People present at the Alumni Centre on Oct. 18 had the chance to hear an interesting debate on the theme of life after death.
The Ahmadiyyaa Muslim Jama'at's fifth annual world religions conference at Olds College attracted more than 50 people.
Four perspectives on life after death were discussed. Dr. Guillermo Barron from Red Deer College represented the atheist viewpoint, Salman Khalid represented the Islam viewpoint, Rev. Derryl Friesen represented Christianity and Russel Stagg represented Judaism.
Barron was the first to speak, declaring that he does not believe in life after death because there is no evidence.
“My position is that, first of all, belief in survival after death requires evidence. Secondly, since many survival theories require complex supernatural arrangements, these theories require extraordinary evidence. Life after death is something extraordinary, it is something that no one I know has ever directly experienced. Finally, if many of these theories are true, it is then plausible to argue that the evidence for their truth should be overwhelming and non-controversial. But since we don't have overwhelming and non-controversial evidence for life after death, it is highly unlikely that survival is possible,” he said.
Stagg spoke next, explaining that life after death is a controversial subject in Judaism, as each branch has a different opinion.
“Judaism is not a belief system. There is no Jewish view on any of these matters. Judaism is about what we do, not what we believe,” he said.
Friesen spoke about his certain belief in life after death, drawing examples from his life.
Khalid said he believed strongly in life after death, stating that heaven won't be a free ride.
“From what I read, it is the quality of that life, which will be heavily dependent on how you feel in this life,” he said.
“It is not granted that everybody goes to Paradise. You have to earn it and you have to earn it in the hard way. Finally, judgment seems inevitable.”
During the question and answer session, the crowd asked more questions about the religions than the theme.
Majeed Ahmed, one of the organizers of the conference, was very happy with the result of the evening.
“We were expecting more people, but our job is to make efforts and then, we will leave the results to God,” he concluded.
