A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 6: Soul 101, Class #2

[See here for introductory comments.]

 

             I theorized that the soul is composed of at least three major components that I referred to generally as Afferent System, Efferent System, and Processing & Memory [see here].  This entry is about the Efferent System of the soul. 

 

The Efferent System of the Soul:  The Will

             The efferent, or "motor system", of the soul is basically what we might generally refer to as "the will".  This is where free will is generated and implemented.   The efferent system is where the interaction between the spiritual "soul-world" and the physical "flesh-world" happens.  The efferent system is, at least in my view, the most mysterious component of the soul and probably the most mysterious thing in the entire universe.  To me, the entire mystery of the soul really comes down to this component.  

             There are at least two major parts to the Efferent System of the soul.  One part is the aspect that performs the mechanics of the "spiritual-physical link."  Somehow the decisions made by the soul have to produce an influence on our physical actions.  How in the world is it possible that some non-physical entity could impact what we do?  In fact, as I've discussed elsewhere [here], we can narrow it down much further:  at some point, this action has to affect one or more neurons in the brain.  How?  There will be a lot more on that in future entries.  The other part is the actual decision-making component.  This component is the entity that generates an uncaused cause [see here].  This is the entity that generates a decision that is unpredictable, but not random.  And, just like the unity feature of consciousness [here], there is nothing else in the universe (that we know of) that is like this.  There is no other force or condition or outcome that is not either "caused" or "random".  As a result, it is impossible to come up with an analogy without introducing human will into the analogy, thus creating some circular logic.  Some would say that the uniqueness and downright craziness of thinking there could be something that appears random (i.e. unpredictable) and yet is not random, should drive me to doubt the idea of free will.  But, as I have discussed elsewhere, for me, free will is a given - it is the starting point - because I experience it moment by moment.  I do not throw it out just because it is conceptually difficult, if not impossible, to fully describe.  I can't explain why bumblebees fly either, but I see them flying so I don't entertain the possibility that "since I can't make sense of it, they must not be flying."

             I actually don't know if it is right to call the efferent component, "the will."  There are a lot of terms used for this concept, often poorly defined.  I think this component might also be analogous to what some refer to as human "agency".  Or, from a spiritual standpoint, it might be proper to call it the "spirit" of a person.  Or even "heart."  Whatever you call it, it is the seat of moral responsibility.  The existence of "the will" is why we can hold human beings responsible for their own actions in a manner different than a dog or a computer.  The general direction of our moral decision-making (what kind of a person we are), and the implementation of those moral decisions, is established in this component.    

             How is "the will" or "agency" established in each human?  Are we born with it?  Is it set by God or by random chance?  This line of thinking, which ends with the idea that you'd have to create your own self in order to have free will, is, in my opinion, a very tough argument for libertarians like me to counter.  It's a body blow that I have to absorb because I can't answer that question.  I take some solace in the fact that the concept of God has the same issue.  Did God create Himself?  If not, then how did He come into being and who decided what God's character was going to be like?  When it comes to God, of course, we simply say that God had no beginning - He always was.  There is no question that God has free will.  So did God freely choose His character?  There's no answer to that.  I have an idea about the infinitesimal "beginning" of our free will, but that will have to wait for some future entry.  But I don't reject the idea of God because of this argument because, in many ways, this whole mystery (how did God create Himself?)  is exactly what makes God, God.  In the same way, the conundrum of "creating yourself" is exactly what makes free will, free.  I like this mystery.  To me it is exciting.  More mysterious and exciting and even "spooky" than quantum entanglement!

             I will just say one thing with respect to the question "are we born with it?" in relation to our free will.  I think there are a lot of reasons to believe that this part of the soul grows and matures, roughly analogous to physical development.  I think that the maturing of the soul could provide an explanation for the "age of accountability" for humans.  This is a common difficulty in raising kids.  At what point are they responsible for their own actions and should be punished or praised accordingly?  There is certainly nothing that suddenly happens outwardly that indicates a sudden transition from "not accountable" to "fully accountable."  At some age, kids are "tried as adults."  We pick ages (5...12...18...etc.) for this "transition" because we have no other means of making a decision.  Some kids seem to mature quicker than others.  And what about kids with mental disabilities?  These are all good questions and a soul - specifically a "will" - that grows and matures over time provides a framework for understanding how to address these questions.

