Dualism (Identity)

by dhw, Thursday, March 19, 2015, 21:00 (3536 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

DHW: So is your theory of consciousness that God is recording our lives and has a library of memory sticks stored somewhere in his cosmos? And one day he will bring up my skeleton, blow my particular blob of his spirit back into it (which presumably will bring back my inners and outers), insert the memory stick labelled dhw, which contains my consciousness and the rest of my identity, and hey presto here I am again?-Thank you for your very detailed, very patient response to this. Basically, it seems that my account was not far out, except that the unconscious spirit IS the memory stick (I don't know the word “thumbdrive”). God or his work force will give me a new body (based on the stored information), insert the memory stick, and the two together will bring me back to life, and consciousness will result from the union of body and spirit. If that is correct, we can leave it there.-DHW: Eben Alexander, an atheist, is now a firmly committed theist, and as far as I know, many NDE patients do feel much closer to God after their experience. So who the heck is your Satan working for? -TONY: [...] Now, if Jehovah says that there will be a resurrection on earth of both the righteous and the unrighteous, and that Christ died as a ransom for our sins, and that no one ascended to heaven before Christ, then by convincing this man that dead relatives go to heaven Satan has succeeded in making both God and Christ out to be liars. Not only has he convinced one man, but he also convinced anyone that listens to his story and takes it at face value, thus achieving major gains (turning people away from his enemy, God) as well as tarnishing his reputation and devaluing the sacrifice of his son. -Closeness to God need not denote being in heaven. David will correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know there are lots of NDEs who simply meet dead relatives. No specific mention of heaven, although very often there is great tranquillity. In any case, lots of believers are convinced that they have an immortal, individual soul and that heaven is real. Is Satan working on them too? If dear sweet Mrs X prays to God and Jesus every day, loves God and Jesus, lives a good life in accordance with what the Holy Father tells her is what God and Jesus expect of her, and believes she has an immortal soul that will go to heaven when she dies, do you really think your Satan could be said to have turned her away from God? In fact, I would have thought that for someone who is "roaming about like a roaring lion seeking to devour", such a case would reduce him to a pathetic miaow - but what in hell do I know?