wonder what we think might be similar and might be different between their views.

Again, you may want to pause the video and talk to the person next to you about this.

Well, both Toby and Zoe would say they weren't part of a religion.

They would both say they're not religious.

However, they have very different views on the afterlife, don't they?

Zoe is an atheist, and she's very clear that death is the end.

She doesn't feel there is any evidence for an afterlife.

But Toby, despite not being religious, does believe in reincarnation, and he feels he's had a sense of his past lives in dreams.

So we can see a real diversity of views here, can't we?

Toby explains more about his views on the afterlife.

He says, "My belief in reincarnation gives me comfort and purpose.

It gives me a deeper sense of myself, beyond my body and current life experiences.

Through yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, I create more awareness of my inner soul or self.

" So Toby, despite not believing in a God, believes that he has some kind of inner self or soul which he believes will last after death.

Brandon is an atheist and he is a member of Humanist UK.

He explains his views on the afterlife.

Brandon says, "I believe the meaning of life comes from what we do with our one life.

The relationships we build, the kindness we show, and the impact we leave behind is what is most important.

I believe we only live on through the memories of others and the changes we helped make in this world.

" So Brandon, as a humanist, believes that this is the one life and there is no afterlife.

For him, the most important thing is about how we live this one life, how we build up relationships, and how we can be kind and make an impact.

He thinks that that at the end of our lives, we live on through the memories of others and our legacy, but not actually in any afterlife.

So we've got three different non-religious worldviews there looking at the idea of the afterlife.

We can see that Brandon and Zoe's views are very similar, but Toby's is quite different.

Okay, let's check our understanding.

Select two practices someone who is spiritual but not religious might engage in.

A, yoga, B, meditation, C, prayer.

So, yoga and meditation.

Toby used those, didn't he?

Prayer is probably going to involve belief in a actual God, and so if you're not religious, you wouldn't pray.

Okay, I've got a final task for you now.

I've got a statement here.

"Non-religious people do not believe in an afterlife.

" I'd like you to weigh up some arguments that either agree with that statement or disagree with it.

So we might talk about people who agree with that, we might mention the atheists like Zoe, Brandon as a humanist, the idea of memories and what happens.

To counter that, we might look at some of the Pew Research data that we examined.

We might talk about people like Toby who are spiritual but not religious.

And we may mention beliefs such as reincarnation.

I'd like you to discuss this statement, either by yourself or with others.

And then you could either write a paragraph or create a short speech to make an argument to either agree with the statement and then also to disagree with it.

Can you take these ideas and work them into a short piece of writing or a short speech?

Think about the examples and case studies that we have looked at of Brandon, Zoe, and Toby, and think about how you might use them and the data to build your arguments.

Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Okay, fantastic.

Thank you so much.

So you could have said that, to agree with the statement, many non-religious people, such as atheists, would agree with the statement 'cause they don't believe in an afterlife.

They may argue we have only one life and there's no evidence for life after death.

A humanist may argue that the only way we live on is through our achievements and people's memories.

To disagree, you may have said that the Pew Research data in 2025 suggested that many people who don't identify with a religion still hold some spiritual and religious beliefs.

Non-religious people like Toby may believe in reincarnation because they have experiences of remembering their past lives.

And so you can see that it's a complicated picture.

There is not one way which Christians or non-religious people think about the afterlife.

So let's summarize our learning today.

We've learned that there are a wide variety of beliefs in the afterlife.

We've learned that people from the same religion can hold different views about the afterlife.

Dharmic religions, such as Hindu Dharma, share a similar belief in reincarnation.

Sikhi teaches that focus should be on this life and how we behave, rather than the afterlife.

People may identify as non-religious, but still hold spiritual beliefs.

And many non-religious people, such as humanists, believe we live on in people's memories after death.

Thanks ever so much for being part of this lesson today.

I wonder if it's made you think a bit more about this big issue, and maybe it's made you think a little bit more about your own worldview, and I wonder if it's changed or developed as part of this learning.

Really look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.

Thank you.