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From: flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: LAST WORD on "souls" (I hope!)
Message-ID: <1375@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-Aug-85 14:09:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1375
Posted: Sun Aug 25 14:09:51 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Aug-85 02:03:19 EDT
References: <581@utastro.UUCP> <1322@umcp-cs.UUCP> <588@utastro.UUCP> <1364@umcp-cs.UUCP> <599@utastro.UUCP>
Reply-To: flink@maryland.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 32

In article <599@utastro.UUCP> padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) writes:
>> CASE:
>> An electron exists at time A (7:00:00 am), and at time B (7:00:01 am),
>> but not in between.  It interacts with another particle, and both disappear
>> for one second; then both reappear.  (Physics experts, correct me if this
>> is not possible; I've read that it is.  Anyway, even if it is not physically
>> possible, it is *logically* possible [i.e. it involves no contradiction].)
>
>This is really ripe: "...even if it is not physically possible it is
>*logically* possible ...". This begins to stink of the problem concerning
>the amount of teeth that women have.

You miss the point.  If you are going to give a (supposedly) LOGICALLY VALID
argument for your assertion about continuity of existence, there must be
no logically possible counterexamples.

>> No other electrons were within one light-second at the time of the
>> observation.  Since the electron observed at time B obviously has a
>> lot in common with the one observed at A, and since no other particle
>> is a candidate for being that electron, it makes perfect sense to say
>> that the electron at time B is THE SAME electron.
>
>This is garbage. Electrons can be created in many ways through interactions
>among other atomic particles. That none are within a certain volume at
>a certain time does not preclude them forming, through decay perhaps,
> there.

My example is easily corrected.  No other particles (than the two mentioned
above) of any kind were within one light-second, and there was not enough
other energy (light, etc.) in the area to form an electron via E=mc**2.

--Paul V Torek, umcp-cs!flink