The metaphysical problem of intermittent existence and the possibility of resurrection

Abstract

Peter van Inwagen claims that if God were to reassemble the scattered atoms of a destroyed human being, the resulting organism would not be the individual that had died, but a duplicate. This view is challenged and an argument is offered that resurrection after a period of nonexistence is not a metaphysically impossible state of affairs. Also provided is an explanation of why our fundamental mereological and biological principles are not violated if the resurrected acquire a physically fit body despite possessing a frail form before their death. These same principles are compatible with a solution to the worrisome problem that many of a dying human being's molecules once were (or will be) in someone else at the time of the latter's death. The proper account of part replacement would permit both individuals to eventually be resurrected and to coexist for eternity.