1. This document discusses perspectives on the soul from biblical, philosophical, and scientific viewpoints with the goal of developing an interdisciplinary theological perspective. 2. It explores ideas of the soul referring to human qualities like morality and spirituality, and how consciousness relies on both the soul and the brain. 3. The document proposes that revelation and biblical interpretation must converge with scientific understanding, and suggests a view of nonreductive physicalism.

1. Concepts in philosophy, religion & science

2. This interdisciplinary seminar will reflect on a theological
understanding of personhood convergent with human biology
and cognitive neuroscience.
The “soul” has been understood in:
1. Biblical & Theological perspectives
2. Philosophical perspective
3. Scientific perspective
Aproposal for an interdisciplinary theological perspective for
a neurobiology of the soul - persists in an postmortem
abiological afterlife

7. The soul refers to the moral, spiritual and personal qualities
(qualia) of human nature.
To be spiritual is to be cognitively aware of the transcendent
nature of our existence, beyond the biophysicality of the
carbon-based shell called the human body.
The soul relies on the body to express itself just as
consciousness relies on the brain to persist.

9. The quest for an interdisciplinary concept of the soul:
Human spirituality in our embodied neurobiology, i/e., our
ability to sense and think, is rooted in our carbon-chemistry.
Revelation reveals Creation: Our interpretation of the Bible
must always find convergence with all aspects of the
universe’s created order.
Exegesis of the Soul: The biblical notion of the Soul refers to
meta-consciousness (awareness of one’s awareness)
Proposal: Nonreductive Physicalism

10. Historical attempts to explain the soul
1. Dualism: Body and Soul are separate entities (pineal gland)
2. Monism: Body and Soul are one (matter & mind)
3. Nonreductive physicalism: Duality without dualism. Avoids
the intractable problems of determinism and reductionism.
The biblical notion of the soul refers to the
metaconsciousness of a biological brain. This 3rd order
awareness of one’s awareness goes beyond the 2nd order
called theory of mind (TOM), in which a mind recognizes the
existence of another independent mind that is not its own.

12. The modern word psychology derives from the Greek psyche
(soul) and logos (knowledge) – study of the soul
The prescientific and biblical word soul refers to
consciousness
What consciousness is not
- An innate property of matter.
- Merely the process of learning.
- Required for a number of complex processes.

13. What consciousness is
- Conscious focus is required to learn or execute a task. But
after a skill is mastered, it recedes into the world of the
unconscious. A great deal of what is happening to you right
now is not part of your consciousness until you draw
attention to it.
- We cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of.
- Knowledge and creative epiphanies appear to us without
our control.

14. The Bicameral Mind evolved into the Conscious Mind?
In the 1970s, Princeton psychologist Julian Jaynes introduced
the notion of the bicameral mind that evolved consciousness
just 3000 years ago.
“Consciousness is a thin rime of ice atop a sea of habit,
instinct, or some other process that is capable of taking care
of much more than we tend to give it credit for.”
“There could have existed a race of men who spoke, judged,
reasoned, solved problems, indeed did most of the things
that we do, but were not conscious at all.”

15. “A nun had told us that dogs didn't go to heaven because
animals didn't have souls. Humans are animals, too. How
does she know there are no other animals in heaven?"
Is metaconsciousness a necessary condition for the
afterlife? What about those who died with compromised
capacities for consciousness?

16. In 1901, Dr. Duncan "Om" MacDougall (c. 1866 – October 15,
1920) measured the weight of 6 patients as well as 15 dogs at
their deaths.
No change in weight for dogs. But the humans lost about 21
grams at death.
His conclusion: The soul weighs 21 grams and flies away at
death and animals have no souls.
Expectations drives scientific conclusions

18. Consciousness is fundamental to the Universe. We consist of
inanimate quarks. Therefore, we are all interconnected,
every particle, animate or inanimate. This has a profound
impact to the way we think of ourselves and fellow beings.
Compassion and empathy for others arise when we realize
how co-dependent (food & health) and interdependent
(security) we are, through cycles of creation and
dissolutions, ad infinitum.
We are recycled matter, once alive, then dead, then alive
again. Are our constituent particles of matter also conscious
before they become a unified us?

