Imagine that you are, in an instant, decomposed atom by atom to your core set of information. Then this information is sent to another location (nearby or faraway it does not matter) and reconstituted. Your original body was destroyed during the reading process and then a new body was created during the writing process.
1) Is the new body merely a replica of the real “you”? Was some essential element of “you” lost in this process?
or
2) Is the new body one and the same as the real “you”?
If you answered yes to #1 above then do you also believe that there is some life after death? Is this logically consistent? If you really believe that the real you was lost in the process outlined above then how can you also believe that after your physical body expires “you” can still exist? On the other hand if you answered yes to #2 then you can logically believe that there is life after bodily death.
The original thought experiment of teleporting the body is from philosopher Derek Parfit. The extremely interesting analysis of the inversion of conventional thinking* is from an article (requires a subscription to read the entire thing) in New Scientist by Paul Broks.
* By conventional thinking it is meant: Typically those who believe in some essence, soul, also believe that there is some life after death. On the other hand those who believe that there is no mystical essence also believe that there is no life after death.
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