             Remember that in my theory of the soul, the efferent system is generally sparse, infrequent, and weak.  This is partly what I was trying to point out in "It's a Dog's Life."  The brain can run on its own without requiring input from the Efferent System of the Soul, and, I think most of our life operates "physically."  Thus, when we start digging into how the soul actually influences the brain, the mechanics of this influence have to take the "weak and infrequent" nature into account.  However, when we focus on character qualities that are uniquely human - say something like forgiveness or even altruism - we expect the soul is involved.  That's where we should expect to see the action of the soul on the brain.

             I'm going to stop here with this initial description because this takes me back to my purpose:  to present a theory of the soul that is consistent with neuroscience and scripture.  The key thing is that the Efferent System of the soul is the one concept where science could have real explanatory power.  Specifically, I claim the soul exists in each person and is influencing neurons (albeit infrequently).  That concept can theoretically be subjected to experiment.  It is a repeatable condition of every human being that is acting in the present day.  Neuroscience will have a lot to say about how and where this effect could or could not happen.  This is in contrast to many other aspects of Christian doctrine or even many other aspects of the soul.  Many of the other important Christian doctrines, such as miracles and/or history, are things that cannot be repeated and they happened in the past, which can't be "rerun."  I suppose the other Christian doctrine that relates to the present day (i.e. not history) is the ongoing existence of God, but that is very difficult to subject to experimentation!  (Though I have tried - see here!)

             And now on to the third major component of the soul:  processing and memory.

 

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 5: Soul 101, Class #1

[See here for introductory comments to this series.]

             In my earlier entries on the theory of the soul, I have put forward some foundational principles about the general concept.   Now it is time to actually start presenting my theory.  I'm going to start with some broad brush strokes to provide an overall view of the concept, but there will be much more digging into the details of this theory as we go forward.  Remember that the goal of this theory is to show that a Christian view can be reasonable in light of neuroscience and still consistent with scripture.  The concept of the soul comes from scripture, but the details of my theory generally do not.

             I theorize that the soul is composed of at least three major components.  These three components are very much analogous to three components you might ascribe to the human nervous system, or, for that matter, even to a computer.  Specifically, I am talking about how the nervous system has: 1) an "afferent" or sensory system, which is composed of all of the inputs going into the brain, 2) an "efferent" or motor system, which is composed of all of the outputs going out to the muscles and organs to cause action of some sort, and 3) processing and memory, where the sensory inputs are combined with internal inputs and memory to influence or produce the output.  I am not suggesting that the soul has "neurons" like our nervous system, nor am I suggesting that the soul can be mimicked by a computer in an artificial intelligence kind of way.  What I am suggesting is a point I made earlier:  the soul is complex, not homogenous.  All I am really doing is putting forward the general application of that concept.  Thus, I'm not claiming that the idea that the soul is composed of at least three components is particularly insightful, because any system, living or otherwise, that "does something" almost always has an "input", "output", and "some control system in the middle."  However, what I think might be more enlightening is to dig one level deeper and consider how each of these three components might be described when considered as part of the soul.  In this entry I'm going to introduce the "Afferent System of the Soul."

 

The Afferent System of the Soul:  Consciousness

             The first component of the soul is the afferent, or "sensory system", of the soul.  In my view, the sensory system of the soul is human consciousness.  When I use the term "human consciousness", I'm talking about the sense of being aware of what is around us and also being "aware of being aware."  I theorize that this awareness "resides" in the soul, not in the physical brain.  In my theory, consciousness is the combined summation of the soul's sensory information that it receives from the brain (and possibly other organs as well).  Thus, consciousness itself does not "do" anything - it is only the bringing together - unifying - of what it senses from the activity in the brain.

             All analogies become circular when it comes to the soul, but I will give an analogy nonetheless.  Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a means of imaging the brain that shows areas in the brain with high activity and areas with low activity, and so on.  The brain of someone can be imaged using fMRI while they are doing various tasks and the resulting fMRI image will show the areas of the brain that were more active during that task.  I'm guessing that experienced researchers who examine fMRI images of a lot of people's brains doing a lot of different tasks can make a pretty good guess about what a person is doing just by looking at the image.  For example, I'm pretty sure they could tell the difference between an fMRI image when someone is moving their hand vs. when they are watching a movie.  But the important thing for this analogy is that fMRI doesn't cause anything to happen in the brain.  fMRI just scans or "observes" the whole brain and, ultimately, produces a complete image or series of images that show us what is happening.  In the same way, consciousness senses what is going on in the brain in great detail, but it does not affect the brain in any way.  That is why there is no way to "observe" consciousness in the physical brain of an individual.  It is exactly like someone asking you to open up someone's brain and show them where the fMRI image is.  There is no image in the brain - it is created from the "sensing" of the MRI machine and is totally separate from the brain.  I say that consciousness is like that.  There is more detail, of course, but, for starters, let's just say that consciousness has the capacity to sense the status of every synapse in the entire nervous system and combine that information into a single image, presented continuously as long as you are awake and aware.  That is consciousness.  More to come on that.

