And going further in that direction, since we know of atoms not so much by observation but by deductions based on certain "laws" applied to certain phenomena, do the atoms in heaven act like atoms on earth?
So will our resurrected bodies eat and drink, urinate and defecate? If NOT then how are the atoms the same? To say it another way, if aging is largely a biochemical phenomenon, then either we age in heaven or we don't. If we do, I want my money back. If we don't then those laws of nature by which we deduce atoms are changed, which leads one to wonder how we know there are atoms there -- or has the meaning of "atoms" changed in the heavenly places?
How many quarks can dance on the head of a pin? But if we are asked to imagine an automobile in heaven, then can we imagine a chem lab? Though for both I have the questions, where would it be and where would you go? It's like Stephen Wright's man who has everything. Where does he put it?
I take it "real" is not equivalent to "material" because God is "real" but "spiritual". Though "Geist" in German can be translated "spirit" or "mind" are the two distinct? Presumably so because it is averred that we think that heaven is only a state of mind. "Only a state of Spirit" would probably mean something else, and I suspect, something better and "realer". Are "material" and "physical" synonyms?
And there're the lingering issues of "essence" and "substance".
But more than that, as has been noted on other threads, one underlying issue is: Whether Athens has anything to do with Jerusalem. "Secular philosophy" is offered as though it were some especially vicious activity at war with the Truth.
But of course what happens when there isn't some recourse to the disciplines of philosophy is garbled communication: A says, "It's real."
B says, "I don't know what that means, or what you mean when you say it."
A says, "You do too!"
Also, there is a multiplication of terms without definition. I remember at the end of some conversation about the Sacrament one of the "Athens go home!" crowd suddenly introduced "corporeal" into the conversation, though the word had not been used before. "Alchemy" has also been used similarly.
It just now occurs to me that for many the meaning of these words is to be derived from an affect which they supposedly invoke. That is, "Alchemy" does not mean "an investigative activity preceding the chemistry of Lavoisier and the moderns and perhaps troubled by a confusion of Aristotelian notions of substance with the reactive characteristics of various materials." Instead it means, "something wicked and profitless in which stupid and superstitious people engaged and having vaguely to do with the changes of materials and the pursuit of gold."
I pinged you, Mr, Lucky, because I would like to learn if you have any thoughts on the Athens v. Jerusalem problem.
I think the “includes and transcends” framework is the best for your question.
Empirical science includes gross matter and transcends it (providing models and predictions). Reason/Logic includes empirical science and transcends (adding to) it. Philosophy includes and transcends reason/logic. Religion includes and transcends philosophy.
Philosophy would discuss the epistemology of absolute truths, religion would seek to know them by means transcending reason.
So the key, and the hard part is to avoid category errors and leave to Athens what is Athen’s and to Jerusalem what is Jerusalem’s.