Does anyone know any strengths and weakenesses of John Hick’s Replica Theory?
Weaknesses are easiest to explain: – The theory depends on the existence of God (i.e. that God creates the replica in the other world) and so is only really plausible if you’re a theist. – It would be possible to have many replicas, which suggests that the replicas are not truly the original person. – Davies argues that it would be no consolidation to him to know that a replica of himself would be created when he dies, because he would be dead whilst his other self would live. – The most important flaw is that the replica would be exact to every detail of the person. Obviously, if a person was dying of some condition (e.g. old age) they would turn up in the replica world as a living person, but a living person who was dying. To rectify this, the condtition under which the person was dying would have to be fixed by some miracle. In the case of dying from old age, the person would have to become young again. This makes the whole theory even less plausible. Strengths: – It doesn’t rely on
