Slide 2:
You are not foolish to believe in the eternal life and/or immortality.
Plato (427 BC – 347 BC) was the first to address this issue.
Plato felt that the eternal soul was non-bodily and non-material which had a natural tendency to seek truth.
St. Augustine (354-430) also took up the study of immortality.
Augustine agreed with some of the Platonic arguments but some differences emerged.
Plato felt that after death the soul no longer needed the body and would continue to exist only as a pure spirit.
Slide 3:
Augustine and others disagreed on this point and saw the need for an after death unity of body and soul.
Christianity teaches both the redemption and resurrection of the body.
Catholics also believe that the body and soul separate at death and immediately after death the soul goes on to a “particular” judgment by God.
Both Jews and Catholics believe that the justified or pure souls go on to heaven while the souls who are still impure but can be saved go on to purgatory while those of the damned go on to Hell (2 Maccabees 12:42-43; Rev. 21:27).
Slide 4:
The bodies of all lay in their earthly grave and await the resurrection of the body while the soul goes on to its eternal reward.
The Church also teaches that the souls in heaven also have intercessory power to help those in purgatory and those on earth.
In conclusion we can say that the natural condition of the soul is to be embodied, to have a body. Embodiment is the final condition of the soul in the world to come.
The key factor here is that immortality is not limited by the body because the soul is not dependent upon the body and will live for a period of time, only known to God, without the body (Mt. 24:36; Mk. 13:32).