Spirited Bodies

I just finished reading Nancey Murphy's Bodies and Souls or Spirited Bodies? which explores the issue of whether or not we have a soul. Considering that Dr. Murphy is a Christian, it might be surprising to most that she argues that humans do not have souls. She argues that the Bible does not give a clear cut answer to the nature of human existence simply because the authors were not interested in that philosophical question. The idea of the soul grew out of Greek influence and was adopted by the church in about the 4th Century.

Although Murphy is a philosopher, the current field of neuropsychology supports such a conclusion. The attributes typically attributed to the soul - consciousness, identity, memory, rational thought, religious experience, etc. - are now being attributed to different regions of the brain. This does not mean that the Bible is wrong, just that our typical interpretation of this topic is.

What are the implications of this? Of course numerous spiritual questions arise: do we exist as souls or resurrected bodies in heaven, how do we retain our identity once our body dies, and how do we interact with a spiritual realm of angels and demons? All of these I must not go into here for the sake of brevity (although Murphy does explore these issues). But in terms of practicality it means that we are able to have a fuller understanding of what it means to be human. We can see a continuity between our bodies, brains, and spiritual life that seemed oddly connected from a dualistic viewpoint. Furthermore, we can see our relationship with matter as one that upholds environmentally concern as well as social justice, since we are connected to both in substance (sounds New-Agey I know).

Finally, since the historical argument in favor of a soul (at least the one I had heard) was that free will is impossible unless we have a non-physical soul, we must discuss how free will can be present in a purely physical being. But Murphy argues that emergent capabilities are possible with such a complex network as our brain is. In other words, we are greater than the sum of our parts. Our brains are capable of having a causative effect on our behavior. These capabilities arise out of our ability to create syntatic language and to experience obligation.

If you are unwilling to accept such a radical viewpoint, as I can fully understand, you should at least familiarize yourself with this theory in order to better integrate why our spiritual lives seem to interact with our mental health and functioning.