19. 1. Religion is not found in any scriptures such as the
Zoroastrian Avesta, the Hindu Vedas and Vedantas, the
Judeo-Christian Bible or the Muslim Quran. Religious
faith consists of the evolving geohistorical
interpretations of these scriptures. All existential
contingencies change the interpretations.
2. No religious conviction is static but changes over time in
response to human understanding of nature. Beliefs and
convictions are a function of knowledge.
3. Beliefs are not evidential, convictions are
phenomenological and knowledge is provisional.

20. 1. What are the ramifications for those who inhabit
physiologically compromised bodies due to genetic mutations
or traumatic events that lead to physical and even moral
deficiencies?
2. Is it the mind or the body that sins?
3. Since the mind is made up of the same matter that makes
up the body, where lies the culpability of sin?

21. “…all poetry and music …begins in the regions of the brain
where once the gods made themselves heard” S. Faulks,
Human Traces, 453. Here the writer suggests that in its
default bicameral state, the prehistoric mind can ‘hear’ God
but with the emergence of consciousness, God’s voice is
silenced.
Q: Will future study of the brain affirm the nonexistence of
God?
A: No, the scientific method will provide new epistemological
knowledge but cannot breach the ontological ignorance
endemic in the issue of whether the human brain can
verifiably detect God.

22. Spiritual insights based on Contingencies of Existence which
question the universality of salvific doctrines.
1. Geohistorical:
a) Where, when & to whom we were born makes a huge
difference to our opportunities in life.
b) Advances in science, technology & medicine determines
our very biological survival.
c) Economic – the vagaries of finance and economics.
d) Legal & Political – the type of government where you live
shapes the opportunities you have.

23. 2a. Neurological:
Cognitive failure –inability to understand and think.
Memory loss and false memory registration.
Personality disorders – multiple & changing.
Hallucinations & Schizophrenia.
Many neurological diseases rob the person of true volitional
and nolitional powers to make decisions. Under such
circumstances, Christian teaching ought to rethink its
doctrinal interpretation of the Bible’s authority.

24. 2b. Neurological:
Human behavior and cognitive abilities are reflected In the
developmental state and the degenerative state of our neural
structures. Thus, developmental neurobiology and neural
degeneration affirm how much our moral lives depend on our
biochemistry.
Differences in brain structures affect not just our cognitive
capacities but also our social and interpersonal relationships.
Emotions and mood swings respond to therapeutic chemicals.
This brain-body interdependence shows that our brain
biology shapes our spiritual sense of the divine.

25. 2b. Neurological:
Brain damage affects our experiences of self-identity, which
in turn affect our spiritual lives.
1. Emotions are affected by chemical processes.
2. Morality are affected by how alcohol shapes our
consciences.
3. Mental processses such as memory and intelligence
degenerate with physical deterioration

26. 2c. Neurological:
There is an irreducibly intrinsic interdependence, i.e.,
necessary, normal and complementary relationships, which
reflects a duality but not dualism of substance.
This is nonreductive physicalism, a nondualistic duality.
Consciousness is so important that it is the phenomenon by
which God’s creation of the universe as it exists is made
known.

27. 3. Psychophysiological:
Sexual dimorphism - prenatally determined. Children born
with sexual dissonance are minds trapped in the bodies of
opposite genders. The prenatal ratio of estrogen and
androgen hormones irreversibly determines the sexual brain.
Sexual orientation - Jesus made no mention of it but the
Church’s adoption of Paul's focus on orientation as a salvific
criterion paved the way from salvation by grace to salvation
by cognitive volition and nolition merit.

28. 4. Biblical:
We became modern humans 200,000 years ago.
We started to believe in God 100,000 years ago.
We learned to speak languages 50,000 years ago.
We learned to write on bone & clay 5,500 years ago.
We learned to institutionalize religions 3,000 years ago.
Our Bible was written, edited, selected and continues to be
interpreted alongside the development of theologies.
Plurality of Christian traditions & biblical compositions raise
important questions for a Biblical authoritarian singularity.

29. 1. What philosophers call "meta-consciousness" or "meta-
awareness", i.e., awareness of awareness, thinking about
thinking, desires about desires, beliefs about beliefs. This
form of reflection is distinct from the kinds of "deliberations"
seen in other higher animals insofar as it is dependent on
linguistic cognition.
2. Lower animals could learn from experience but this was
not introspective metaconsciousness.
3. Humans were not reflectively meta-conscious and
operated by means of automatic, nonconscious habit-
schemas, constituted by the "bicameral mind".