             As a brief aside, I call these analogies circular because, ultimately, it is not the fMRI machine that combines the sensed brain activity into a single image.  All it does is produce an image that is composed of many many pixels of colored spots.  The combining of the image comes together into a unified picture only when we look at the organized collection of pixels.  The picture is not a unified thing - it is just a bunch of pixels - it is only our visual perception of the picture that is unified.  And, actually, our visual perception is just a large parallel set of impulses from the retina that are sent to our visual cortex.  And, further, in the visual cortex they don't get combined into a single image.  They get processed and combined into more parallel signals in complex neural networks, but there is never a place in the brain where one neuron sees the whole picture.  So how do we see the fMRI image as a whole?  That's our consciousness!  ...and that's why I call the analogy circular.  We're trying to describe consciousness, but we end up forcing consciousness into our description.  I challenge you to come up with an analogy of consciousness that does not, at its very core, include consciousness within the analogy.

             So, back to my original purpose:  is the concept of consciousness as an afferent system of the soul consistent with neuroscience?  I will use the analogy of a radio receiver.  The receiver senses the radio waves and produces an output, and therefore is analogous to consciousness.  But, as far as the radio station that generates the original signal, it has no way of detecting whether there is a receiver out there listening to it.  So, in the same way, if you assume that consciousness, in the act of sensing the status of the brain, doesn't leave any physical trace behind, then I think it is consistent with neuroscience.  If these conditions are an appropriate description, then there is nothing physical to measure with respect to consciousness.  Of course, those who reject the existence of the soul will say that this concept is unnecessary and conveniently "creates" a soul out of nothing that leaves no trace behind, and therefore is not scientific.  I would agree with that statement:  the soul is not scientific (although wait until we get to the efferent system!).  As I have stated before, the theory is not developed with the goal of creating a scientific proof.  The soul is a given from Christian belief and the question is, can a theory of soul be developed that is consistent with neuroscience findings.  As far as an efferent consciousness, I suggest this part of my theory does not violate any principles of neuroscience, and therefore meets the criteria.  I think it can go deeper than that when we consider the concept of unity of perception (i.e. the binding problem), but that is for a future discussion.

             Does this theory of consciousness as the afferent system of the soul violate Scripture?  In my reading of Scripture, it is pretty vague about the composition of the soul and, as far as I can tell, consciousness is assumed but never described in Scripture.  So, when it comes to these kinds of underlying details, I think there is a lot of room for "creative" thinking.  As far as I can ascertain, this concept is consistent with Scripture.

             Well, on to the "efferent" system of the soul, which is going to be much more difficult to explain.  As I have mentioned before, neuroscience refers to the "hard problem of consciousness", but I consider the efferent system of the soul to be diamond compared to the afferent system's talc.  That's next.

 

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 4: A Dog's Life

[See here for introductory comments.]

 

             In this entry, I want to discuss another key assumption that underlies my thinking about the soul in a manner similar to the idea that the soul is a complex organism.  This key assumption is that humans are the only creatures in the universe that have souls.  I discussed this issue from a scriptural standpoint previously [here].  I acknowledge that there is probably considerable disagreement about this assumption.  For me, the concept of the soul is strongly tied to the concept of "responsibility for one's own actions."  I actually haven't met anyone who believes that any non-human animals are responsible for their actions in the sense that they should be praised and punished for their actions even if there is no useful outcome of the praise or punishment (i.e. no training effect, protective effect, etc.).  Instead, I think those who would put humans and at least some other animals (non-human primates for starters) on the same level, do so by reducing the responsibility of humans.  That's a wrong approach, in my opinion, but I'm not arguing the point here.  For the purposes of this entry, the uniqueness of the human soul will be considered a given.

 

             I think that if past thinkers had started with the principle that dogs and monkeys do not have souls, but humans do, they would have come to some different conclusions about the soul.  In my view, past theories of the soul should have anticipated some of the significant arguments that have been levied against the existence of the soul that have arisen from the study of the brain, neuroscience, and medicine in the past century or so.  For example, a major reason people give for rejecting the concept of the soul is the observed change in behavior of humans who have some kind of brain damage.  "If the soul is responsible for our behavior, then why would damaging the brain cause any change?" they ask.  If the earliest theories of the soul had taken into account that "dogs don't have souls", the whole issue of brain damage would have been addressed from the beginning.  I hope you can start to see why I say this by the end of this entry.

