From philosopher Michael Huemer:
Do persons continue to exist after the destruction of their bodies? Many believe so. This might occur either because we have immaterial souls that persist in another, non-physical realm; or because our bodies will be somehow reanimated after we die; or because we will live on in new bodies in the physical realm.1 I shall suggest herein that the third alternative, “reincarnation,” is surprisingly plausible. More specifically, I shall argue (i) that your present existence constitutes significant evidence that you will be reincarnated, and (ii) that if the history of the universe is infinite, then you will be reincarnated.
My argument is entirely secular and philosophical. The basic line of thought is something like this. The universe has an infinite future. Given unlimited time, every qualitative state that has ever occurred will occur again, infinitely many times. This includes the qualitative states that in fact brought about your current life. A sufficiently precise repetition of the right conditions will qualify as literally creating another incarnation of you. Some theories about the nature of persons rule this out; however, these theories also imply that, given an infinite past, your present existence is a probability-zero event. Hence, your present existence is evidence against such theories of persons. Given an infinite past, it is conclusive evidence.
Here is the rest of the paper. Via Nabeel. So you do not need to read this paper just right now?
The post “Existence is evidence of immortality” appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