32. In the Christian tradition, the whole point of a soul is
everlasting life, i.e., salvation. The criteria CANNOT be:
1. Cognitive or permissive acquiescence of a normal mental
state – this denies salvation to those with neurological
deficits.
2. State of knowledge – the number and meanings of
doctrines evolve over time, e.g., the Trinitarian formula was
accepted in the 4th century, those who lived and died before
AD 325, from 325-381, and after 381 would have different
thresholds of qualified knowledge.
3. Complete state of knowledge and/or understanding.

33. 1. Our soul/identity is our self-conscious relationality. We are
more than our biology-the human body is not biologically
static. All our cells are replaced throughout our lives and our
synaptic connections are shaped by our experiences, with
neural correlates based on our interpretation of reality
(experiences, relationships & the physical universe).
2. Death is biologically final.
3. The afterlife requires re-embodiment, NOT rescue from
the cosmos but transformation for a non-embodied conscious
existence.

34. The immortality of the Soul is not based on a biological
persistence of awareness but rather, a nonbiological
postmortem consciousness sustained by God.
The Christian teaching of the immortal consciousness (soul’s
everlasting life) is based on a nonbiological system that will
emerge from a renewal of the cosmos.
Distinguish between
1. Resuscitation – temporary extension of life
2. Reincarnation – cyclical Samsara of birth, life & death
3. Resurrection – permanent spiritual/bodily (Pauline)

38. Proposals for the mechanics of this eventuality include:
1. Mathematical patterns of information that do not need a
physical substrate to function may be the heaven we
expect (Superman 2).
2. Physical renewal of the universe with more dimensions of
spacetime (String theory).
3. Replacing failing organs indefinitely and storing mental
functions in electronic circuits dispenses with any
biological substrate (Vanilla Sky).
4. The sharing of consciousness (Star Trek’s Borg) as in slime
mold may do the trick.

39. According to Jaynes, only humans HAVE souls
According to the Bible, all animals ARE souls.
The Hebrew understanding of death and the afterlife
underwent major changes during the Greek and Roman
periods.
The biblical narrative has not worked out a philosophically
satisfying understanding on the nature of physical existence
in life, death and the afterlife.
Conclusion: The Bible does not require a dualist view.

40. 1. Soul refers to the consciousness of ALL animals.
2. Humanity as the imago Dei is characterized by our
vocation as God’s partners in creation here and in the
thereafter.
1. Cognitive neuroscience shows that our biology affects our
spirituality.
2. Interdisciplinary theology shows that our humanity rests
in our capacity to experience love and express compassion
beyond our biological advantages.

42.  Julian Jaynes
 Consciousness is based on language
 The bicameral mind
 The dating
 The Double brain

43.  What does it mean to be human? Are we at the mercy of
our inner, unconscious drives, a product of incomplete
evolution - caught halfway between the new brain and the
old brain, a work in progress?
 Are people who hear voices crazy? Or, do they retain an
ancient ability to talk to the gods, throwback to a previous
version of us?
 "You cannot have humanity without psychosis.” Human
Traces, S. Faulks, 2005

44. Once "hearing voices" was both common and a good thing.
Witness Noah, Abraham, and Moses of the Old Testament.
As humans developed, concomitant with the development of
writing, their brains evolved, their self-consciousness
expanded and became increasingly refined, most no longer
heard voices.
Poetry and music "strike us with this awful longing for what
once was ours", because they begin "in regions of the brain
where once the gods made themselves heard.”
Those who do "hear voices" - schizophrenics or psychotics -
are either throwbacks or those who have suffered some sort
of genetic mutation or misfortune.

45. “Darwinian theory of natural selection holds that people with
that sort of handicap would slowly die out (saddled as they
are with a reproductive disadvantage), unless the genetic
flaw they suffer from is an evolutionarily ineradicable variant
of the superior brain that gives most humans such an
advantage in the world.”
”…the same `genes' that drive us mad have made us human.
You cannot have humanity without psychosis." And thus, the
mad - or many of them - bear a burden imposed by biology
and genetics in order that the rest of us humans can be the
sentient creatures we are.”

46. The overwhelming irony is that the super-refined
consciousness of humans has now "robbed us of any privileged
place in creation. There is no god and there is no consolation
for us, only death."
That leaves humans today with a dilemma: "To conceive of
ourselves as fragmentary matter cohering for a millisecond
between two eternities of darkness is very difficult, because
our lives do not feel like that. Either, therefore, that is not
the reality, or there is something wrong with the way that we
register reality."