 

             Here's the biggest point I want to make:  if dogs don't have souls, then everything that dogs do is a result of material, natural forces.  By implication, human activity that follows the pattern of "dog activity" should not be attributed or allocated to the soul.  It does not make sense to me that every non-human animal does an action through natural ("non-soul") means, like seeking food for example, but humans would do these same actions through a different means.  I suppose there could be exceptions with respect to certain actions, but as a fundamental principle, I don't think it makes sense to attribute anything to the human soul that is clearly observable in a dog (or any other non-human animal[1]).

 

             This is a very important principle.  Dogs can be trained to respond to commands.  Dogs learn to avoid certain activities.  The actions that dogs take can be very complicated.  Humans also have these characteristics.  Humans respond to training.  Humans remember things and avoid activities that caused pain in the past and seek activities that caused pleasure in the past.  Thus, as a simple first pass, it should be clear to even the most staunch dualist (I count myself in that group) that the soul is not necessary for activities as advanced as memory and learning.  Even emotions like anger and fear, which dogs clearly exhibit, must not require the soul (although it will be necessary to dive deeper into an emotion like anger in a future entry).

 

             If you start to think this through and compare your own daily activities to a dog's daily activities, you'll realize that your "uniquely human" activity shrinks down to very few things.  In fact, I believe we have phrases for those cases where we are simply acting as a complex living organism without the need for the involvement of our soul.  When we say things like "I was just going through the motions" or "I've just been on autopilot" or "I know I drove in to work this morning but I really don't remember anything about the trip," I think that indicates a whole series of actions that were "dog-like" and lived purely through natural, material, brain-driven means.  We don't need a soul for those actions.  I think we could go a whole day and only do and respond in a manner identical to a dog.  For such days, I suggest that our soul was never engaged.  In fact, I expect there are times in our lives where we go for long periods of time essentially going through the motions and, for all intents and purposes, we are soul-less humans.  Maybe another way to think of it is that if dogs looked like humans and could learn to speak a few phrases like "How's your day?" and "I'm fine", I'll bet you could work next to a dog and not know they weren't human.  Could a dog pass the Turing Test if there was a bark-to-English translator?

 

             OK.  By now many of you are saying "then what in the world does the soul do?"  In my theory of the soul, the soul is responsible for everything that makes humans unique from all other animals, but probably nothing more than that.  What are those things?  There are at least two things that I identify as unique to humans:  1) moral decision-making influencing the actions of the will, and 2) creativity when it can be classified as a true creative action [an introduction to this concept is described here].  In short, humans are responsible for their own actions and they are capable of true creation.  Dogs are not.  Therefore, it is the human soul that is responsible for those two activities.  We obviously will have to delve into this idea much more deeply as we go forward, but I wanted to get this idea out there now because it is so fundamental.

 

             Here's an interesting implication of this fundamental principle:  consciousness could be an epiphenomenon in the material realm.  I'm talking about real consciousness - the awareness of being aware and the unified stream of consciousness that is so difficult for science and philosophers to grapple with.  I don't think dogs are conscious in this way and therefore, by further implication, consciousness is not necessary for all of the kinds of actions that dogs and humans have in common.  Again, I go back to the common phrases we use.  When we say we acted "on autopilot", I think we are implying that we did the action unconsciously or, at the very least, we didn't engage our consciousness in that activity.  Thus, I say that consciousness could be an epiphenomenon because it is not necessary for us in order to live the "dog's life."

 

             What is the point of consciousness then?  In my theory of the soul, the purpose of consciousness is to inform our moral decision-making process.  I will come back to this point again and again, but for now I will say that most of our actions could be rightly classified as "reactions."  We respond to inputs and act according to our learned patterns in the brain.  These don't require consciousness.  Thus, even though I think that the "Libet-style" experiments don't show what they are often claimed to show, it doesn't matter to my theory of the soul if our conscious perception actually occurs after our decision-making.  I would say "dogs make decisions all the time without consciousness at all, so why would it be necessary for similar decisions when made by humans?"  But dogs don't make moral decisions.  And, frankly, I don't think humans make many moral decisions either.  But the key thing is that humans make at least some moral decisions, and that makes all the difference in the world.  In fact, if you only make one moral decision over your entire life, that separates you from every other being or object or thing or stuff in the entire physical universe.

