The Pope took a seat with the Captain and spent a minute or so remembering, and marveled at how well this holodeck simulation matched his memories of this old, friendly place. 
         "Now Captain," the Pope began," we were speaking of the transporters. Why do you suppose they bother transporting a man's body, when sending his information and then reconstructing him from scratch would be so much easier?"
         "The original theoretical work assumed precisely that method, with replication done at the quantum level," the Captain said. "In practice, it worked for inanimate objects, even with animals, but when it came to human trials . . ."
         "The replicated body arrived dead?" the Pope asked and the Captain nodded. "Do they know why?"
         "No. Researchers did not succeed until they learned to disassemble the physical body itself and send it in a matter stream. When you examine it, you see we control all phases of the transport. Only matter is transported. I've always considered that compelling evidence against your belief in a soul."
         "How so, Captain?"
         "Don't you see? There is no spiritual aspect. It just sends the matter and the necessary information needed for re-assembly. The program makes no provision for transporting a soul. And yet it works."
         "Well, let's not move too quickly." John Paul said. "The Church teaches that each of us has an immortal, immaterial, spiritual soul that animates our body, and without that soul, our body would cease to live."
         "But the transporter does not move souls!" said the Captain.
         "Ah, but Captain, who says that spirits move about at all? Our spirits are not in physical space. If you want to talk about where a spirit is, the best you can do is say that a spirit is where the spirit acts. In your case, Captain, that would be where your body is."
         "If I had a spirit," corrected the Captain.

 

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