Is it still the same ship?
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What do you think?
Which ship is the original ship?
What did you say? Same or different?
What does the Bible say?
Malachi 3:6 —
"I the Lord do not change."
2 Corinthians 5:17 —
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!"
Genesis 2:7 —
"Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
Ecclesiastes 12:7 —
"and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
and the spirit returns to God who gave it."
Notes
The Ship of Theseus is a classic philosophical thought experiment about identity and change.
- The Story:
In Greek legend, the hero Theseus’s ship was preserved in Athens as a monument. Over time, its wooden planks began to rot, and they were replaced one by one with new planks until none of the original wood remained. - The Question:
If every part of the ship has been replaced, is it still the same ship? - The Twist:
Imagine someone took all the original, discarded planks and rebuilt a ship from them. Now there are two ships:- The one in Athens, made of entirely new materials but with continuous maintenance from the original.
- The rebuilt one, made of all the original wood.
Which, if either, is the real Ship of Theseus?
What It’s About:
- Identity over time: What makes something the “same” thing? Is it continuity of material? Continuity of function? Continuity of history?
- Application to people: Our bodies replace most of their cells over years, yet we still think of ourselves as the same person. Does our identity lie in our physical makeup, our memories, our personality, or something else?
- Modern parallels:
- Restoring classic cars with all new parts
- Software projects where every line of code gets rewritten
- AI or consciousness debates—if a mind is “copied” or “uploaded,” is it still you?
It’s less about finding a single “right” answer and more about exploring how we define persistence and identity.
