Overview of the Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality
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Miller, a priest, and Gretchen, a philosopher who is on her death bed, discus the ways of life and the afterlife. They both learn a lot from each other after conversing on two separate nights about these topics. On the first night of their conversation, Miller is the one being asked the questions, but in the second night he is the questioner. Miller recognizes Gretchen's desires and hopes to achieve the goal of determining survival. Throughout the argument Miller stays humble and patient with the criticism he receives from Gretchen. This story has great insight into the thoughts of not only these two characters but also unto mine.
On the first night, Miller starts off a little skeptical and confused. He has never known Gretchen to consider the afterlife, because she has never known God. But as the first night progresses, he quickly realized how important it is to Gretchen to have her concerns resolved about the afterlife, because she is on her death bed. He first proposes, that we all just continue to exist, and ends by saying, "What's to be defended or explained?..