Property · Chain Position 78 of 346

INFORMATION PRESERVED UNDER GRACE

"New creation" (2 Cor 5:17) yet same person

**G requires voluntary coupling ([[065_BC8_Voluntary-Coupling|BC8]]): Grace preserves information content of the soul while transforming its moral orientation.**

Scripture Bridge
"New creation" (2 Cor 5:17) yet same person: The theological grounding for this concept.

Connections

Assumes

Enables

Objections & Responses
Objection: "The 'old self' dies in salvation"
"Paul says we 'die with Christ' and become a 'new creation.' Doesn't that mean the old information is destroyed?"
Response

Paul's language is metaphorical for transformation of orientation, not destruction of identity. Evidence:

Continuity in Paul's own life:

  • He remembers being Saul (Acts 22:3-5)
  • He retains his education, personality, zeal (now redirected)
  • He says "I" persisted through conversion (Gal 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"—note the "I" who says this)

"New creation" means:

  • New orientation (sigma: -1 to +1)
  • New purpose (aligned with Logos)
  • New power (grace-enabled)
  • NOT new identity (still the same N_S)

Mathematical precision: The soul number N_S is a conserved quantum number. Grace changes sigma (orientation) without changing N_S (identity).

Objection: "Non-unitary operations destroy information"
"You admitted G^dagger G != I. Non-unitary processes increase entropy and lose information. How can information be preserved?"
Response

[[077_P9.2_Voluntary-Coupling-Preserved|P9.2]] addressed this: non-unitarity can involve information INJECTION, not just destruction. [[078_P9.3_Information-Preserved-Under-Grace|P9.3]] makes the conservation explicit:

What's preserved:

  • Trace of density matrix: Tr(G(rho)) = Tr(rho) = 1
  • Soul number: N_S (identity quantum number)
  • Integrated information: Phi (consciousness structure)
  • Memory correlations: Entanglement with past states

What's transformed:

  • Sign eigenvalue: sigma: -1 to +1
  • Orientation toward Logos
  • Moral alignment

The grace channel is CPTP (completely positive, trace-preserving). Information at the probability level is conserved. What changes is the BASIS in which that information is expressed.

Objection: "What about forgiveness of sins?"
"If sins are forgiven, isn't that information destroyed? The record is erased?"
Response

Forgiveness is relational, not informational. Consider:

Debt forgiveness analogy: When a debt is forgiven, the record of the debt may persist (you remember owing), but the relational consequence (obligation) is cancelled.

Sin forgiveness: The memory of sin persists (Paul remembered persecuting the church), but the moral-relational consequence (separation from God) is removed.

Mathematically: The information about past states is preserved in the soul's correlations. What changes is the WEIGHT those states carry in determining future trajectory.

\rho_{future} = f(\rho_{past}, \hat{G})

The past information enters the function but doesn't determine the outcome the same way post-grace.

Objection: "How can identity persist through fundamental change?"
"If sigma changes from -1 to +1, that's a fundamental change. How is it still the same person?"
Response

Identity is constituted by more than moral orientation. Consider human analogues:

Personality change: Someone's personality can change dramatically (shy to outgoing, cruel to kind) while remaining the same person.

Memory continuity: As long as biographical memory persists, identity persists (the psychological continuity criterion).

Physical continuity: Even radical physical change (aging, injury) doesn't destroy personal identity.

The soul's identity is N_S, not sigma. N_S is the "which soul" quantum number—invariant under all operations. Sigma is the "which way" quantum number—transformed by grace.

Analogy: An electron's identity (being electron #N) doesn't change when its spin flips from down to up. Similarly, a soul's identity doesn't change when its moral orientation flips.

Objection: "This sounds like information is more fundamental than persons"
"You're reducing persons to information patterns. That's depersonalizing."
Response

Information is not LESS than persons; persons ARE information patterns—self-aware, integrated, morally significant patterns.

The hierarchy:

1. Raw information (bits)

2. Structured information (patterns)

3. Integrated information (Phi > 0, consciousness)

4. Morally-oriented integrated information (Phi > 0, sigma defined, personhood)

Persons are the HIGHEST form of information, not reducible to mere data. [[078_P9.3_Information-Preserved-Under-Grace|P9.3]] protects personhood by ensuring that the informational pattern constituting the person is preserved through grace.

Depersonalization would mean: Treating persons as fungible, replaceable, lacking inherent worth. [[078_P9.3_Information-Preserved-Under-Grace|P9.3]] does the opposite—it insists that YOUR specific information pattern (YOU) is preserved and transformed, not discarded and replaced.

Physics Layer

Trace Preservation

The grace channel is trace-preserving:

\text{Tr}(\mathcal{G}(\rho)) = \text{Tr}(\rho)

Proof:

\text{Tr}(\mathcal{G}(\rho)) = \text{Tr}\left(\sum_k K_k \rho K_k^\dagger\right) = \sum_k \text{Tr}(K_k \rho K_k^\dagger) = \sum_k \text{Tr}(K_k^\dagger K_k \rho)

With Kraus operators K_1 = |+><+|, K_2 = |+><-|:

K_1^\dagger K_1 + K_2^\dagger K_2 = |+\rangle\langle+| + |-\rangle\langle-| = I

Therefore:

\text{Tr}(\mathcal{G}(\rho)) = \text{Tr}(I \cdot \rho) = \text{Tr}(\rho) = 1

Total probability is conserved. No information is lost to normalization.

Mathematical Layer

Formal Statement of Information Preservation

Property ([[078_P9.3_Information-Preserved-Under-Grace|P9.3]]): The grace operator preserves soul information while transforming moral orientation.

Formalization:

Let I(psi) be an information measure on soul states. [[078_P9.3_Information-Preserved-Under-Grace|P9.3]] asserts:

I(\hat{G}|\psi\rangle) = I(|\psi\rangle)

for appropriate information measures I (von Neumann entropy of reduced density matrices, integrated information Phi, etc.).

Defeat Conditions

To Falsify This

  1. **Demonstrate information destruction under grace** — Show that grace erases memory, personality, or identity. This would require:
  2. **Prove trace non-preservation** — Show that Tr(G(rho)) != Tr(rho) for the grace channel. This would mean probability is not conserved—souls could be annihilated by grace.
  3. **Find discontinuity of identity** — Demonstrate a metaphysical gap between pre-grace and post-grace selves such that personal identity fails to persist.
  4. **Show [[065_BC8_Voluntary-Coupling|BC8]] violation** — Demonstrate grace operating without voluntary coupling, thereby potentially overwriting the person's essential information structure.
Cross-Domain Mappings
Domain Mapping
Physics [[064_BC7_Information-Conservation|Information conservation]]
Theology Personal salvation (not replacement)
Consciousness Identity continuity
Quantum Trace preservation
Scripture "New creation" (2 Cor 5:17) yet same person
Evidence Conversion testimonies maintain history
Information Phi preserved under G

Bridge Count: 7