modern neuroscience: room for the soul? by john beggs
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul?
By John Beggs
![Page 2: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 3: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 4: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Apollo’s chariot…
![Page 5: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
…or rotation of the earth?
![Page 6: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Science killed Apollo.
Will neuroscience kill the soul?
![Page 7: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Dualism
Rene DescartesBody Mind
![Page 8: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Dualism
Rene Descartes
Body and mind are separate
The mind influences the body
Mind is the fundamental truth
![Page 9: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
The modern view: monism
Antonio Damasio
The brain produces the mind
Body, or matter, is the fundamental truth
![Page 10: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
The conflict
![Page 11: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
The conflict
• Dualism: Just as mind is separate from the body, so Free Will, Ethics and God originate independently of the brain.
![Page 12: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
The conflict
• Dualism: Just as mind is separate from the body, so Free Will, Ethics and God originate independently of the brain.
• Monism: Just as the brain produces mind, so Free Will, Ethics and God are merely products of the brain.
![Page 13: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 14: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Trying to explain different levels
macroscopic
mesoscopic
microscopic
![Page 15: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Cortical neurons from rat
~1010 neurons in human brain
![Page 16: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Neurons generate voltage pulses
time
volt
age
![Page 17: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Output is communicated by pulses through synapses
time
volt
age
Memory?
![Page 18: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Each neuron makes and receives many connections
~ 103 – 104 outputs
~ 103 – 104 inputs
![Page 19: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
If all the inputs exceed a threshold, the neuron will “fire”
out
in
in
in
in
Otherwise, it won’t
![Page 20: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
From the lab of David McCormick, Yale University
![Page 21: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Logical operations: AND gate
A
B
C
If C has a threshold of 2,then it will fire only whenA AND B fire
![Page 22: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
A
B
C
If C has a threshold of 1,then it will fire whenA OR B fire
Logical operations: OR gate
![Page 23: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Neurons form networks for processing information
![Page 24: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Networks form the cortical “sheet”
![Page 25: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
The cortical sheet is responsible for higher functions
![Page 26: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Beggs lab: small sections of the sheet
In collaboration with Alan Litke, UC Santa Cruz
![Page 27: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Cortical structure is fairly uniformFunctions are partially localized in cortex
![Page 28: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
EEG: Electro-encephalogram
Measures electrical activity through the skull
![Page 29: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
PET scan: Positron emission tomography
Measures glucose metabolism
![Page 30: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging
Measures blood-oxygenlevel dependent responses
![Page 31: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
TMS: Transcranial magnetic stimulation
Bulk stimulatescortical regions
![Page 32: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 33: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Every physical system that has been investigated has turned out to be either deterministic or random. “Both are bad news for free will,” he said. So if human actions can’t be caused and aren’t random, he said, “It must be — what — some weird magical
power?” - Michael Silberstein
![Page 34: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Every spear tip we have ever seen has been made of either flint or bone. Both are bad news for tungsten. So if you claim that “tungsten” isn’t flint and can’t be bone, it must be – what – some weird new material?
- Cave Man
![Page 35: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Dualist: Free will could exist independently
of some of our brain processes.
Monist: Free will is produced by our brain,
and might even be an illusion.
![Page 36: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Benamin Libet’s experiment
![Page 37: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Readiness potential precedes will to move
![Page 38: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Therefore, there is no free will.
You thought you were deciding, but the decision was already made by that point!
![Page 39: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Not so fast…why not this:
Will
Hand movement
Conscious reflectionon decision
Prepotential
“I have decided”
Are there any examples of our awareness “lagging behind”?
![Page 40: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Blindsight
(Lawrence Weiskrantz)
![Page 41: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
So, conscious awareness can come after recognition
![Page 42: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Also…
Low-level processes are often automatic: I can tie myshoes without thinking about it; I can drive home in my sleep. I have subconscious biases in my thoughts.
Do these low-level processes truly reflect my will, or do they just reflect my tendencies?
![Page 43: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Implicit Association Test (IAT)https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
![Page 44: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Implicit Association Test (IAT)https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Laughter
orGood
orEvil
![Page 45: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
So…
My tendencies could be detected by electrodes, or by questionsthat you ask me.
