New one from the JWs

[zooterkin]

It would require a deity to arrange 144,000 indivisible obects into a square.....

I know

I remember hearing some time back that someone had a vision of the 144,000 arranged in a perfect square, and the person relaying this commented that this was proof of the innaccuracy of the vision (or, as you say, divine intervention). What I can't remember is whose vision it was, as I've not since found a reference to the arrangement of the chosen being a square. My memory tells me it was associated with either the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, but could have been another sect. (Revelations mentions the 144,000, and describes the place as being a square, but not the extra step of the people being arranged as a square.)

 

[Aepervius]

I don't see how this makes a difference for a materialist. Every moment in time I'm technically just a different arrangement of molecules that create my personality for that point in time. It seems to me it is only an issue if you think that there is some magical energy (aka a soul) that hold some or all of your personality. Is it any different if you were able to freeze me for 100 years and then thaw me out undamaged or incinerate me and recreate me exactly down to every last subatomic particle in 100 years unless you think there is something imbued in the molecules of my body at this point in time other than matter itself.

That's stuff for another thread, but basically as previously said you are only replaced bit by bit, not in a single shot.

But where the heck did you get that to a materialist it would not matter (pun intended) ? On the contrary only a theist (as default of a better name for a soul-o-ist ?) holding the idea there was a soul would see the destruction of the initial body, transport, and reconstruction of the final body at destination at as non-death, as they could hold that the soul is removed from the initial body, transported, and finally reinserted at destination. For a materialist, if you destroy the initial body, you KILL the person. No matter if you reconstitute the body at destination, it will be ANOTHER person.

For a materialist , a tele-transporter is a death machine.

Heck, to see why this is so, ask yourself *WHY* the machine would only be able to reconstitute one person only. If what the machine receive is only data then it can reconstitute more than 1 person. For a theist impossible as a soul is needed and only 1 was initially provided. For a materialist no problem, once you have the initial data, you can make as much copy as you wish, all different individuals with the same memory and morphology.

Botom line :You have exactly the position of materialist and theist/soul-o-ist exchanged.