I know what Ben is getting at and it is something that I have asked a couple of times and would also like an answer. The idea that all of our emotions can be physically described or related to the brain is disturbing to me. Where is there room for the the soul and what possible affect does it have on the body? I get what he is saying because I have encountered it. This is what I know and I’m not sure this will help.
The powers of the soul involve intentionally (experience, unity over time, and subjectivity), will, and the ability to exsist after death. The physical changes on ones body would have no impact on the permanency of the soul. Also if the soul is truly immaterial, than neuroscience will never find the soul and it will certainly look like we would be spongy robots from their stand point. However, logically I can’t see why God would ever allow us access to the soul through any physical means. The idea of us being capable of tampering with what would be our most important trait in our existence seems insane and would be a true over sight for a supreme creator. The soul by all means, belongs to God and God alone.
So the question is, is there proof of the soul and how do you defend it against allegations that decree that our emotions and minds are nothing but physical events in the brain subject to change. Personally I’m not sure, but I’d love to have a rebuttal to this level of reductionism. The best explanations I have heard, have been hylemorphism and or the concept that the soul employees the brain and body to exist in this world.
Hylemorphism does account and acknowledge emergent properties prevalent in our world and physics due to the potentially of matter and the power of form in the matter (thanks Richca for the help on the topic of hylemorphism!). In a very figurative sense the brain is the finger print of the soul. It is the form that matters and the soul is the form and animating principle of the body effectively. Further more from a science stand point, quantum physics and the permanency of the soul is possible but that’s a subject for a different time, but to sum it up we leave a quantum thumb print in our universe. This is very simplistic and there is much more to this.
Secondly, the view that the brain is employed by the soul is another view that also might work, but very hard to prove. The analogy the brain is to the soul as the tv is to the tv show is the best way to look at it. If tested, science could only ever measure the brain activity associated with the actions of the soul, which would look like exactly what we see now in neuroscience, the difference would be that the first cause is the soul, not strictly genetics, environment, and conditioning. The mind is physical as is the brain but the soul dwells in the mind. Once that dies, the soul leaves. I believe it was grannymh that posted that on this forum. Her view was actually the view I grew up with and still believe. The bodies emotions are relayed to you, tell you what’s good and what’s bad and than you decide to act on them. Love is physically experienced and can be found in the brain, but it’s that experience that makes it special. Love it self could be a power of the soul and the soul uses the brain to express it. Much like hylemorphism, if you damage that part of the brain you can’t express it anymore, ei you can’t move a limb if you no longer have it.
Over all this is all debatable, which makes it stressful. The idea of having no soul is hard to think about, and when the alternative view turns every thing that we know and feel to be right and good into an evil illusion, which makes this all that more stressful. The above two views can be taken to be the same. I’d like to point out that the Cartesian view makes the mind a separate substance of which I don’t support, there are similarities but only that the soul can continue on separately, not the mind. For all we know it actually might be the mind and the finite time of its existence that truly restricts our soul and gives us the microscope view of knowledge we have. I hope this helps Ben. I’d also like to get some personal feed back from some of the forum elders and believers to help shine a more positive light on neuroscience, so please feel free to personal message me.
God bless
Aaron
More conformed to Christ.