Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 21:2 (Fall 2024)
Article: Life After Death, Substance Dualism, And The Argument From Self-Awareness
Author: J. P. Moreland

Life After Death, Substance Dualism, And The Argument From Self-Awareness

J. P. Moreland

J. P. Moreland is distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.

A while ago, Time magazine featured an article defending stem-cell research on human embryos: “These [embryos] are microscopic groupings of a few differentiated cells. There is nothing human about them, except potential--and, if you choose to believe it, a soul.”1 This expresses a widely held opinion that when it comes to belief in the soul, you're on your own. There is no evidence one way or another. You must choose arbitrarily or, perhaps, on the basis of private feelings what you believe about the soul. For many, belief in the soul is like belief in ghosts: an issue best left to the pages of the National Inquirer.

Regardless of how often this mantra is recited, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, a considerable case can be offered for the view that consciousness and the soul are immaterial, not physical realities. Thinking through these is a fascinating adventure of considerable importance. French philosopher Blaise Pascal rightly remarked that the soul’s existence is so important that one must have lost all feeling not to care about the issue. Moreover, Christians have a special interest in the soul’s nature since this is so central to the Christian faith and its teaching about life after death. For at least three reasons, the case for the immaterial nature of consciousness and the soul is relevant to the reality of life after death.

First, the Bible seems to teach that consciousness and the soul are immaterial. For twenty centuries, most educated and uneducated Christians understood the Bible in this way. The historic Christian position is nicely stated by H. D. Lewis: “Throughout the centuries Christians have believed that each human person consists in a soul and body; that the soul survived the death of the

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body; and that its future life will be immortal.”2 If these teachings are wrong, this would undermine the epistemic authority of the Bible, especially in the area of life after death which the Bible regularly associates with disembodied, spiritual existence after death, followed by the resurrection of the body in which absolute personal identity is sustained.3

Second, while the existence of immaterial consciousness and the soul are neither necessary nor sufficient for the reality of life after death, the latter is clearly much more at home in a world where the former exist. The probability of life...