Sea Breeze, in answer to your question of 'Why don't you ... try to mount a defense of the WT's definition of Man & Death?" I say the following. I don't have much interest in specifically defending the WT's ideas, per se, though I do defend some ideas which the WT also has. Furthermore, the WT says Man and Woman were created by Jehovah God about 6,000 years ago using a non-evolutionary process, with God breathing into Adam to make him a living soul. I totally disagree with that teaching of WT and thus I will not defend that WT teaching.
But. regarding the defense of the Atheistic ideas pertaining to the definition of Human and Death, months ago I did that by making a post which directed people to atheistic naturalism books and human evolution books for people to read. Those books make a very strong case of such. I see no point in me writing a long online post to defend such when those books already give an excellent defense. Furthermore, I am writing an atheistic book which makes arguments for naturalism and evolution and I want what I say on the subject to be copyright protected, thus I am confining most of what I say about it to within my book.
Here are some excellent books which discuss those subjects. The first one especially mentions subjects pertaining to naturalism, including of the human mind, in detail. People with sincere interest in learning the arguments and evidence in support of such to see if the ideas are true can take the initiative to read those books.
- Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism, by Richard Carrier [I read much of that book.
- Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity (Revised & Expanded), by John W. Loftus [I own that book and have read most of it.]
- Christianity in the Light of Science: Critically Examining the World's Largest Religion, Edited by John W. Loftus [It includes a section pertaining to the concept of the existence of the soul.]
- God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist, by Victor J. Stenger [One of the topics it discusses if God has endowed humans with immaterial souls. I own that book and have read most of it.]
- The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason, by Victor J. Stenger [I own that book and have read much of it. See https://web.archive.org/web/20140812062341/http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/NewAth.html# . It says in part the following. "In The New Atheism, I review and expand upon the principles of New Atheism and answer many of its critics. I show how naturalism, the view that everything is matter and nothing more, is sufficient to explain everything we observe in the universe from the most distant galaxies to the inner workings of the brain that result in the phenomenon of mind. Nowhere is it necessary to introduce God or the supernatural to understand the world. I dispute the claim that science has nothing to say about God and argue that absence of evidence is evidence of absence when evidence should be there and is not.]
- God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion, by Victor J. Stenger [I own that book and have read much of it. An online description of it says in part the following. "The author goes on to detail how religion and science are fundamentally incompatible in several areas: the origin of the universe and its physical parameters, the origin of complexity, holism versus reductionism, the nature of mind and consciousness, and the source of morality."]
Regarding definitions of Human in terms of anatomy and how humans came into existence, there are many biology college textbooks (including ones which explain and prove human evolution) and anatomy books and physical anthropology (with content about human evolution) books on those subjects.
Sea Breeze, I reject the claim that naturalism (such as scientific naturalism and philosophical naturalism) is a "
religion that requires immense faith in order to ignore substantial circumstantial evidence surrounding the Resurrection of Christ, Near Death Experiences, and Terminal Lucidity cases." At least one of books by Lotus and at least one of the books by Stenger provide evidence and reasoning disproving the claim that naturalism "requires immense faith in order to ignore substantial circumstantial evidence surrounding the Resurrection of Christ" and "Near Death Experiences", though I am not sure if they specifically address the topic of "Terminal Lucidity cases". I also reject the idea that philosophical materialism that which you called "naturalistic materialism" are religions.
