As mentioned in the first entry of this series [here], my goal with this series of entries is to present a theory of the soul that is consistent with both the Bible and current scientific understanding about the brain and how it functions. In this entry, I want to lay out the specific features related to the soul, consciousness, and free will that I intend to incorporate in my theory. As I present the theory in future entries, I hope to demonstrate how my proposed theory addresses each of the following features.
I've
listed below the key explanatory features of my theory of the soul. I divided them up into four categories: 1) Christian Doctrine/Teaching; 2)
Established Scientific Observations; 3) Explanatory Gaps in Scientific
Understanding; and 4) Explanatory Gaps in Dualism. I think the first two categories are pretty
self-explanatory, though I want to clarify that I am using the terms
"doctrine/teaching" and "established observation"
loosely. At this point, I'm not going to
spend much effort sorting through whether some issue is a true point of
Christian doctrine, and I'm not going to spend much effort arguing the validity
of certain scientific observations. In
these two categories, I'm just putting forward what I see as the key things
that both Christians and Scientists would want to see explained in a theory of
the soul.
The third
and fourth categories are the issues that I see as being unexplained by any group with respect to issues of
consciousness and free will. I feel that
for my theory to be useful, it needs to address these gaps and provide some explanatory
power. I think it will make sense when
you see the topics I've listed under those categories.
So, here
is my initial list of "Key Explanatory Features" of my theory of the
soul.
Christian
Doctrine/Teaching
1.
Moral responsibility of human beings and the
existence of sin.
2.
Continuity of the individual for eternity. Christian teaching is based on the idea of
"self-continuity" into the future.
You will remain you - a unique individual - forever.
3.
Death and bodily resurrection. The resurrected body is a "new
body", but it is still a body.
4.
Flesh/soul/spirit composition of human beings
[see previous discussion here].
5.
Uniqueness of humans in God's image [I relate
this to #8 below].
6.
Indwelling of human beings by the Holy Spirit.
7.
Possibility of evil spirits affecting an
individual's actions.
8.
Human beings have souls unique to any other
material (living or non-living) thing [see previous discussion here].
Established
Scientific Observations
1.
Brain anatomy and even physiology is pretty well
understood. The brain is composed of
neurons and glial cells (plus blood vessels, etc.). There is extensive interconnectivity of the
neurons in the brain, but the brain is also organized in different regions with
specialized functions. These anatomical
regions are fairly consistent from person to person though brains are not
carbon copies of each other. Neuronal
connections can be weakened or strengthened through a variety of internal and
external factors.
2.
No "soul" has been measured, detected,
or observed in the study of the brain.
3.
There is no "free will" center evident
in the anatomical exploration of the brain.
4.
The brain is composed of networks of neurons
with measurable input-output properties.
5.
Nerve conduction (signal transmission) is an
electrochemical process that is very well understood. Nerve signal transmission is clearly
observable as a traveling electrical wave.
6.
Signal transmission across synapses is well
understood although there is "noise" in the transmission signal. This transmission is primarily chemical in
nature.
7.
Actions can be learned. Repetition of actions/thoughts/etc. results
in a strengthening of neuronal connections - the Hebbian plasticity principle
that "neurons that fire together, wire together".
8.
There is no evidence that neurons make "decisions"
- they just respond to their inputs. The
transmission of signals seems fully explained by the concept of cause and
effect.
9.
Brain damage can have a huge effect on how
people function and can even change their personality and thinking processes.
10. Under
certain specific types of brain damage, such as cutting the corpus callosum
("split brain"), people seem to exhibit features of two
"persons" in one.
11.
People can be "locked-in", meaning
that they are unable to respond in any observable way except that their brain
is active and, in some cases, seems to still respond to outside inputs.
12.
In cases of brain damage, it is sometimes
possible to train other parts of the brain to take over the damaged function,
at least to some extent.
13.
Human beings can be placed in an unconscious
state via anesthesia or trauma. If they
recover from that state, they have no awareness of being unconscious.
14.
A lot of things that happen in the nervous
system happen unconsciously. The
autonomic nervous system, for example, generally operates completely
unconsciously.
15.
You are not conscious when you are sleeping;
except you dream, which seems different than consciousness when fully awake,
but also different than regular sleep.
16.
There are "neural correlates of
consciousness" - meaning that some parts of the brain seem necessary for certain
aspects of consciousness.
17.
"Libet-style" experiments seem to show
that our brain makes decisions before we are conscious of the decision, seemingly
indicating that we do not have free will like we think we do [see some previous
discussions here and here].
Explanatory "Gaps"
in Scientific Understanding (Note: I
don't think all of these are really "gaps" - I think they are fundamentally unsolvable from a
materialistic perspective.)
1.
Free will.
Humans seem to have free will - we all feel like we do - but there is no
plausible mechanism for free will found in the brain. [For a more general discussion of free will, start here.]
2.
Neural binding problem. Human consciousness seems to reflect a unity
(we see/hear/feel/etc. events as all happening together), but there is no
anatomical structure that has any of the features necessary to make this happen. [See an earlier discussion of this here.]
3.
Qualia.
The fact that there is a subjective component of our sense of things
around us, but brains are not made up of those subjective components (i.e.
there's nothing "blue" or "pointy" or "cold" in
the brain).
Explanatory Gaps in
Dualism (Note: these gaps are
introduced by dualism, and since I am clearly a dualist, I have to deal with
them.)
1.
How and where can a spiritual soul connect to a material
brain?
2.
If the spiritual soul induces action, it will
violate the laws of physics.
Conservation of energy will be lost.
There will be an effect without a cause.
3.
If the operation of the brain can be fully
explained from a materialistic point of view, then why is it necessary to
hypothesize the existence of a soul? (I
discussed this in the first entry [here], but I will probably need to deal with
this issue in more depth in the future.)
That's my
starting list. Now that I see the whole
list together, it seems rather daunting!
Also, I will probably have to update this list and add to it as time
goes on. Please send me comments if you
think there are additional points that any theory of the soul needs to address
or explain.
In the
upcoming entries, I want to establish some general concepts about the soul that
are think are frequently misunderstood.
It will take a while to lay the groundwork before we dive into the real
details!
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