I was taught in college about the difference between a Platonic duality versus an Aristotelian body/mind. In short, and most likely oversimplified, Plato believed that the mind or soul was trapped in the body and Aristotle believed that we are an integrated body/mind. In other words, the Aristotelian view is that the mind cannot exist without the body and when the body dies so does the soul.
I have been a believer in the Platonic duality since that time, here’s why. To take the Aristotelian position one cannot believe in an afterlife, because there is no soul to be continued. God, if He exists, would be the sole eternal being. That makes no sense to me.
The reasons I hold with the Platonic duality, though not strictly in Plato’s definition, are several fold. First, how would one explain our continuing, eternal soul returning to God’s place (Heaven) spoken of in the Bible? I am one who believes that the Word of God is the truth, it is infallible, it is God’s proof, and it is a divinely inspired communication to God’s creation. Secondly, the body must be seen as the temporary housing of the soul. 2 Corinthians 5:1
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
There is more, but the verse that comes to mind is Jesus saying, about the room in God’s mansion prepared for us, John 14:
"In my Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (emphasis mine)
To my mind the key phrase here is Jesus saying, “…if that were not so, would I have told you…”,
I believe we can safely extrapolate the idea Jesus is communicating here. After all, so much of what Christ said contained deeper meanings, if explored, when taken in the context of the whole body of His work. Here Jesus is revealing to us that He communicated to the disciples the hope of more to come than this life alone.
Further proof is from Paul. And, when we speak of Paul we need to remember the road to Damascus. Paul experienced the presence of the risen, ascended Jesus, the Anointed One. This is not hearsay, this is history. There are too many eyewitnesses to try and debunk; this is simply history. And if witnesses are not to be taken at face value what is that to say of the law trials in the world that use witnesses as the sole measure of proof of guilt or innocence?
Naysayers, disbelievers, atheists and deists might say Paul is in included in the argument of “circular reasoning” of which they accuse those who will use the Bible as their source of proof. But here’s the thing about that, and this is not new “news”, but rather, for some reason, historical informational whose impact seems to have been diminished the longer it is known. Almost as if there is a numbing effect over time:
1. That Book, the Bible, was written over 1500 years, by over 40 different authors in three different languages, spread out over 3 different continents and at a minimum included 66 individual books. The Catholic Bible has 73 books; the Ethiopian Bible has 88. I am not sure if many Christians realize the most profound beginnings of the Christian Church was in Ethiopia, and that is commonly traced back to Philip and his encounter with the Eunuch mentioned in Acts 8.
2. Also, Paul was the least likely of all to be the messenger who continued and added to the message. He was the adversary, the chief assassin of Christians and the only one who was given authority to be “that guy” by written permission of the emperor! Yet, in one encounter over three days this enemy of the Christ followers is reported to have had a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus who turned him into His greatest advocate in that aforementioned book, the Bible.
Paul, in his letters, spent his life telling us what he learned firsthand from that encounter. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul tells us:
1 Cor 15
35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. (emphasis mine)
Again in 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 4:13
13Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Now I realize that is lot of scripture, but this the proof that the Platonic idea of the body as a vessel, house or otherwise a means for the soul is why I cannot hold with the Aristotelian thesis. Further, Paul is his usual specific self when it comes to explaining things he learned in that Damascus Road encounter. Let’s remind ourselves of the message he wrote to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 5
1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7For we live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Also, how can we explain bodily destruction in fires, wars, or other catastrophes that obliterate a body? How can we explain cremation? Physical decay in a casket buried six feet in the ground?
No, there is only one plausibility given the information available to man. So, I remain firmly in the camp of Plato on this one.
