Tentatively Christian; looking for a reasonable discussion

[Esquilax]

So you believe it mere assertion when someone says that the acorn and the resulting full grown oak are the same tree?

In some senses it isn't, given that the material making up the tree is, by and large, not the material of the acorn. When we say that the tree is the same as the acorn we aren't referring to it in any concrete sense, we're referring to the fact that the tree is a result of physical process begun by the acorn that ends in a tree. They are not the same thing, one resulted in the other.

Of course a thing can stop being one thing when a new thing is created. In the meantime they persist as whatever it is that they are. When a child blows a soap bubble out of soapy water something new with a distinct nature is created.

But the bubble is just the composition of the soap and water, spread over a different sort of area. Nothing has actually changed but the physical form, and that's largely a matter of space. What is it that you mean when you say the bubble has a distinct nature apart from the water, and how do you intend to demonstrate the existence of that?

Even though it can change size, direction, and temperature, it nevertheless preserves its existence as a soap bubble despite such changes. But when it pops, the soap bubble ceases to exist. Physical things, to which I refer as sensible bodies, have substance, form, origin, and disposition. By making note of these features anyone can distinguish between a soap bubble and a drop of soapy water…except you, apparently.

So essentially you're taking a collection of physical things and adding all this additional pseudo-mystical weight to it. Why would you do that?