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Wednesday, November 23, 2022

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 12: Addressing Sloppy Christian "Beliefs" about the Soul

[Note:  This entry is written specifically for Christians.]

 

I found the following paragraph on the site "Bibles for America":

 

"Our soul is our personality, who we are. With our soul we think, reason, consider, remember, and wonder. We experience emotions like happiness, love, sorrow, anger, relief, and compassion. And we’re able to resolve, choose, and make decisions."

 

             I think this paragraph would describe a pretty typical evangelical Christian view of the body, soul, and spirit.  Although the context from which the paragraph above is taken is based on a Biblical perspective, this paragraph on the soul is not tied to any Biblical references.  But...it seems pretty Biblical on first pass.  It seems logical.  It would sound good to most Christians.  They would agree with it, I bet.

 

             And that's the problem.

 

             Neuroscience has proven this opening paragraph on the soul to be wrong.  The paragraph does not describe how things really are.  Even though I'm not a neuroscientist, I know enough to know that this paragraph has key fallacies.  I would say almost all scientists would know this paragraph is just plain false.  In fact, most people in the academic world would have enough knowledge of the workings of the brain to know that the assertions in this paragraph are wrong.

 

             If I was not a believer in God - specifically, not a Christian - I would just laugh at this paragraph and once again conclude that Christian believe in fairy tales.  This is clearly a statement of falsehood.  And it seems to present the Christian view.  Therefore:  Christians believe in falsehood.  But...I am a Christian and so paragraphs such as these are embarrassing.  They misrepresent Christian beliefs.

 

             This is the problem I am trying to address in these entries on the soul.  My contention is this:  first, the paragraph I've quoted above does not express Biblical teaching; second, what Christians should believe about the soul does not violate any known discoveries of neuroscience.  You can believe what the Bible teaches about the soul, and you can accept all of the discoveries of neuroscience, and you don't have to throw logic out the window to do so. 

 

             Unfortunately, the apparent impasse mostly lies with the Christian view as commonly presented in the opening paragraph.  Yes, it is certainly true that neuroscience oversteps its bounds with statements denying the existence of the soul, denying free will, sometimes even denying consciousness.  In fact, I would say that neuroscience doesn't just overstep its bounds with respect to religious belief - it oversteps its bounds into philosophy and ethics and even the social sciences and even art.  I've discussed this elsewhere.  But what I'm really concerned about is an incorrect view of the soul being presented as if it is a foundational Christian view.

 

             Now, I must stress that I don't think every word in that opening paragraph is wrong.  In fact, there are plenty of aspects that are, at the very least, partially true.  The problem is that mixed in with truth is significant error and thus you have to conclude that the whole paragraph is wrong.  Let me give quick example.  The statement that with our soul we "...experience...love...anger..." presents many problems and is too simplified.  If the statement was changed to "our soul is involved in our moral expressions of love and anger", then that would be acceptable.  I hope to show, in this series of blog entries, how to specifically think about the soul's involvement in expressions of love and anger, but, for now, the phrase "is involved in" is vague enough to cover the concept.

 

             It's important for Christians to recognize that there is no Biblical support for the statement that our soul is the seat of emotion, or that it is where we experience love or anger or other characteristics of our personality.  Frankly, the Bible is pretty vague on those details.  It is not vague about the existence of the soul, but it is vague about where the soul ends and the physical body begins, and vice versa.  In my theory of the soul, I draw sharper lines between the soul and body - not to claim any new insight from scripture - but only to show that a reasonable description of the soul and body can be made and still be consistent with the findings of neuroscience.  I think it is helpful for Christians to know that there is a logical description of the soul that can fit with neuroscience.  I also think that a clearer understanding of the soul can sometimes help Christians to live the Christian life.  But I wouldn't go so far as to say that all Christians need to understand and accept my (or anyone else's) theory of the soul.  What I would say, though, is that Christians need to think clearly about what is Biblical and what is not, in relation to the soul, and I think they need to stop assenting to paragraphs like the one above.  Why?  Because it makes us all look irrational and illogical and even foolish.  Certainly some Christian beliefs are "crazy" in the sense that they involve belief in miracles.  I've talked about this elsewhere [here].  But belief in miracles, though it may be crazy, is not irrational.  Rejecting the plain discoveries of neuroscience is irrational.

 

             Here's where I think the dog comparison helps [see here].  Christians should be clear on this.  Dogs don't have souls but, for example, dogs get angry.  Dogs remember things.  So to say that the soul is the seat of anger or "With our soul we...remember" is almost certainly false just by observing dogs.  Everyone should be able to come to that conclusion.  You don't need to know the latest neuroscientific discoveries to come to that conclusion.  But this knowledge is taken a lot further in neuroscience.  We know that damage to certain areas of the brain can wipe out memories.  We know that damage to certain areas of the brain can change the frequency and character of an individual's anger.  So...if our memories were all located in the soul, then why would brain damage affect our memories?  It's not just that we can't express our memories after brain damage - it is possible to damage very specific areas of the brain where essentially the only obvious deficit is a loss of memory (or sometimes just some memories).  To me, and to most people in the neuroscience world, this is unassailable proof that the statement "with our soul we remember" is false.  Our brain - our physical brain - is clearly involved in memories to a great extent. 

 

             You could say, as some do, that the soul is essentially physical and almost synonymous with the brain.  I don't agree with that, but it's a valid consideration given the evidence.  My point is that when most Christians agree with the opening paragraph, they do so with the idea that the soul is a non-physical substance.  They would not expect that the soul would be damaged by a blow to the head or affected by a stroke.

 

             If you've read any of my other entries, you know that I believe humans have a soul and that our soul is not physical.  In fact, I think the concept of a non-physical soul is a very fundamental belief of Christianity.  I even think that the soul does possess a memory of some description.  But a correct description of the soul does not ascribe all of our memories to it.  A correct description of the soul would not ascribe all of our emotions to it.  There is clearly decision-making in the brain that does not require the soul.  Even concepts such as thinking and reasoning are difficult to place fully in the soul.  Our personalities, as expressed to the outside world, are clearly strongly influenced by our physical brain.  So we have to conclude that the opening paragraph is wrong.

 

             In summary, I say this to Christians:  it is important to think clearly on this issue.  When it comes to detailed descriptions of the soul presented as Christian teaching, it is important to only go as far as scripture does.  In general, about all you can say is that human beings are unique in having a soul and our soul is involved in our moral decision-making.  To make confident statements about the soul that go beyond scripture and clearly violate known scientific discoveries is to present Christian beliefs as irrational.  That is bad.  We are crazy.  But we are not irrational.

 

 

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