Anthropology 1 - I'm a Soul, Man

Here I am summarizing reasons to believe in the immaterial human soul, using the justifications from the Theory of Knowledge.

A.)  External

    1.) Revelation

I just picked one Old Testament and a New Testament verse, but there are many more. In fact the words for soul in the Bible are used more than a thousand times. This alone is enough justification for our faith that a soul exists, but we will examine the other reasons as well, to learn more about the soul.

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” -Proverbs 16:24

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” -Matthew 10:28

    2.) Authority/Experts

To the ancient Greek philosophers (in the inter-Testamental Period – that is between the Old and New Testament), the soul (psyche) was considered to be the incorporeal, or non-physical, eternal occupant of our being, that animates us, and makes us alive. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle write extensively on the subject. Their view became has been a dominant theory of western philosophy for the last ~2500 years.

In 1641, French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes coined the term dualism, meaning people consisted of a physical body and non-physical or metaphysical “mind”. Descartes’ contemporary, Blaise Pascale, stated "I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy, Descartes did his best to dispense with God.” Nonetheless, Christians adopted this terminology and philosophy of dualism, calling Descartes’ mind, the soul, or psyche in Greek, and using it as justification for their faith.

In 1923, German psychoanalyst, and atheist, Sigmund Freud, came up with his model of the psyche (the Greek word for soul) consisting of the ego, the super-ego, and the id. This is still a dominant theory of psychology today (the word psychology actually means the study of the soul). He also used the word seele (German for soul), interchangeably with psyche (Greek for soul). He believed, however, that it was a manifestation of physical processes and, not immortal. His contemporary, Karl Jung (also not a Christian), thought that materialism could not account for they psyche and that Freud only said that because he did not want to open the door to the idea of a deity. Jung insisted that there was a spiritual, non-physical, aspect to people, as well as a material.

    3.) Generally Accepted (Consensus Gentium)

Most cultures in the world, throughout the history of the world have also believed in it, even the non-Christians philosophers, mathematicians, and psychologists mentioned above. The idea that there might not be a soul was not even entertained in the ancient world. It is only recently in human history that people have begun denying it, and only in an attempt to take away evidence for God, not because there is a good reason to do so.

B.)  Internal

    4.) Consistent with Current Beliefs

Obviously…

    5.) Instincts/ Intuition/ Self-Awareness

The fact that so many (almost everyone, everywhere) throughout history has believed it, must make it pretty instinctual. People know they have a soul. Descartes is famous for his saying, “I think, therefore I am” and no one disagreed with him. When he was talking about “I”, he was referring to his non-physical “mind” that made him who he was, what we would call the soul today. It is intuitively obvious.

    6.) Memory

This justification is not really applicable to our discussion of the soul, since I don’t remember when I received my soul (which was at conception).

C.)  Self-Evident

    7.) Faith

Of course, the idea of a soul is integral to our faith.

    8.) Logic

See previous post on the apologetics approach to evidence for the soul.

    9.) Sense Perceptions (Observations)

Jeffery Schwartz, a neuroscientist at UCLA, among many other scientist, have proven using brain scans (PET and Functional MRIs), that mental exercises as simple as people intentionally challenging their thoughts, or their OCD, resulted in brain chemistry changing. Therefore, the brain chemistry was and “effect” of their thinking and their wills, not a “cause” of the “mind”. A physical process did not cause them to think. Thinking caused a physical process. From this study, and others like it, Dr. Schwartz, even though he is an atheist, believes that there must be “conscience experience” that is non-physical to explain his results. He therefore believes in substance dualism. Most other scientists in this field agree, because they can explain their results no other way. This is based on scientific method of observation and experimentation along with choosing the answer that explains the observables most accurately.