The Soul and the Resurrection

While doing some research on the relationship between science and religion, I came across John Polkinghorne, a physicist and Anglican Priest. Like me, he does not believe in a disembodied soul or a resurrection of one’s actual body, in terms of the same cells or matter that currently constitute us. I came to this conclusion quite some time ago, but this is my first attempt to articulate it in written form.

First of all, the soul and a bodily resurrection are two separate and contradictory systems, two different views of the afterlife. The first, is a more Greek derived system that saw matter is more prison-like, unreal, or to be transcended. Such dualism still influences many Christians today. The latter affirmed the the necessary materiality of life. Good or bad, this is what we are. It didn’t depend on lofty views of ideals or forms. We live, we die, and God will faithfully restore our lives and communities in a time of redemption that includes, but is not limited to, political freedom. Being a believer in the resurrection of Christ, I naturally gravitated toward the resurrection, but if the resurrection is true, why bother with a soul that survives death and floats around in some temporary place while it waits for the body to be restored? I suppose purgatory might suffice as an explanation, but purgatory strikes me as a rather inane idea. It is too guilt-ridden and ecclesio-centric.

I would propose that if we are indeed bodies, and are so essentially, we do not need souls that inhabit our bodies (what would said souls do anyway?), nor that survive death. If God grants us new bodily life, why bother with souls? I simply see no reason for both a soul that survives death and the resurrection as well.

So, if we stick with the resurrection, is it the same bones, flesh, and everything else that is given life again? No, I don’t think so. Why not? Think of it this way: we never lose water. The water we are drinking now could be the water Jesus was baptized in. Water never disappears, it just changes locations, and sometimes forms, but it is never lost. Matter is the same (yes, I know, water is matter too). It can’t be created or destroyed (not by us at least, perhaps by God). Our cells are created using matter from a mother and father, which is supplemented by nutrients, which are also matter. We then grow by ingesting more matter, and then, eventually, we die. Our bodies decompose and give nutrients to the earth, feeding plants, which are eaten by animals, whether human or deer or whatever. There is an overlapping of matter. to say that the exact matter, the same cells I am now will be resurrected is naive, even if my example of the cycle of life is in need of some fine tuning.

So if we are not resurrected cell for cell, then what happens?  Like Polkinghorne, I believe in reconstitution. We will be made again. But wouldn’t that just be a copy since it isn’t the same cells? We replace our cells constantly. In fact, those of us who are adults remembering things when we were children should note that we do not share a single cell in common with ourselves at the time of our memory. They’ve all been replaced. And yet here we are. Despite having all new cells, we remember. It was still our experience. How does this work? How do we retain memories if we’ve been completely replaced? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem likely that we would ever be able to know such a thing, though I am clearly no scientist. Nonetheless, our selfhood does not depend on cellular continuity. What does it depend on? That’s a good question.