These are notes from a lecture by Warren Brown a neuropsychologist working at Fuller Theological seminary.
Warren Brown
How many essential parts am I composed of?
Am I a body?
A body and a soul?
A body and a mind?
A body, a mind and a soul?
A body, mind, soul and spirit?
Am I a unitary being or am I a being controlled by some sort of committee?
The “traditional” view is that humans are physical beings with a non-physical soul.
It is the soul which exhibits free will, is spiritual and allows us to experience and relate to God.
This view is called body/soul dualism, that is that we are in two parts. Its origins are in philosophy, particularly the philosophy of Plato. It became a solidified philosophical system in the writings of Rene Decartes. It pervades the Christian view of the human being as well as that of secular spirituality.
However..,
It is increasingly difficult to find an area of human cognition, affective, social, moral or religious functioning that has not already been shown to have correlates in identifiable patterns of brain functioning.
Take the case of Phineas Gage.
In an accident the frontal lobe of Gage’s brain was damaged
He never lost consciousness, however the consequences of the accident were remarkable. Before the accident Gage was:
Intelligent
A Capable and efficient worker
An Excellent manager
A Responsible family man
An Upstanding citizen
After the accident he
Maintained his general intelligence, but became
Unreliable/capricious
Socially inappropriate
Amoral (i.e. not immoral, but one without any moral compass)
Consequently he lost his job and family.
“Phineas Gage was no longer Phineas Gage”
The areas of the brain damaged were the areas that deal with empathy and moral decision making.
People experiencing a temporal lobe seizure have reported experiences like those of religious visionaries. Very deep and powerful religious experiences can come about by malfunction of certain parts of the temporal lobe.
A similar result can be induced in a person who is not experiencing temporal lobe seizure, by a process known as TMS Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. TMS to the right temporal lobe can create a sense of “presence” of God or of an angel. This demonstrates a close relationship between temporal lobe activity and religious experiences, or experiences we might interpret as religious.
These are just a few examples for the purpose of illustrating this problem that neuroscience raises for the “traditional” view of human nature.
The Knotty problem
“When the life of the soul is conditioned in every detail by bodily organs and processes, how can it be detached from the body and survive it?”
Wolfhart Pannenberg, theologian.
I find it difficult to see how it can be the case that we have a soul as well as a body when just about everything about us, including our religious experiences, seem to be happening physically within our brains and our bodies.
So what is the solution to this problem?
One possible solution is that of Scientism (note not Science in and of itself)
Everything is ultimately determined by and therefore entirely explained by the laws of the material world.
Humans are neurobiological beings whose mind (thinking, deciding, religious experiences, etc.) can, in theory, be completely and exhaustively explained by neurochemistry and physics.
This is called formally
Eliminative Materialism in that it
Eliminates, in principle, the idea that persons can be causes of their own behaviour.
This is ethically problematic.
“Nothing Buttery”
“According to this view…the whole thing can be explained away as ‘nothing but’ the mindless motion of molecules.” Donald M. Mackay neuroscientist.
It seems then that We need a third view that is both resonant with science and robustly Christian.
The Emergent Alternative
It is not necessary to postulate a second non-physical entity (a soul or mind) to account for human capacities and distinctiveness. Mental and soulish capacities are physiologically embodied.
But
Human behaviour cannot be completely or exhaustively explained by neurobiology.
But
The highest levels of human mental capacities emerge from our complex brains as new causes in the physical world.
We are persons whose thinking and deciding is not an illusion., but as whole persons we are causes of our own behaviour, capable of being truly responsible, truly moral and having truly relational experiences with one another and a meaningful religious life.
Nest-building is not reducible to the characteristics of single ants but is emergent in colonies of ants.
The Emergent Alternative: We are physical beings who operate physiologically, however, all of the important things about humans are real properties of us as whole persons that emerge from the interactive complexity of our nervous system.
Implications of the Emergent Alternative:
We need a Physicalist Theology of Human Nature:
A holistic view of humankind as embodied physical creatures of God’s creation.
At the same time we need a Neuroscience of Emergence:
A view of neuroscience that accepts the emergence of new causes in the form of human mental capacities.
We ARE bodies. We do not HAVE bodies. Or We ARE souls we do not HAVE souls.
What is meant by the idea of human uniqueness? i.e. that humans are made in the image of God, above all other animals.
Neuroscience would say we are distinctive but not unique. For instance a chimpanzee has many of the characteristics we have, but less developed.
Our distinctiveness comes from our Relationality:
“…humans are more social – mote deeply social- than any other species on earth, our closest primate relatives not excepted.” “…by deep I am referring to a special degree of cognitive and mental penetration between individuals.” Andrew Whiten
Thus, a major part of what it means to be made in the image of God relates to the possession of a deep social mind. This deep relationality is both a distinctive characteristic of humankind and a calling on the lives of humans – a vocation, if you will.
But are we unique in any way?
I would say that humans are unique not just distinctive because we have been called by God to participate in a unique form of relationship with Him. Our uniqueness is not about us, per se, but about God’s calling on us . Thus I would say in the end that human distinctiveness is something that science has much to say about. But human uniqueness is a question that can only be answered by theology.
You might like to think about the following questions:
