davidbrainerd wrote:Goofaholix wrote:davidbrainerd wrote:Who believes in an 'unchanging' soul? Its a strawman. No religion nor philosophy says souls are 'unchanging'.
A simple google of the keywords "atman unchanging" and you'll get a host of Hindu websites that answer your question.
That's because atman in Vedanta is GOD not really a soul. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Deism, Gnosticism, none would argue an "unchanging" soul. Since the strawman only applies to Vedanta then its extremely weak, more like a dustman.
Like I said before
Coëmgenu wrote:The human soul has to be fundamentally unchanging, at least during and immediately after death, in order to survive said death, if one believes in an afterlife which the self/soul/spirit "goes to".
Alternatively, consider someone who experiences a traumatic brain injury, and whose mind and individual personality is drastically transformed. Perhaps this is accompanied by brain damage and a loss of some higher cognitive faculties. Is this soul also damaged? Will the individual be brain damaged in heaven? No, because souls are fundamentally unchangeable by such things frequently, in religious systems. Souls are like "ideal 'you' prototypes" that can survive death and injury.
This is sidestepped in most orthodox Christianity, which believes in a "glorification of the body". Similarly, Judaism also has pseudo-
theosis-discourses that exalt the self and the body, fundamentally changing them, after death, but many "regular blokes", unschooled in technical philosophical theology/religious discourse, entertain the notion that Heaven is somewhat fundamentally like earth, just "perfect", and that heavenly existence is a "perfected" continuation of earthly existence.
But in the case of Christianity, the "glorification of the body" occurs after judgement, which, in turn, is
after the raising of the dead. Meaning the soul has to be unaffected by the death of the body and the injuries of the body, thus, in one aspect, "unchangeable". This is what is considered a wrong-view in Buddhism. The fundamentally unchangeable soul/self/spirit.