1. Big Questions in Science and Religion
Samford University
Center for Science and Religion

2. What is the Relationship Between Mind, Brain, Consciousness, and Soul?
Big Questions in Science and Religion
Samford University Center for Science and Religion

3. Outline Overview Who are you? What do we know about the brain?
What is consciousness?
How does meaning arise from mindless mechanisms?
What is the soul?
Do we have freewill?
What does brain damage mean for conceptions of the soul, freewill, and God?
Alternative perspectives on freewill
Big Questions in Science and Religion
Samford University Center for Science and Religion

4. Overview
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

5. What are we talking about?
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6. Exploring possible relationships between
mind, brain, consciousness, and soul
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

7. Some actual responses…
Images Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

8. Who Are You?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

9. Who Are You? accomplishments memories relationships hopes fears
dreams plans
thoughts possibilities
expectations
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
(“Know thyself…”)

10. What makes you, YOU?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

11. What can a bodiless individual experience?
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12. The Mind-Body Problem (thinking about embodiment…)
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René Descartes
(“Cogito ergo sum”)

13. Who’s Watching? “Cartesian Theater”
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
“Cartesian Theater”

14. What Do We Know About the Brain?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion;
brain image adapted from:

15. Old Ways of Thinking About the Brain
Public Domain image:
Phrenology
(Franz Joseph Gall – Early 1800’s)

16. New Ways to Think About the Brain
Somatosensory cortex
Motor cortex
Prefrontal cortex
(higher cognition)
Brodmann’s Areas
Public Domain Image
Visual cortex
Image by Mark Dow, University of Oregon

17. Image adapted from: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/24363
What brains do…
Language
Symbolic processing
Reasoning
Consciousness
Emotion
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Memory
Categorization
Sensory processing
Muscle control

18. How Brains Work
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1011 neurons connections Millisecond response Limited sensory processing

19. How Brains Work (continued)
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20. How Brains Work (continued)
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

21. How do we know about the brain?
Cognitive Science
Philosophy
Head: Public Domain Image
Artificial Intelligence
Linguistics
Key: Public Domain Image
Psychology
Neuroscience

22. How do we know about the brain?
(continued)
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
Neuron only: Public Domain Image
Single Cell Recording

23. How do we know about the brain?
(continued)
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Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

24. How do we know about the brain?
(continued)
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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

25. How do we know about the brain?
(continued)
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Lesion Studies

26. Big Questions: Mind, Brain, Consciousness, and Soul?
Big Questions: Mind, Brain, Consciousness, and Soul

27. What Is Consciousness?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
Circuit only modified from
Head only modified from

28. What do you see?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

29. Public Domain Image:
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Modified from:
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30. Self-Awareness
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31. Qualia
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

32. Who (what) is Conscious?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
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Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
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33. How Does Meaning Arise from Mindless Mechanisms?
Based on image from:
What’s inside that makes you conscious/intelligent?

34. Brain stuff in the abstract…
Mind from Matter
From this…
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generic biological neuron
to this
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
artificial neuron
Brain stuff in the abstract…

35. What is the Soul?
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36. Based on Public Domain Image
Cartesian Dualism
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37. The Most Important Commandment
Got Soul?
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)
The Most Important Commandment

38. The Most Important Commandment
Got Soul?
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)
The Most Important Commandment

39. American Heritage Dictionary
How do you define things?
soul n. 1. The animating and vital principle in human beings, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity. 2. The spiritual nature of human beings, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.
American Heritage Dictionary

40. The Bible and the “soul”
You will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29b)
Shall I offer … the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:7b NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life (or soul) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha (II Kings 2:15b)
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless… (I Thessalonians 5:23b)
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow… (Hebrews 4:12)
nephesh psuchē rûwach pnӗuma
All verses from New International Version

41. Do We Have Freewill?
Cave man:
Intersection:

42. The problem of volition
Author: OpenCage
Source:
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

43. Don’t complete the following:

44. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.

45. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.
Abraham _____________.

46. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.
Abraham _____________.
y = mx + __

47. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.
Abraham _____________.
y = mx + __
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are ________ ______.

48. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.
Abraham _____________.
y = mx + __
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are ________ ______.
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a _________ _____ ____.

49. Don’t complete the following:
George W. ____________.
Abraham _____________.
y = mx + __
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are ________ ______.
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a _________ _____ ____.
Shave and a haircut, ___ ____.

50. A couple of questions
Have you ever had thoughts that you didn’t want to have?
Have you ever said something you didn’t mean to say?
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

51. What the brain tells us…
Consider…
If we are free to choose our actions, then the brain activity that results in one action or another should occur after we are conscious of our particular decision (or so one would think…). However…
Image based on Libet’s work and provided courtesy of the Samford University Center for Science and Religion
(cf. Libet, B. (1985). Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. The Behavior and Brain Sciences, 8: and Libet, B. (1999). Do we have free will? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, No. 8-9, )
cf. Libet, B. (1985). Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. The Behavior and Brain Sciences, 8: and Libet, B. (1999). Do we have free will? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6, No. 8-9,

52. Does faith just happen or is it something you do?
Image from defunct website
Image from defunct website ? ?
“…time and chance happen to them all” (Eccl 9:11)

53. Biblical perspectives against freewill?
Exodus 4:21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them…
Acts 1:16 Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas…
Acts 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge…
Romans 11:7 What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened.
Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
All verses from New International Version

54. Biblical perspectives for freewill?
Exodus 35:5 Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering…
Isaiah 57:17 I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways.
Psalm 19:13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
Matthew 7:24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
James 1:14 Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
All verses from New International Version

55. Thinking about choices…
Image courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion;
Head from:
Choices: An Example

56. Should I paint the house?
(Is this a free choice?)
add value to house (+)
save money (+)
precludes other activities (-)
protect woodwork (+)
dislike painting (-)
Image:
cost of materials (-)
sense of accomplishment (+)
potential respiratory problems (-)

57. Some Approaches to Free Will
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58. A deterministic universe makes freewill problematic
Isaac Newton
f = ma
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“Newton’s second law is perhaps the most powerful statement ever uttered, for it has changed man’s earth more and it has moved us closer to a precise knowledge of physical reality than any other single statement.”
(Walker, E. (2000).The Physics of Consciousness. Perseus: Cambridge, MA, p. 21)

59. Might freewill not exist?
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“There’s no such thing as free will… I don’t know what it would feel like if my will were free. What on earth would that mean? That I don’t follow my will sometimes? Well, why on earth would I do that?”
Hofstadter, D. (2007). I Am a Strange Loop. Basic: New York, pp. 339, 340
“I don’t think ‘free will’ is a very sensible concept, and you don’t need neuroscience to reject it — any mechanistic view of the world is good enough…”
Martha Farah, conversation with B. Keim
published online 4/14/2008 in his article
“Is Free Will an Illusion?” at

60. Is freewill an illusion? (based on complexity)
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“…one could say that free will is an illusion anyway. If there really is a complete unified theory that governs everything, it presumably also determines your actions. But it does so in a way that is impossible to calculate for an organism that is as complicated as a human being. The reason we say that humans have free will is because we can’t predict what they will do.”
Hawking, S. (1998). A Brief History of Time. Bantam: New York, p. 167

61. If there is no true freedom, get over it (if you can)
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“We must admit that the mind of each one of our greatest geniuses—Aristotle, Kant or Leonardo, Goethe or Beethoven, Dante or Shakespeare—even at the moment of its highest flights of thought, or in the most profound inner workings of the soul, was subject to the causal fiat and was an instrument in the hands of an almighty law which governs the world… Nobody would feel it disrespectful if one were to say that some superhuman intelligence could understand a Goethe or a Shakespeare. The whole point lies in the inadequacy of the observer.”
(Planck, M. (1981). Where is Science Going. Oxbow Press: Woodbridge, CT)

62. “will is quantum mechanical state selection going on in the brain”
Quantum mechanics?
“will is quantum mechanical state selection going on in the brain”
Walker, H. (2000). The Physics of Consciousness. Perseus: Cambridge, MA, p. 260
Head image:
iħ(r,t)/t = –(ħ2/2m) 2(r,t) + V(r) (r,t)
“…the only essence of God of which we have knowledge is his seemingly infinite capacity to choose—selecting from among quantum alternatives the one that shall be. …perhaps our will is in some sense a miniature portion of his.”
Satinover, J. (2002). The Quantum Brain. John Wiley & Sons: New York, p. 218