 

             Don't think that just because we only make a few moral decisions that therefore these decisions are not that important.  Importance is not measured by number or volume in this case.  A single moral decision made by a single human is of more value than all the decisions made by all the dogs, monkeys, cats, pigs, cows, etc. that ever lived or ever will live. 

 

             The last point I will introduce is the idea that proper moral decision-making and free-will decision making is the one human quality that requires the awareness of the global context that our consciousness provides to us.  Neural networks don't need an awareness of the global context.  Each neuron only knows what its own inputs are and knows what to output.  No neuron in the brain ever sees the broad picture. Every neuron sees a very, very narrow picture of what is happening and can only respond in a very constrained manner.  Complex behavioral responses are accomplished because there is a huge network of individual neurons each taking care of their own little part of the overall response.  That's how a dog's brain works and that's how a human brain works.  My contention is that the reason consciousness is necessary is because of our need to make moral decisions and decisions of the will.  These kind of decisions uniquely require the global, unified awareness of our current situation in the context of our knowledge of the past.  In short, they require consciousness.

 

             I think I've given enough food for thought in this entry, so I'm going to stop here.  I've introduced many concepts that are going to require a deeper dive in the future.   Hopefully I've piqued your interest in this topic.  

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[1] I'm using dogs just as an example.  Dogs seem to the be most human-like of all of the animals that humans have regular interaction with.  Non-human primates are probably even more human-like, but most people don't have personal experience with them on a daily basis.  A lot of people treat dogs as if they were humans, but that really is a topic for another day!  And sorry cat-lovers, cats aren't human either.

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 3: No Ghost in the Machine

             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 of the brain and how it functions.  In this entry, I want to put forward one of the important principles that underlies my theory of the soul:  the soul should be conceptualized as a living organism.

             I titled this entry "No Ghost in the Machine."  That's a favorite phrase of detractors of dualism.  Neuroscience has looked into the brain and found no "soul" living inside.  Thus they love to say there is no magical, mystical, mythical, and childish spiritual component of human beings.  This is then simplified into the derision equating the soul with a ghost.  I take offense at this statement for two reasons, which I will address in the subsequent paragraphs.

             First, the idea that you could crack open the skull and find a little soul running around inside the brain is pretty ridiculous when you think about it.  There are a couple of really fundamental problems with that concept and I really don't think scientists make their derisive comment seriously anyway.  If we're talking about anatomical exploration in a cadaver, of course the soul isn't found - it left the body long before the dissection began.  If we're talking about exploration of the brain during surgery (i.e. when the person is alive), then there are even more obvious problems.  You can't do a complete exploration of the brain in surgery, so it's pretty hard to rule anything out.  But really now, what instrument do you use to observe the presence of a soul that is spiritual?  Visual observation?  X-ray?  MRI?  PET scan?  Electrical stimulation?  An electromagnetic field meter?  Listen for the soul to yelp when you poke it?  There is no tool you can use to directly measure the existence of a spiritual soul.  I'll talk about this more in a future entry, but I'm pretty sure every scientist who expresses the "no ghost" derision knows that they don't have the tools to measure the presence of a soul.  But it makes such a fun soundbite that it is hard to resist saying it.

             However, the more important reason I take offense to this statement is the impression it leaves regarding the "composition" of the soul.  The soul is equated to a ghost.  I suppose there's something to that connection, as I guess ghosts are generally considered to be the disembodied souls of those long dead.  I have no idea if disembodied souls hang around and cause havoc or try to communicate with the living.  My problem is the way ghosts are portrayed does a great disservice to the concept of the soul.  I guess there are all kinds of styles of ghosts in the media and in reports.  But a common portrayal of a ghost is as a semi-transparent somewhat human-shaped blob.  For my purposes, the important thing is the semi-transparent aspect.  Specifically, ghosts apparently don't have...brains, muscles, bones...guts.  The point is, it makes you imagine that a ghost is kind of all one substance - like smoke or jello.  And then, by implication, we imagine that the soul - if the soul and ghost are the same - is also "one substance."  This is a major problem to me and, in my opinion, leads down a long pathway of wrong-headed thinking about the soul from the very start.

