A Hypothetical Method Of Scientific Resurrection

The concept of consciousness being distinct from the brain but generated by the nervous system is not novel, but it is one version of substance dualism that is has significant ramifications for the future of human civilization.  Substance dualism--the idea that consciousness is immaterial and matter is physical, no matter which of the two might bring the other into existence--is both true and provable, but aspects of the relationship between consciousness and the body are still up in the air.  This uncertainty can help some people come to realize what certain forms of substance dualism are truly consistent with.

If it is indeed the case that human consciousness, despite being metaphysically separate from the body, depends on a physical nervous system, one could hypothetically resurrect a person by arranging the matter constituting their nervous system in exactly the right places so as to revive their consciousness and give them the exact same memories they had before death.  A person could be phenomenologically identical to their former self even if a different group of atoms was used to return their consciousness to existence.  After all, as long as atoms are arranged properly, a specific form of consciousness would result.

The changes that such a discovery would bring to human civilization would be massive, for death itself would no longer be a state that humans cannot reverse left to themselves.  That humans could eventually be capable of restoring life to the dead would transform lives on a practical and philosophical level.  In light of the evidence for Christianity being true, it is very unlikely that this kind of process would ever be actualized, short of the resurrected person representing a separate soul from the consciousness of the person who previously held their memories.

It is obvious to any rationalist who understands this that there is no method of arranging human brain matter that is logically guaranteed to result in a resurrection and continuation of consciousness, and it is also clear that there is no current scientific evidence that doing this is anything more than a mere possibility.  Logical possibility does not mean that an idea is true in actuality.  All the same, the issue of resurrecting an immaterial consciousness to have its prior memories is not irrelevant to where scientific paradigms might be headed.

No one needs to know if something is true to understands what would follow if it is, of course.  An idea's ramifications can still be thoroughly explored even if there is no way whatsoever to verify it in the first place.  The ramifications of a mind-body relationship that would allow for true resurrection, despite this epistemological obstacle, are still knowable and of great metaphysical importance, for they (if true) could dramatically affect how future generations will experience life.