Some think that humans have an immortal soul, which will survive death and be given a new body at the end of the world. Badham objects that there's great difficulty in deciding which organisms have souls (and will have eternal life) and which do not.
Some think that humans have an immortal soul, which will survive death and be given a new body at the end of the world. Badham objects that there's great difficulty in deciding which organisms have souls (and will have eternal life) and which do not.
Since humans seem to have evolved by gradual steps from lower animals, any dividing line between animals who have immortal souls and animals who don't have immortal souls would seem to be arbitrary.
We could get around this by claiming that EVERY organism (including worms and mosquitoes) has an immortal soul and will have eternal life. But this is very implausible. So somehow we must distinguish between those who have immortal souls and those who don't.
Some think that humans have an immortal soul, which will survive death and be given a new body at the end of the world. Badham objects that there's great difficulty in deciding which organisms have souls (and will have eternal life) and which do not.
Since humans seem to have evolved by gradual steps from lower animals, any dividing line between animals who have immortal souls and animals who don't have immortal souls would seem to be arbitrary.
We could get around this by claiming that EVERY organism (including worms and mosquitoes) has an immortal soul and will have eternal life. But this is very implausible. So somehow we must distinguish between those who have immortal souls and those who don't.