According to Russell people are "tiny lumps of impure carbon and water dividing their time between labor to postpone their normal dissolution and frantic struggle to hasten it for others."{22}

Indian philosopher Shankara, writing in the eighth century, argues that the soul jiva is attached to a body (gross body). At death, the "gross body" dies and the jiva lives on in another body bearing the karma of its previous lives. Karma means "deeds, actions, or work." Karma then becomes the cause for what one is now experiencing. One might become attached to an upper class human because of good karma, or an outcast human or animal 23 because of bad karma.{23}

Moksha is the liberation from the wheel of continual rebirth. Nirvana is the state of one's existence after liberation. Some Hindus believe that the self eventually loses its identity when its karmic debt is paid and it merges with an impersonal God. Others believe that we maintain our personhood and are liberated from reincarnation to be in constant relationship with the personal God.{24}

Christianity argues that God himself became flesh and paid the penalty for sin. Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice who was a substitute on the cross for each of us. As a result, although every person will eventually be resurrected, only those who have had their sins atoned for will spend eternity with God.