The Soul

This happiness has three important aspects. ... First, it is not the mere possession of pleasant sensations. You could have pleasant sensations, say, by taking drugs all day or by having people constantly lie to you about how wonderful and intelligent you are. ... Second, such a happiness can only be possessed if you do what you truly want to witho

Here is another point: We must distinguish between the means of salvation and the basis of salvation. Christ’s death and resurrection have always been the basis for our justification before God. However, the means of appropriating that basis has not always been a conscious knowledge of the content of the gospel. Saved individuals before Christ (and

With all this in mind, we can begin to address the first question raised: What about those who don’t have a chance to hear the gospel? The Bible doesn’t address this question explicitly and for obvious reasons. The Word of God doesn’t usually offer a plan B if the church chooses to reject God’s plan A. Scripture commands us to go into the world and

What are these supreme tasks and situations? Swinburne claims they include developing a friendship with God, learning to care for others who have that same friendship, caring for and beautifying God’s creation, and the like. Heaven is not a reward for good behavior; it is a home for good people.

Most lay Christians would be surprised to learn that, among contemporary Christian intellectuals, there is a widespread loathing for substance dualism (hereafter, just “dualism”). We are often told that biblical revelation depicts the human person as a holistic unity whereas dualism is a Greek concept falsely read into the Bible by many in the hist

For example, certain mirror neurons are activated in a chimpanzee’s brain when it reaches for food, and those same neurons are activated when the chimpanzee watches another animal reach for food. Scientists think that mirror neurons are the neurological bases for various conscious activities such as experiencing empathy, comprehending the actions o

There are several capacities that animals do not seem to have. We have already mentioned libertarian freedom of the will. Animals also do not seem to have moral awareness. Animals do not seem to grasp key notions central to morality such as the notion of a virtue, of a duty, of another thing having intrinsic value and rights, of universalizing a mo

The soul also contains faculties of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Taken together, these five are called sensory faculties of the soul.

A second way that property dualists handle human action is through a notion called *event-event causation.