Neville recalls a conversation from the previous summer with his friend Jim, who had objected that the transformations of the body -- and by extension the miracles of scripture -- were simply beyond belief. Neville answered by pointing to the ordinary miracle already happening in Jim's own body: a slice of bread eaten is converted into tissue, blood, and hair. He uses the exchange to argue that the fantastic changes reported after death are no more miraculous than digestion, only less familiar.