mind/brain, the soul and immortality

Dave Siemens wrote:
>Brown, Murphy and Maloney is probably the best treatment of the notion
>that the soul or spirit is a function of brain, no more. It has been
>adopted by neurologists generally, as evidenced by the presentations at
>last year's ASA meeting at Trinity Western University. I am of the
>opinion that this conclusion springs from the inability of science to
>deal with anything immaterial, whether God, angel, soul, spirit, Satan or
>demon. A number of individuals have said that the trio, and especially
>Murphy, avoid any scripture that conflicts with their view. However, I
>have been told that a professor at Asbury has remedied this lack. I
>published a paper challenging this view in /Philosophia Christi/
>(Evangelical Philosophical Society), vol. 4, no. 2 (2002), and read a
>paper at Trinity which I think will be published (with improvements
>suggested by George) in the June /Perspectives/. I cannot see that being
>remembered by God, which Polkinghorne suggests, is equivalent to the
>immortality of the soul.

I would tend to have some objections to the notion of the
soul and spirit being a finction of the brain only. But
seeing the effects of progressive illness like Alzheimer's
has shook most of the dualist out of me. What we see as
mind definitely appears to need a sufficient number of
functioning brain cells, at least. However, there does
seem to be a reasonable case that the mind is not just
memory chips, cpu and a few algorithms. A soul based
at this mechanistic view would be inadequate to express
the mind, much less the soul.

Nevertheless viewing the limitations set on a strongly
dualist position, I don't see how we can get around the
problem of what part of a soul would actually be preserved
if it is not somehow in God's memory to reconstruct it.
Paul talks about the dead rising, but I cannot think that
should be taken too literally. What is claimed in the
Bible is a new heaven and a new earth. So some kind of
transformation seems to be implied even in scripture.

Would you please suggest what would fit as an alternative
to a "God's memory" as the primary means for ressurecting
the soul?

by Grace alone we proceed,
Wayne
Received on Sun Mar 20 08:56:40 2005