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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Chasuk,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>You Wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Swinburne .... also writes in defense of a surviving personal identity,
i.e, a 'soul" which continues as a discrete, unchanging entity after
physical death.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It is his latter contention which intrigues me. I want to believe that
some part of me survives death, and not in the humanist sense, in that my
constituent atoms survive. I want this surviving part to be the same
"me" that exists now. I don't believe this, finding no personally
persuasive evidence which would make this belief possible, but that is what I
am seeking. If you have read Swinburne, does he attempt to provide this, and,
if so, does he manage it, in at least a partially satisfying manner?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I’d suppose <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Campbell</st1:City></st1:place>
might want to take this up, but I like this topic. So why not? Swinburne is
ironically Plantinga’s opponent on the epistemology issue we’ve
been discussing, and is more explicitly a Christian Apologist as I understand
it—but with the same kind of prestigious background as Plantinga.
I’ve wanted to get a hold of his stuff, but haven’t had a chance.
I guess he just published something on the ‘existence of God’ in
2004. I wouldn’t be surprised if he continues the Cartesian project of
proving the existence of a human soul that is distinct from the body, but I’m
not sure. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>But onto the more interesting quest: I just don’t think you have
any options that are going to be satisfying for you from everything I’ve
found out there, which includes some deeper reading in the philosophy of Mind.
The first question is ‘What position is there to even find evidence
for?’ You’ve got nirvana, the good ‘ol standard materialism
of Lucretius, the Indian absorption into the one, the ‘your name lives
after you when you die’ of the greeks, or the more common platonic
assumptions about the ethereal soul. But you want to still be You and still
live on forever. A common human desire; although more common is a Better You,
still You but an Incorruptible You. I’d be interested to hear from
someone else on the matter—if there really are some better alternatives
open for us. I feel the same way you do, which is one reason I’m
fascinated with the philosophy of Mind. But I believe my body resurrects into
the same body after death, yet a glorified body, in the pattern of the
historical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. So I’ve got the easy
religious way out; but I’m not sure what you think about a religious
option. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Yours,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Michael Metzler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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