Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the revival of previously dead humans to some degree of existence on Earth which can range from limping about the place, moaning, and feasting on humans, to shifting a massive boulder out of one's resting place in order to walk the Earth as the Son of God once again.
Preach to the choir Religion |
Crux of the matter |
Speak of the devil |
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An act of faith |
v - t - e |
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all refer at some point in their holy texts to some degree of resurrection of the dead on Judgment Day to face God and what awaits them in the afterlife.
Although the three Abrahamic religions — as well as several other religions — make reference to the occurrence of resurrection, there is no solid evidence in recent times of a human corpse becoming reanimated and walking on Earth after death, either with or without a soul.
Christianity
A central tenet of the mainstream Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died and rose again, as we all shall. Unfortunately, there's scant evidence for this.
Medical resurrection
Revival of the "dead" can be achieved in limited instances through medical equipment such as defibrillators and techniques such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, this usually only occurs in very short time frames (a few minutes) between death and "resurrection" and assumes that all bodily functions have not completely shut down — which really makes these near-death experiences, not really returning from the dead. Even worse, the results are almost never like they are in Hollywood. Among other things, the recently revived generally throw up.
In pre-modern times, the concept of death was not very well understood. A person could be in what is now known as a coma
Other uses
—From a KALX radio-station identification message |
The notion of "resurrection" also has associations today with the revival of deceased humans to walk the Earth, devoid of a soul. These walking undead creatures, known as "zombies" (except in the movie that started this conception of them, Night of the Living Dead, where they're called "ghouls"), have several characteristics that differentiate them from the average living human:
- Zombies are dead for all intents and purposes, and often exhibit signs of decay.
- Zombies walk around emitting low moaning noises.[note 1]
- Zombies feast on the brains of humans.[note 2]
No zombie holocaust has yet been recorded. Or maybe that's because no one was left alive to record it... eh? Yeah... think about it.
Count Lev Tolstoy, who had an interest in Christian ideas, called his 1899 novel Resurrection.[1]
Notes
- Not to be confused with English people
- Whether some humans also engage in this activity is disputable.
References
- See the Wikipedia article on Resurrection (novel).