Theseus’ Ship

Theseus’ ship is put into dry dock. Bit by bit, each part of it is replaced. As one old board is torn out, an new one is put in. Eventually, the work is complete, and the ship sets sail. However, someone has been collecting all the old bits and has put them back together again, and this ship too heads into sea. So, which of these two vessels is the real ship of Theseus?

Would you say the one with all the original parts?

Would you say the one with all the new parts?

But what if Theseus believes his ship has been renovated and not replaced?

It cannot be the case that the ownership is a matter of a particular physical thing: when you go to the bank and withdraw the $20 you deposited last week; would you expect them to give you the SAME $20 bill?

Thomas Hobbes proposed this problem and it may seem very abstract to you and even nonsensical, but let me propose it in a different way: suppose for a moment that every cell in your body changes over time, one dies off and is replaced by a new one as naturally happens over your lifetime. So are you still you? Are people particular lumps of matter, or are they a continuous way of organizing matter that is constantly changing? Are we like the $20 bill or are we like the monetary value of the bill?

Would it matter to you if your spouse was replaced with an IDENTICAL “bill” and not the same $20 bill you knew yesterday? There have been movies out there where the consciousness of a person was put into a machine … would that machine still be your spouse?

As Christians we understand that we are a NEW creation in Christ Jesus. Does that mean we are an old $20 bill that was replaced by a new $20 bill? Or does that mean that we are the SAME $20 bill that has a different “value”? Was every cell in our body renovated or was the consciousness that makes us human changed while we are in the same old body?

I can make a case for both ways from scripture but what we, as Christians, cannot do is believe we are that same old $20 bill … something has changed. I don’t quite know which way we have changed … but SOMETHING has changed.