Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God

[volgadon]

The evidence that it doesn't is that graveyards are very quiet

Very weak argument.

[Christyba75]

Very weak argument.

It was intended as being tongue-in-cheek.

But from an observational viewpoint, unless you've seen the dead rise or can explain how it's possible, then the rational viewpoint would be that dead is dead. The brain which was a hive of electrical activity is now silent. The cell membranes decay. The neurotransmitters cease. The body will decay, the molecules will be eaten by microbes, which will be consumed by plants, which will be eaten by animals, which future men will eat. My body may be made from the molecules of many deceased ancestors. If the resurrection happens now, I hope they don't want their molecules back. I'm still using them. Hopefully God will give them a new body and leave mine alone. Or I may become duelistic!

[Vort]

A naturalist would not say that their approach is deficient, just that it can't prove or disprove that a person's conscience exists after dealth.

Which is an entirely different thing from what you said Dawkins claimed or proposed. Dawkins' proposition was an unprovable statement of pure faith, without the least shred of evidence.

[Seminarysnoozer]

One of the things that Dawkins and other atheistic writers propose is that man is not duelistic in nature. I am my brain. There is no me that can be separated from me. This does not appear consistent with Christian teaching. I can reject it or chose to harmonize it. A naturalistic approach does not permit for life after death, but it depends on how we define life. LDS teaching teach that we get a "new" body. It's a different, yet similar body which will house my "spirit". We usually think of my spirit as my memories and desires. My old body will be gone. No more split ends, no more scars. The new body is very dissimilar from my old body. It's more than just the old body cleaned up; it's a new body that is fashioned to look somewhat like the old body when it was at it's best, and then made perfect. This new body housing my desires and memories will then be me, and it will last as long as the universe lasts.

Your view of LDS teaching is wrong. This is not what we believe.

Your current "memories and desires" housed in your current body is not you. It is your temporary stewardship which allows God to test your affinity for things carnal versus things spiritual. Those that have a greater affinity towards things carnal, God taking into all the variables that He is aware of that we are not, will make determinations as to where your heart's desire is. Based on that final judgement you will receive a body that reflects that level of glory, one type being, metaphorically similar, the glory of the sun, another type being the glory of the moon and various types reflecting the glory of the stars as one varies one from another. The only perfect form of the human body that we know about is the pair made in the Garden of Eden.

But, I do tend to ponder the possibility, as you are suggesting, that it is possible the body "house" memories as well as experience. This may be what is defined as a "glorified" body. This may be in fact how God can claim all the achievements and glory of all those who came before Him. And this may be the way that He has no beginning and no end. But, this has not been revealed.

Even if you were to ponder such a thing though, you have to realize the only way to get to that point though is to pass this test which is a test of faith, not a test of intellectual prowess. The test of intellectual prowess took place before this life began, it is called the first estate test. All that learning will come back to us after the veil is removed.

The test we face here now is to see if we have an affinity towards spiritual insight, and there is a reason for that but will be lost to you unless you have built your faith enough to comprehend such things. As Paul explains, " 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14 But the anatural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."