Myth of an Afterlife

Michael Martin is professor of philosophy emeritus at Boston University. In addition to more than 150 articles and reviews, he is the author or editor of several books, including The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, Atheism, Morality, and Meaning, and Atheism: A Philosophical Justification.Keith Augustine is executive director and scholarly paper editor of Internet Infidels (infidels.org), which hosts the popular SecularWeb. He is well known as a skeptic on the question of survival after death. He has published in Skeptic magazine and his work has been the object of discussion in multiple issues of the Journal of Near-Death Studies.

• Foreword by Steve Stewart-WilliamsPreface1. IntroductionKeith AugustinePART 1 EMPIRICAL ARGUMENTS FOR ANNIHILATIONIntroduction to Part 12. Dead as a Doornail: Souls, Brains, and SurvivalMatt McCormick3. Explaining Personality: Soul Theory versus Behavior GeneticsJean Mercer4. Dissolution into Death: The Mind’s Last Symptoms Indicate AnnihilationDavid Weisman5. The Argument from Brain Damage VindicatedRocco J. Gennaro and Yonatan I. Fishman6. No Mental Life after Brain Death: The Argument from the Neural Localization of Mental FunctionsGualtiero Piccinini and Sonya Bahar7. The Neural Substrate of Emotions and Emotional ProcessingCarlos J. Álvarez8. Brain, Language, and Survival after DeathTerence Hines9. The Brain that Doesn’t Know Itself: Persons Oblivious to their Neurological DeficitsJamie Horder10. The Dualist’s Dilemma: The High Cost of Reconciling Neuroscience with a SoulKeith Augustine and Yonatan I. FishmanPART 2 CONCEPTUAL & EMPIRICAL DIFFICULTIES FOR SURVIVALIntroduction to Part 211. Why Survival is Metaphysically ImpossibleRaymond D. Bradley12. Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied AfterlifeTheodore M. Drange13. What Could Pair a Nonphysical Soul to a Physical Body?Jaegwon Kim14. Nonphysical Souls Would Violate Physical LawsDavid L. Wilson15. There is No Trace of Any Soul Linked to the BodyDavid Papineau16. Since Physical Formulas are Not Violated, No Soul Controls the BodyLeonard Angel17. The Implausibility of Astral Bodies and Astral WorldsSusan Blackmore18. The Pluralizability Objection to a New-Body AfterlifeTheodore M. Drange19. Life After Death and the Devastation of the GraveEric T. OlsonPART 3 PROBLEMATIC MODELS OF THE AFTERLIFEIntroduction to Part 320. Problems with HeavenMichael Martin21. Can God Condemn One to an Afterlife in Hell?Raymond D. Bradley22. Objections to Karma and Rebirth: An IntroductionIngrid Hansen SmythePART 4 DUBIOUS EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVALIntroduction to Part 423. Giving Up the Ghost to PsychologyRense Lange and James Houran24. Out-of-Body Experiences are not Evidence for SurvivalSusan Blackmore25. Near-Death Experiences are HallucinationsKeith Augustine26. A Critique of Ian Stevenson’s Rebirth ResearchChampe Ransom27. Is There Adequate Empirical Evidence for Reincarnation? An Analysis of Ian Stevenson’s WorkLeonard Angel28. Conjecturing Up Spirits in the Improvisations of MediumsClaus Flodin Larsen29. Madness in the Method: Fatal Flaws in Recent Mediumship ExperimentsChristian Battista, Nicolas Gauvrit, and Etienne LeBel30. Is There Life After Death? A Review of the Supporting EvidenceDavid LesterIndexAbout the Contributors

This is a hugely needed book. It addresses profound questions that are too seldom answered from a naturalistic point of view and answers them authoritatively yet surprisingly accessibly. In view of its scope and comprehensiveness - and especially because critical books on the afterlife have been so rare - the release of The Myth of an Afterlife is a noteworthy publishing event.