             One key aspect of my theory of the soul is that the soul is complex.  By complex, I mean that the soul has many parts.  I consider the spiritual realm to be more advanced than the physical realm.  If so, it makes sense to consider that the soul could be at least as complex as the physical body.  The soul could have organs.  It could have systems, like a nervous system.  I don't mean to suggest that the soul has an actual brain or heart.  I just mean that the soul ought to be considered in a very complex way, not as some homogeneous substance.  For example, the body has a brain with complex interconnecting neurons in it.  The soul could also have complex interconnecting "circuitry" in it and thus could  interact with the body in very complex ways.

             I can understand why this concept might be uncomfortable to some.  Of course, for those who don't think a soul exists to begin with, to hypothesize a complex soul seems further off course.  I can't argue that point, although I would just say that some of the reasons that people reject the idea of the soul is because of claims made about the soul that arise from the mistaken (in my opinion) view that the soul is homogenous.  I'll bring up one of those issues at the end of this entry.  But for those who are staunch dualists, the idea that the soul is complex may seem disconcerting.  This is partly, I think, based on the fact that the Bible doesn't provide any details about "parts" of the soul.  That is definitely true, although terms like "mind", "heart", and sometimes even "mouth" or "feet" seem to have some reference to the soul or functions of the soul.  But to those who come at dualism through their belief in the Bible, I will just offer that my theory of the soul, while it must be consistent with what the Bible teaches, is, by necessity, going to include a lot of details that are not described in the Bible.  This is analogous to the anatomy of the physical body.  There are many principles of physiology, such as the oxygen exchange in hemoglobin or the filtering characteristics of the kidneys, that have no link to the Bible.  The same is going to be true for my theory of the soul.

             I want to give a quick example of the implication of the "soul as organism" idea.  This idea will need to be fleshed out in future entries.  As part of my theory of the soul, I propose that the connection between the soul and the brain (and/or whole body) is complex and can include principles like the lateral inhibition we observe in neuronal circuits.  Lateral inhibition describes a neural circuit where the inputs to one or more neurons cause neighboring neurons to be inhibited or less excitable.  This is kind of like the "high contrast" function in a drawing program.  It has the effect of emphasizing edges and points.  If the soul has something like lateral inhibition in its connection with the brain, it means that even if the soul connects to multiple points in the brain (for example), it might emphasize - or attend to - only certain aspects of the brain and down-regulate attention to other aspects.  I propose that this is part of the reason why your conscious attention has a focus to it and also why and how you can switch the focus of your conscious attention so quickly.  We'll obviously have to come back to that concept and dig much deeper into it, but I just put it forward as an example where the idea of a homogenous soul does a great injustice to any reasonable theory of the soul.  If consciousness resides in a homogeneous soul, how could our conscious awareness have a specific focus to it?  And how could that shift to something else?  In my theory of the soul, a fundamental aspect is that the soul can be, and likely is, at least as complex as the physical body.

             By the way, I believe this should also have an implication about what we think about God.  Since most people's conception of God is that God is spiritual and, even, "spirit", I think the "transparent ghost" thinking sometimes gets applied to God.  God is surely not a homogeneous ethereal thing.  God is not a lump of lead or even a beautiful diamond.  God is surely at least as complex as the creatures and universe He created.  There must be "parts" to God.  After all, God is living.  Does God have organs?  Who knows.  But surely God is the ultimate example of a complex organism, not a homogeneous substance.  This has implications, among other things, to how we think about the idea that "God is changeless."  That's an important Biblical concept.  But we think of a changeless living organism very differently than we think about a changeless lump of lead.  Anyway, food for future thought.

             I mentioned earlier that the idea of a homogeneous soul has led to some concepts that ultimately resulted in many to reject dualism.  Here is one of those key concepts:  the indivisibility of the soul.  I don't know if Descartes started this idea or if he borrowed if from others, but he said, for example "we cannot conceive of half a soul, as we can in the case of any body."  This was a big mistake, in my opinion.  In my theory of the soul, it is absolutely possible to imagine a "damaged soul" or a soul with a "lost or damaged part."  A "soul amputee" if you will.  Can you cut the soul in half and create two souls?  Haha - it will take us a long while to get to that issue.  But in my opinion, any theory of the soul must allow for the soul to grow and change and be damaged, yet survive.  I don't really know if the word "organism" can rightly be applied to the soul (or if we need a new word for it), but, at least for starters, it is a useful concept.  In the same way that the body has parts, and can exist without some parts but not others, I propose that the soul is the same way.  Of course the soul is not damaged by a bullet or a baseball bat like the physical body would be.  But it can be altered, even damaged, by activity in the spiritual world. 

