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Status Reports

Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - June)

(Text as at 11/07/2024 23:08:10)

Rationale for this Project

• See my Christian page¹ and onward links from there for an explanation of how I got in to and out of evangelical Christianity. This is still a live issue for me, and the reason I originally undertook formal philosophical training.
• The connection to my current philosophical researches arises from the standard religious hope that resurrection – or some other form of post-mortem survival – is possible. This is a cornerstone of religious claims and expectations, at least in the Abrahamic religions, from those of suicide bombers to those of more pacific persons. I wish to go back to the considerations that originally motivated Locke and research the metaphysical possibility of resurrection, or other post-mortem survival, for beings such as us. My current opinion is that resurrection for human beings is metaphysically impossible₂, given that substance dualism is false.
• In late September 2010 I took the Philosophy of Religion³ Module of a 2-year part time MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College London (Defunct), University of London. Follow the links for my Personal Statement⁴, Interview Write-up⁵, and Course Outline⁶. I decided not to proceed with the MA but do intend to follow up on₇ the many issues raised.
• During 2016 I assisted with the Appendices of my friend’s PhD Thesis on the Narrative Structure of the Acts of the Apostles, building a website. See "Mansell (Peter) - Bottom Up Reading of Acts".
• In August 2017 I was asked by Michael J. Alter to review pre-publication his book on the theology of the Resurrection. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too much work, and I only commented on the first section.
• In mid-23Q3 I decided to focus as much as I could on my Thesis, so – temporarily at least – axed all ‘distractions’, including this project. However, I’ve decided it’s too important to ignore. Read on!

Summary of Progress during April - June 2024

1. I spent 27.75 hours in 24Q2 on this Project, or related work (60.75 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2023). That's 53.2% of the planned effort (66.6% YTD). Overall, 3.6% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 2.7% YTD) - as against 6.5% planned (4% YTD).
2. I allocated 4 hours per week but achieved only slightly more than half this.
3. I did, however, revitalise my ‘original language’ Bible-reading in July – I had been reading through the LXX in Greek and the OT in Hebrew and a second reading through the Greek NT (both of the latter using Bibleworks). I’ve updated the Functor that performs the ‘completion date’ calculations to show two completion dates based on reading rates before and since I intermitted. The table that shows plans and progress can be viewed below.
4. Further details follow:-
   Religion (Total Hours = 18.75)
   • Below is a table showing the progress on my project to read the OT, LXX & NT in the original Hebrew and Greek.
     1. I'm on my second pass through the NT. I've also read through the Koran, but mostly in English. One day in Arabic, maybe.
     2. I intermitted this project between August 2023 and April 2024 (inclusive; ie. 9 months); as well as deferring completion by 9 months, this has thrown out my completion-date algorithms somewhat. For now, I've amended the Completion Aims to reflect the intermission.
     3. I've calculated and used the daily rate of progress achieved prior to intermission to calculate the estimated completion date.
     4. I don't now have as much time to spare, so - as expected - this rate has fallen since the restart.
     5. I've therefore also calculated and used the daily rate of progress achieved since intermission to calculate the revised completion date.
     6. We'll see how it goes!
     
     

     Testament	Total Verses	Start Date	Intermission	Restart Date	Restart at	Elapsed	Read	V / D	Since Restart	Last Verse Read	Aim	Estimate	Ahead / Behind	Revised
     OT	23,142	13/05/2021	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	1 Samuel 9:25	808	7,469	9.2	4.5	1 Samuel 19:12	31/12/2028	29/01/2029	29 Days Behind	21/12/2033
     LXX	29,010	13/05/2021	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	2 Esdras 5:3	808	12,596	15.6	7.9	2 Esdras 22:47	31/03/2027	26/04/2027	26 Days Behind	24/01/2030
     Koran	6,236	08/11/2022				159	6,236	39.2		114:6	30/06/2023	16/04/2023	(Complete) 75 Days Ahead
     NT	7,954	26/04/2021				498	7,954	16		Revelation 22:21	30/09/2022	06/09/2022	(Complete) 24 Days Ahead
     NT2	7,954	26/12/2022	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	John 8:22	216	3,258	15.1	7.7	John 21:25	31/03/2025	14/04/2025	14 Days Behind	07/01/2026

     
     
   • Bibleworks Greek NT: John (Read, 4.5 hours)
   • Bibleworks Hebrew OT: 1 Samuel (Read, 6.5 hours)
     → See "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT" (11 hours)
   • "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1" (Read, 5 hours)
   • Reading Christies - Codex sinaiticus rescriptus, Etc. (Read, 1 hour)
     → See "Interaction - Religion - Discussions" (1 hour)
   • Various - Patheos (Patheos - Camp - No, Jesus And His Early Followers Did Not Believe In The Inerrancy Of The Bible) (Read, 0.25 hours)
     → See "Various - Patheos" (0.25 hours)
   • "YouTube - Video - 'It’s impossible for atheists to do this!' …but It’s Not" (Write, 1.5 hours)
   Religion Background (Total Hours = 9)
   1. Religion Background - Admin
      • 24Q1 Status Reports (1 hour)
        → See "Admin - Religion - Admin" (1 hour)
   2. Religion Background - Discussions (Total Hours = 8)
      • Becky re Eusebius & Tozer (0.5 hours)
      • Interaction - Discussions with Jim, Etc (St. John's Lunch) (3 hours)
        → See "Interaction - Religion - Discussions" (3.5 hours)
      • Interaction - Discussions with Julie, Pete & Caro (1 hour)
        → See "Interaction - Discussions with Pete" (1 hour)
      • Interaction - Discussions with Mike, Sylvia & Julie (3.5 hours)
        → See "Interaction - Discussion with Mike" (3.5 hours)
5. Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List⁸, and YTD in the current & future “automatic” editions of this report.