63. It’s in the anterior cingulate sulcus…
(according to Francis Crick)
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64. Who’s pulling the strings?
(In defense of autonomous psychosomatic entities)
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
Our “choices are made in terms of present motives, future goals, and moral ideals. We can talk about freedom only in relation to a model of selfhood that includes past conditioning, continuity of character, personal decision, and individual responsibility.”
Barbour, I. (1997). Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. HarperOne: New York, p. 187

65. Having one’s cake and eating it, too…
Image:
“…the reality we call ‘decision’ could present itself to our apprehension of it as both freedom and grace in complementary relationship.”
Pollard, W. (1958). Chance and Providence. Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, p. 151

66. What Does Brain Damage Mean for Conceptions of the Soul, Freewill, and God?
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67. Minds as the standing waves of brains
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

68. Characterize the consciousness of a person with hemispatial neglect
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“Eyes that do not see; ears that do not hear…” (Jeremiah 5:21)

69. Some consciousness-changing events
Agnosia
Agnosognosia
Split-brain
Phantom limb
Korsakoff’s
Alzheimer’s
Schizophrenia
Autism
Hypnosis
Drug induced
“These are the times that try men’s souls…”
Thomas Paine, 12/23/1776, The Crisis
Modified from:
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70. “Where… is free will?”
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion

71. Possible responses to the freewill paradox
Assume that we have freewill (because we feel like we do) and ignore any evidence to the contrary.
Assume that we do not have freewill (i.e., we really can’t help what we do) and ignore any evidence to the contrary.
Accept the explanatory gap between physical and subjective phenomena (i.e., be a dualist).
Define freewill as our capability to choose and don’t worry about the source of that capability.
Hope that the solution will eventually be found in one of the following:
Quantum uncertainty
Chaotic systems (and sensitivity to initial conditions)
Computational complexity
Recursive structure of brains
Believe that God chooses to limit his own powers.
With respect to Libet’s results:
Be grateful that he didn’t test us!
Consider possibility for freedom in thoughts not involving movement.
Ponder the role of consciousness with respect to freewill.
Other…

72. What we can possibly agree on…
Most people think about this only occasionally, if at all.
Many people believe that this is beyond our understanding.
Many people (including many scientists and theologians) deny free will verbally but not behaviorally.
Most people are probably dualists.
We have a will but defining “free” will is problematic.
Our choices are heavily influenced by our past.
We are only free to the extent that we have the capability to actually do something.
We might be free in theory but not in practice because we tie our own hands (educationally, morally, socially, spiritually).
The Bible is ambiguous as to the extent of our freedom (despite people with opposing views acting as though it is not).

73. Alternative Perspectives on Freewill
Image: modified from

74. The problem with arrows
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
Can logic be independent of our physical understanding or is it just an extension of it?

75. Making freewill a choice
Image Courtesy of Samford University Center for Science and Religion
Maslow’s Hierarchy

76.  The paradox of freedom Do you ever pray, “Not my will but thine?”
What does that mean?
Can one willingly sacrifice his/her will? 
*quoted in Kelso, S., Dynamic Patterns p. 83 who indicates he is quoting H. H. Pattee (1976, Physical theories of biological coordination)

77. The paradox of freedom (continued)
“Mental flexibility confines children; innate constraints set them free.”
Pinker, S. (2000). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. Harper Perennial Classics: New York, p. 292
“In many ways it is the very determinate structure of our brain and biology that enables the kind of freedom we have.”
Peterson, G. (2003). Minding God: Theology and the Cognitive Sciences. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN, p. 97
“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”
Stravinsky, I. (1993). Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, p. 65
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible”
I Corinthians 9:19

78. Consciousness Limited
Public Domain Image
“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41)

79. What is the Relationship Between Mind, Brain, Consciousness, and Soul?
Steve Donaldson, Ph.D.
Samford University
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