             The complex "soul as organism" can develop habits.  The soul can learn.  The soul can grow.  All of these concepts are important.  A homogeneous soul is difficult to fit into any of these concepts, yet it is clear from the observation of human behavior, and the growing understanding of the neuroscience of the brain, that if there is a soul, it must have some or all of these features.  Those who have rejected dualism because they were forced to consider the soul as homogeneous and indivisible were right to reject that kind of dualism, in my opinion.  But if that is the only reason you rejected dualism, then I ask you to reconsider.  Consider a dualistic view of the human being where the soul is just as complex as the body.  I think you will find that it is much more difficult to dismiss such a concept out of hand.  At the very least, maybe I will intrigue you enough that your curiosity will force you to keep reading!

 

<Next entry on the Theory of the Soul>

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part 2: Initial Explanatory Features

             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!

 

A Theory of Soul Consistent with Scripture and Neuroscience - Part I: The Caveat

             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 of the brain and how it functions.  This theory will, of course, be limited to my own understanding and interpretation of the Bible on this topic, much of which I have discussed in an earlier series of entries on the use of the terms for body, soul, and spirit in the Bible [see here].  Also, the theory will be limited to my own understanding of the current state of brain science and is likely to need modification as I understand more of the science and as more discoveries are made. 

             In this first entry, I'm going to start with a major point of clarification:  what I hope to explore and describe in the entries that follow is a theory of the soul that is useful for Christian thought and maybe even "Christian experimentation".  The theory I describe is not intended to be put forth as a "better explanation" of neuroscientific findings about the brain and mind, but it is expected to be consistent with neuroscientific findings.  As I see it, neuroscience lives in the material realm and therefore is going to pursue theories that arise from within the material realm.  In Christian teaching, the soul is fundamentally non-material, and thus is generally outside of the materially-based scientific exploration.   Given this, I really don't expect non-Christian neuroscientists (or anyone else who is not a Christian) to find my theories that compelling except for one key point:  I hope that everyone can see that there is a rational argument for how the soul might work as it straddles the material and spiritual worlds.  I don't expect non-Christians to adopt my theory and bring the idea of a non-material soul back into their thinking about the mind.  No, I fully expect neuroscience to continue to reject the idea of a soul and keep seeking for material explanations.  Of course, if you've read many of my entries, you would not be surprised to know that I think that philosophical materialism is a completely misguided concept, but that is a totally different topic for discussion [for example, join Lucas for lunch]!

             So why even hypothesize the existence of the soul if there is (or is anticipated to be) a completely materialistic explanation for the mind-brain-soul problem that does not refer to anything that could typically be called the "soul"?  My reason for creating the entries that follow is this:  for Christians, the existence of the soul is revealed[1], not discovered.  As I have discussed elsewhere [here], the existence of the soul is clearly presented in scripture and is a fundamental part of Christian beliefs.  It is a "given" as far as Christian belief goes.  This situation could be a major problem for Christianity because if neuroscience could prove that the soul definitely does not exist, that would negate a basic Christian belief.  Thus, my goal in these entries is to show that, given an appropriate theory of the soul and its features, the belief in the soul is rational and reasonable.  The Christian faith needs to be rational, in my opinion, and so this is an important issue to consider [see here for a further discussion of that point].

             Full-blooded materialists in neuroscience may exclaim:  "the soul is superfluous - we can explain everything through the material properties of the brain."  Therefore, the neuroscience materialist has rejected the idea of a non-material soul because it is an unnecessary extra invention that they are convinced they don't need.  That is fine for those who live in the drab, purposeless materialistic world.  I am not arguing against that line of thinking here, although I will point out that present neuroscience does not explain everything, so there are still gaps (no, not just gaps: huge canyons!) in the materialistic explanation.  But my point is that even if all of those gaps could be closed and neuroscience really can explain every observation of the mind/consciousness/free will/etc. through purely materialistic means, that will not prove there is no soul and will not negate the need for Christians to have a rational theory of the soul and to persist in believing that there is a soul.  For Christians who believe that the Bible is the Word of God and reveals things that could not otherwise be known, the question is not "is the existence of a soul necessary?" but "can the Bible be trusted?" 

             For Christians, the idea of a human soul will never be superfluous.  The need for the soul is bound up in issues of human sin and future judgement.  The need for the soul is bound up in the idea of eternal life.  The need for the soul is bound up in the idea of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  These are not points of consideration for neuroscience, and thus to neuroscience the soul seems superfluous.  It is not.

             [On toPart 2...]

 

 

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[1] By "revealed" I mean that Christians are told about the concept (in this case the "soul") in the Bible.

