What is it that is reincarnated? — Banno
Actually you do; frozen water will always consist in a discrete chunk. For that matter even bodies of water, parts of which might freeze are generally discrete.And water vapour may form separate clouds. — Janus
as I understand it, the bible says both that God created everything, and also that God created all things that have been created. The latter is consistent with God not having created us. — Bartricks
Essentially, the soul that reincarnates consists of consciousness which is intelligence, awareness and has powers such as will, knowledge and action.
If you have the memory (real, not imagined) of Napoleon, then you're Napoleon reincarnated as this present person. Otherwise you aren't. — Apollodorus
But the arguments - two of them anyway - establish that our minds exist with aseity. That is, they exist without having been caused to exist. That entails that God did not create us. There's no problem with that - it's not inconsistent with the three essential divine attributes. But it does conflict, it would seem, with something the bible says. However, the statement it conflicts with is an incoherent one. And anyway, the bottom line is 'so much the worse for scripture'. At some point one has to choose between following Reason, and following tradition. — Bartricks
That aspect of consciousness that is pure intelligence and is aware of itself as consciousness is always the same. — Apollodorus
If that's true then it follows that Tarbrick's analogy was a bad one; which is all I was pointing out.Ice, water and steam/vapour are often used to illustrate how consciousness can assume various forms. However, it needs to be borne in mind that, unlike water, etc., consciousness does not break into discrete parts. It remains a unity. — Apollodorus
The point - which you missed - was that simply changing water from a state of being liquid to a state of being solid does not, in and of itself, constitute dividing it. — Bartricks
Some people are too confused to reason with. — Bartricks
My analogy was a good one - indeed it is not 'mine' at all, but a standard one used to show those capable of being shown such things that minds and mental states should not be conflated. — Bartricks
The mind is the object that is conscious. That is, it 'has' consciousness as one of its properties. But it is not itself consciousness - that's a category error of the sort Banno and others who don't know their stuff are wont to make. — Bartricks
However, supposing we accept reincarnation either as fact or as theoretical possibility, how would we convincingly justify it in philosophical terms? — Apollodorus
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