<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1027" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Chas,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>You Wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Your last sentences surprise
me. From "But I believe my body resurrects" onwards. If
you have the religious belief that this is so, then why would you need any
further explanation? Why would you compartmentalize religious and philosophical
belief? For me, if the<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>two aren't 100% reconciled,
then one of them is broken. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>I may have misled you here
just a bit. I apologize. I don’t think that in reality I
compartmentalize religious and philosophical belief, but I also don’t
think it is as easy as 100% reconciliation. This is because I understand
the ‘philosophical’ as a more peripheral mode of discourse that can
only get so far, whereas ‘religious language,’ as some might put it
(or you could just think ‘poetic’ perhaps), has the ability to go
deeper in (or up, or whatever). Further, just because I believe in the
Resurrection doesn’t mean that the problems in the philosophy of Mind
can’t puzzle me as much as anyone else. Ultimately, I’m going
to have a different trajectory in my studies than, say, a committed
atheist. In fact, philosophy of Mind is currently dominated with a
reductionistic leaning: the goal is largely to give a full
‘physicalist’ account of the ‘mental,’ and in fact
consciousness itself (which gets us back to Eguenie Scott’s
discussion). And I am actually inclined to do away with a traditional
Cartesian Dualism, preferring the reality that in many important respects the
Mind is the Body. But this philosophical conclusion just makes the idea
of the Resurrection all the more interesting. Also, if all attempts to fully
reduce personhood and experience to physical explanation miserably fail, and
many non-Christian philosophers conclude that doing so is in fact logically
impossible (e.g. David Chalmers), then the Christian has yet another
interesting argument for theism. E.g.: Ultimate Reality is not
impersonal, brute stuff giving rise to personhood; rather Ultimate Reality is
at bottom communal, experiential, and personal, creating the impersonal stuff
of the world that we study according to our derived personhood. (This is
the opposite direction of Daniel Dennet’s Evolutionary/philosophical
work). So I certainly don’t “need” further explanation
on one level, but on another, the fact of the Resurrection does not give full
explanation to, say, how psychiatric drugs inter-relate with moral
responsibility. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>You Wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>As for a religious option
being a possible avenue for me, I'm sad to say that the answer is no. It
would be easier if it were possible, but I regard the religious options as
cheating, a sort of special pleading with myself, and I don't permit myself any
exceptions. I don't know why; it's almost as if I'm constitutionally
incapable. Note that I'm not making any judgement of your beliefs, merely
stating the limitations of my own case.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Actually, on reflection (and
re-reading the above paragraph), I overstate my inability to accept a religious
perspective. Replace "religious" with
"Christ-centric" and it would be more accurate. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Other religions, Buddhism,
Hinduism, etc., might have an answer which is more amenable to my biases, but I
have not discovered this to be true in my explorations thus far.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>This is a fascinating
predicament. Of course, I’m in almost the opposite
predicament. Could you further explain what you mean by religion being
‘cheating’ or a ‘special pleading’ with yourself. I
don’t understand that. Also, why is ‘Christ-centric’ in
a different category from the other religions? I’d really be interested
in understanding this better.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Thanks for the discussion!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>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>
</div>
</body>
</html>