Christian Apologetics and Its Goals

             [Note:  This entry is written for Christians.  Not that anyone else can't read it, but I'm not sure it will mean a whole lot outside of the Christian faith.]

 

             In my opinion, trying to "prove" Christianity through science is a challenging endeavor that is not worth the effort.  It's like visiting your neighbors to the east of you by travelling west.  Yes, you might eventually get to your next door neighbor's house that way, but why?

 

             Christian apologetics, in my mind, should have the goal of showing that Christian beliefs are reasonable and logical within the new scientific findings of the day.  This is extremely helpful and important for Christians, because they need to know and be assured that their faith is on solid ground.  It can be useful in talking with those who do not believe, because a major roadblock to belief can be the sense that Christianity is illogical and primitive.  But, in general, I just don't see it being a great pathway to belief these days.  There are shorter paths.

 

             Let me illustrate what I mean with an example.  Specifically, the effort to prove that God is the creator of the universe.  There is a lot of apologetic work towards fitting Christian belief into what science has discovered, or at least theorizes, about the origin of the universe and the origin of life on this planet.  Or, alternatively, a lot of apologetic work trying to expose the weaknesses of some of the scientific theories.  This is, in general, good and valuable work, and worthwhile for Christians to engage in.  But what is the goal?  I feel like the (often unstated) goal is this:  to prove that science is wrong.  In fact, it seems that the goal is to prove science wrong to such a compelling extent that scientists will be drawn to abandon their scientific beliefs and turn to Christianity.  I believe that many Christians expect that the arguments being mounted by Christian apologists are so air-tight that everyone should become Christians based on the sheer force of these arguments alone.  In my opinion, this is a misguided view because:  1) the arguments aren't that convincing (i.e. there are always counter-arguments to the counter-arguments), and 2) the arguments don't achieve what we hope to achieve (e.g. convincing someone that the eye is too complex to have evolved randomly is a long way from solus Christus).

 

             This does not mean that such apologetic work is a waste of time.  Far from it.  But the focus should be on helping Christians to see that their faith is reasonable and that they don't need to worry about whether science has discovered some new thing that voids basic Christian beliefs.  It is important to show that Christian faith is reasonable, as I have discussed elsewhere [here].

 

             However, when it comes to trying to help people who do not believe, I think Christians should be more direct.  To be a Christian means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  It means to believe that Jesus Christ existed and still exists today.  It means to believe that Jesus Christ was God and is still God today.  It means to believe that His death paid the penalty that was due from each one of us personally.  It means that we believe in Jesus Christ so strongly that we commit to doing whatever He commands us to do.  It's all about Jesus.

 

             So, what's the most direct way to Christian belief?  To meet Jesus in a personal and convincing way.  That's as direct as it gets.  How does that happen?  Well, if you believe as I do, that Jesus is constantly seeking every person and trying to draw that person towards belief, then the direct route is to try to remove whatever blinders there may be that prevents[1] Jesus from getting through to them.  What are the blinders that people have?  When it comes to the academic world, the biggest blinder, by far, is the complete rejection of the miraculous.  This is the means by which God can communicate with the unbeliever (and believer too, for that matter).  Christian belief has, at its very core, the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Without the miraculous, there is no Christianity.  Thus, when a person rejects any possibility of the miraculous, there are no remaining options by which Jesus can get their attention.  Each individual needs to experience Jesus in some personal way.  If their eyes are shut to His work and their ears are closed to His voice, then our only avenue to help them believe is this:  try to get them to open their eyes and ears!  Everything else is just wasted effort.

 

             It is true that sometimes a big roadblock for belief in Christianity is the general idea that Christian belief is illogical and/or primitive and that science has shown that Christianity is demonstrably false.  This roadblock should be addressed, but only addressed with the following goal:  to show that Christian beliefs are rational and could be true.  We don't need to show that they are, in fact, true.  Once you personally encounter Jesus and realize that He really is alive and really is God, everything else will come into focus and become clear. 

 

             Why not take the direct route?  See Jesus at work.  Hear Jesus.  To try to take the route that passes through the path of:  "you can't rule out a God" to "there must be a God" to "God is the creator" to "the Bible is true" to "Jesus was a real person" to....it just seems to me to be a really really long road to take when Jesus is already standing right next to the person and trying to get his or her attention! 

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[1] I know it seems weird to suggest that human beings can prevent God from interacting with them (isn't God all-powerful?), but God chooses to allow people to persist in their unbelief if that is what they choose.  He doesn't force belief.