I just had a rather long exchange on Twitter with Truth (T) and The Thinker (TT) on the topic of mind, dualism, and reductionism. In the exchange I focused on making a simple but important point: when one types a tweet one brings about an event in the material world (i.e. the tweet’s existence via the […]
dualism
Do human beings have spectral bodies?
The other day I received the following query via email: “Do we get an intermediate body for our souls in heaven whilst we await the second coming?” I suppose the answer will depend what one means by “body”. Historically, most Christians have believed that human beings have (or are) souls, and that these souls are simple […]
NDEs and those determined not to believe in them
In “Sprites and near death experiences” I argued that current study of NDEs is in the early stages of first-person reports analogous to the study of “sprites” (a rare meteorological phenomenon) which was initiated forty years ago with a growing collection of first-person reports. Mike D replied: I thought Sam Harris did a bang up […]
Death as whole body amputation
The other day I was reading Antony Flew’s opening statement in a debate on the existence of God (back when Flew was an atheist) when I came across an interesting argument against substance dualism. Flew writes: “If persons really were creatures possessing bodies, rather than–as in fact we are–creatures who just essentially are members of […]
Christians singing pagan songs … and liking it
Star 2 critiques my defense of Christians singing and enjoying “pagan” songs like “White Christmas” by asking the following (presumably rhetorical) question: “What is biblical about singing pagan songs that do not reflect the reason for Christmas, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to save sinners?” There is so much wrong […]
Write us a post you’re the bloggin’ man
I blog on request occasionally. And I work for tips, so long as they’re directed to Kiva the micro-lending agency. And recently I have had a few requests piling up in the queue so I’ll be dealing with a few of them over the next few days. First up is a soulful question emailed to me by […]