Consciousness and Soul

Our Spring Book Club has just concluded a 4-session study on “Consciousness and the Soul”.  

In Christianity, we believe the soul is all-important.  The body may die and rot away, but the soul may survive beyond death.  Yet how much do we know about our soul?  Is our soul separate, or separable, from our body? Is our body still needed as part of us, in some form?  Many tout the body-mind-soul model of a person.  Is this tripartite model truly Biblical?  How does the soul differ from the mind?  

On the other hand, scientists are increasingly interested in consciousness. Earlier, scientists generally felt the topic too subjective to study through scientific methods.  Advances in neuroscience are providing more and more sophisticated tools to study the brain, leading to better understanding of brain functions and consciousness.  For example, it is now possible to determine whether a person is conscious through non-invasive sensing of signals from the brain, without having to rely solely on subjective reports.  Many now believe that consciousness arise from processes in the brain.  Or, at least, the two are co-related.  

There remains, of course, much to study.  Is consciousness fundamentally cognitive?  Or affective/emotional?  Is it a fundamental property of matter?  Is it a better of information?  Can consciousness be separated from the brain (body)?  Can we create consciousness artificially?  …

Scientists are generally not interested in the soul, considering it a matter of religion, not science.  However, can better understanding of consciousness help us understand our soul?  Can understanding of our soul help us understand consciousness?  

Those are some of the questions explored in our sessions.  We could not truly say we have concluded anything.  We read many books.  We should admit we have brought up more questions than answers.  We do feel we have understood more.  At least, we have a better understanding of what some of the questions are.  Some of the issues will be addressed in other follow-up posts.