(The following has no bearing on any Holy Huddle discussions present or future. I am posting it because I would enjoy hearing thoughts and opinions. -Tim)We think of the soul as some spiritual entity associated with each person. I wonder if the soul really is just God's memory of us. When we die, God remembers us precisely as we are, down to the location of each atom, each thought, each scar, each hope, and when the day of resurrection comes it's not like God dumps out his Big Box of Souls who have been waiting since the first person ever died--rather, God, in his total knowledge of us, recalls our image and endows it with a new body of his creation.
Theologians talk about the problem of the "intermediate state"--i.e., where folks go after death but before the final day. In this paradigm, we all wait in God's memory our recreation. And if that seems fleeting or transitory, it is after all, a divine memory.
The benefit of this theory is that it does away with the conundrums associated with brain death--like, in a brain-dead individual, has the soul left the body? Well, if the soul is really God's knowledge of us, then the state of the body becomes less important.
It also addresses a another problem: We know that our minds/souls change as our bodies change. For instance, the injuries and changes of middle age can have an effect: The disappointment, anger, or even hope associated with them leave a mark not just on our physical bodies, but our souls as well.
If the soul is some strange spiritual entity which hovers inside our bodies but in another dimension, then we have to ask how they interact. But if the soul is really just God's knowledge of us, the problem vanishes.
From this standpoint, the idea that damnation is God's saying "I never knew you" is particularly apt.
(The accompanying image is snagged from a google image search.)
2 comments:
Your thoughts are somewhat inline with recent discussions on the mind-body problem.
I would suggest reading Richard Swinburne's "Evolution of the Soul" before you accept the "memory as soul" arguments you put forth here.
Nancy Murphy (Philosopher at Fuller) just can't seem to get around the question of how immaterial "substance" can interact with material substance. She basically asks: "How can something immaterial affect something material."
Well, this apparent problem has caused many to question traditional views of the soul while developing versions of Christian Physicalism (Murphy refers to her theory as "Non Reductive Materialism". See also Calvin Philosopher Kevin Corcoran).
For Murphy and Corcoran there is no immaterial soul. With that out of the way we can, according to them, seek better ways to understand how the mind-body problem can be solved.
Bravo! I hope once they solve the mind-body problem perhaps they can tell us how God (immaterial) spoke the universe (material) into existence.
People seem to think of the soul as some ghost in the machine. Once the machine stops working human nature is reduced to some spirit form floating around in some sort of intermediate state. I think the Biblical view is that body and soul are so intertwined as to form one being. At death this union is severed but only temporarily. Questions of time and space may be applicable here..what may seem as some sort of intermediate state is perhaps more of a timeless state so that what may cause us to posit this intermediate state is simply our time bound perspective.
In any event. Scripture is clear that the body will be resurrected. Contrary to some, dualism (in the biblical sense) does not result in any low view of the immaterial body (gnostics) or in any view that exalts soul over body.
These are just my immediate thoughts. I will have to re-read your "Crackpot theory" a little more closely at some point to give more of an adequate response. In the mean time I think your proposed theory creates more problems than either Christian non-reductive physicalism or tradition dualistic views.
More recommendations: "In Search of the Soul; Four Views of the Mind-Body Problem." - Joel B Green and Stuart L. Palmer; "The Emergent Self" - William Hasker
Blessings - K
Hi Kerry,
Thank you very much for your thoughts. I know it's been a few years now, but I was rereading them and wanted to comment.
I have read a little more sense then. I have Joel Green's book in hand and have read a little--and some Murphy, and Parfit as well as Ed. Wierenga's address on Cartesian dualism which he gave in Iran this past year. I don't pretend to have done more than scratch the surface.
With this slightly greater knowledge I thought I would invite you to poke some further, and more specific, holes in what one might flippantly call the barcode theory of the soul.
When I look around at the other options they all seem riddled with problems. Reductionists have the problem of not agreeing with Scripture. Murphy and her physicalist view has the problem of demonstrating that the mind/soul as an emergent entity is somehow not reducible to the laws of physics. And dualists have to explain how the soul/mind interacts with the physical.
My naive impression is that the barcode theory avoids each of these. Its weakness is that God's knowledge of us is entire. So when we are resurrected, which "us" does he resurrect? But then, that's a problem all theories of resurrection have to address. (Or not--God will do what he wants!)
Thanks again for your thoughts,
Tim
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