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

First, the Bible seems to teach that consciousness and the soul are immaterial and we need to regard this teaching as genuine knowledge and not as faith commitments that we merely hope are true.

The second preliminary is this: We should interpret a biblical passage in light of what its original audience would have understood it to mean. Now it is widely acknowledged that people all over the world throughout the ages have been substance dualists who depict life after death as involving the departure of the soul. This belief predates the

In addition, there is the transfiguration passage (cf. Matt. 17:1–13) in which Elijah (who never died) and Moses (who had died) appear with Jesus. The most natural way to interpret this text is to understand that Moses and Elijah have continued to exist—Moses was not re-created for this one event—and have been made temporarily visible.

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

According to strict physicalism, a human being is merely a physical entity.1 The only things that exist are physical substances, properties, and events. When it comes to humans, the physical substance is the material body, especially the parts called the brain and central nervous system. The physical substance called the brain has physical

French philosopher Blaise Pascal rightly remarked that the soul’s nature is so important that one must have lost all feeling not to care about the issue.

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

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