Plans for the Near Future

• I’ve had to reduce the time allocated to 3 hours / week in the coming Quarter to account for holidays.
• The items in the list below are those I’d like to address if time allows, which it most likely won’t!
• The only items I plan to address in the coming Quarter are the two YouTube videos.
  
  1. Philosophy of Religion:
     1. "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
     2. "Davis (Stephen T.) - The Mad/Bad/God Trilemma: A Reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder": Annotate,
     3. "Ginn (Roy) - According to the Scriptures": Complete write-up
     4. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
     5. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
     6. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Was Jesus Mad, Bad, Or God?…Or Merely Mistaken?": Annotate,
     7. "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
     8. "YouTube - Video - Atheists deny reality": Annotate,
     9. "YouTube - Video - 'It’s impossible for atheists to do this!' …but It’s Not": Annotate.
  2. Science & the Bible:-
     1. "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?",
     2. "Instone-Brewer (David) - Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text", and
     3. "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation",
  3. Bible:
     1. "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT", and
     2. "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1".
  4. Qur'an / Islam:
     1. "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
     2. "Burton (John), Qur'an - The Collection of the Qur'an".
     3. "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note₉
     4. "Omar (Abdul Mannan), Qur'an - The Dictionary of the Holy Quran: Arabic Words - English Meanings",
     5. "Qur'an - Easy Quran: Arabic Text With Word For Word English Translation",
     6. "Wansbrough (John), Rippin (Andrew), Qur'an - Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation".
  5. Background:
     1. Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
     2. "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
     3. "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
     4. Incorporate downloaded David Instone-Brewer papers into my database.

Summary of Progress to Date

I’ve hived off the history to a separate document¹⁰, which still requires a major update. It hasn’t been touched since 2010.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2:

• Or if not strictly impossible – rather unlikely, as the candidates for enabling some sort of physical continuity – from luz bones to “corpse swapping” – have multiple problems.
• However, there are some interesting ideas by Dean Zimmerman, most recently in "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", that argue the contrary.
• Also, transhumanists – who are almost following a religion – are often hopeful of post-mortem survival. I have no metaphysical worries about “cryonic suspension”, and subsequent resuscitation, but think that uploading is incoherent.

Footnote 7:

• This pious hope has been sitting unactioned for over 13 years now!
• The proximate cause of my failure was missing a deadline for my essay on the Ontological Argument, but a more serious reason was that it was all a waste of time (for me, given my research interests). Peter Vardy had warned me about anno domini, with the claim that original work after the age of 65 is unlikely. I hope this is false, as I’ve ignored the warning, and have now reached the following milestone of 70!

Footnote 9:

• Time to be booked to my Languages Project.

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Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 91)

Date	Length	Title
15/04/2024 00:34:34	6591	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - March)
01/04/2024 20:08:10	6923	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - December)
04/10/2023 21:59:02	7265	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - September)
06/07/2023 00:43:12	10254	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - June)
30/04/2023 01:06:14	10345	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - March)
10/01/2023 23:35:31	9685	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2022 - December)
10/10/2022 22:32:10	11242	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2022 - September)
03/07/2022 01:29:17	10319	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2022 - June)
11/04/2022 00:01:26	9969	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2022 - March)
03/01/2022 23:58:34	9696	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2021 - December)
02/07/2021 20:32:38	8708	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2021 - June)
03/04/2021 19:58:05	7234	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2021 - March)

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Note last updated	Reference for this Topic	Parent Topic
11/07/2024 23:08:10	519 (Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - June))	Status: Summary (2024 - June)

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Heythrop - MA Philosophy and Religion	Heythrop - Personal Statement	Heythrop - Philosophy of Religion	McDade_100729	Ontological Argument
Status: Languages (2024 - June)	Status: Philosophy of Religion (Summary of Progress to Date)	Status: Summary Task List (2024: July - August)	Theo Todman's Christian Page	Transhumanism
Uploading

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers - Summary Document: 2017-2018	Immortality	Life After Death	Religion	Resurrection
Status: Consciousness Studies (2023 - September)	Status: Languages (2024 - June)	Status: Personal Identity (2024 - June)	Status: Philosophy of Religion (Summary of Progress to Date)	Status: Priority Task List (2024 - August)
Status: Summary (2024 - June), 2	Status: Summary Task List (2024: July - August)	Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 23Q4 - 24Q3)	Theo Todman's Christian Page	Website - Progress to Date (2024 - August), 2, 3, 4
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Immortality	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Life After Death	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Religion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Resurrection	Paper		Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2024

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