A MATERIALIST VIEW OF HUMAN PERSONS AND BELIEF IN THE AFTERLIFE. Issue 2 (April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Corcoran, Kevin J.
• Is Part Of: Modern believing. Volume 57:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 153
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2016-04
• Subjects: AFTERLIFE -- BLINDSIGHT -- BRANCHING OF CAUSAL PATHS -- CONSCIOUSNESS -- DUALISM -- MATERIALIST -- MEREOLOGICAL STRUCTURE -- PERSONHOOD -- RESURRECTION; Liberalism (Religion) -- Periodicals; Theology -- Periodicals; Periodicals; Periodicals; Periodicals; 248.4
• DOI: 10.3828/mb.2016.13
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1353-1425

Abstract

Abstract : Current neuroscience favours a materialist over a dualist view of human personhood, as exemplified by the phenomenon of blindsight. The fine-grained dependence of consciousness on neural activity renders a non-physical soul causally irrelevant. Since Christians believe in the resurrection of the body, not the soul, materialism is compatible with the life of the world to come. The branching of causal paths provides a possible model for bodily resurrection.