But I do not necessarily act on all my tendencies.
Example: I may be angry at someone, but I may chose to forgive them.
Which takes more “willpower”: anger or forgiveness?
![Page 46: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
Free Will
• Free will may be a new type of process, as yet not fully understood.
![Page 47: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
Free Will
• Free will may be a new type of process, as yet not fully understood.
• Signals of my intentions may come before my sensed decision. But my choice may actually come before both.
![Page 48: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
Free Will
• Free will may be a new type of process, as yet not fully understood.
• Signals of my intentions may come before my sensed decision. But my choice may actually come before both.
• We have many strong automatic tendencies, but these are often overruled by our will.
![Page 49: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 50: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
Neuroethics
“the examination of how we want to deal with the social issues of disease, normality, mortality, lifestyle, and the philosophy of living informed by our understanding of underlying brain mechanisms”
-The Ethical Brain, by Michael Gazzaniga (emphasis his)
![Page 51: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
Prefrontal lesions: amoral behavior
Phineas Gage
![Page 52: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
Clearly, the health of our brain affects our ability to make moral choices.
But should we also look to the brain to tell us what is morally right?
If you are a dualist, then no.If you are a monist, then yes.
![Page 53: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
Jonathan Cohen
![Page 54: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
A runaway trolley is hurtling down the tracks toward five people who will be killed if it proceeds on its present course. The only way to save them is to hit a switch that will turn the trolley onto an alternate set of tracks where it will kill one person instead of five.
Most people hit the switch, saving five
![Page 55: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
As before, a trolley threatens to kill five people. You are standing next to a large stranger on a footbridge that spans the tracks in between the oncoming trolley and the five people. In this scenario, the only way to save the five people is to push this stranger off the bridge, onto the tracks below. He will die if you do this, but his body will stop the trolley from reaching the others.
Most people refrain from pushing, letting five die
![Page 56: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
“Emotional” areas(footbridge dilemma)
“Cognitive” areas(trolley dilemma)
How does the brain respond to these two dilemmas?
![Page 57: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
Going further:Should one smother a crying baby to death to protect the lives of many when enemy soldiers are approaching? Here they compared the activation patterns in the brains between those who approve (utilitarians) and those who do not (deontologists).
Deontologists: Don’t smother – “emotional” brain areas dominate
Utilitarians: Smother – “cognitive” brain areas dominate
![Page 58: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
"The social-emotional responses that we've inherited from our primate ancestors . . . undergird the absolute prohibitions that are central to deontology. In contrast, the 'moral calculus' that defines utilitarianism is made possible by more recently evolved structures in the frontal lobes that support abstract thinking and high-level cognitive
control." - Greene and Cohen
![Page 59: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
(Descriptive)Before, they were telling us how the brain responded to these dilemmas.
(Prescriptive)Now they seem to be suggesting what we should do.
![Page 60: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
If they are correct…
![Page 61: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
If they are correct…
• Utilitarianism, being most recent, is correct
![Page 62: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/62.jpg)
If they are correct…
• Utilitarianism, being most recent, is correct
• Deontological views, being most ancient, are incorrect
![Page 63: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/63.jpg)
If they are correct…
• Utilitarianism, being most recent, is correct
• Deontological views, being most ancient, are incorrect
• Joshua Greene should give up his federal research funding, because we could feed many more people than just him with it.
![Page 64: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/64.jpg)
If they are correct…
• Utilitarianism, being most recent, is correct
• Deontological views, being most ancient, are incorrect
• Joshua Greene should give up his federal research funding, because we could feed many more people than just him with it.
• Intellectual superiority equates with moral superiority
![Page 65: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/65.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 66: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/66.jpg)
Does God exist?
![Page 67: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/67.jpg)
Does God exist?
Dualist: God could exist independently of our minds
![Page 68: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/68.jpg)
Does God exist?
Dualist: God could exist independently of our minds
Monist: God only exists in our minds
![Page 69: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/69.jpg)
Julian Jaynes (1920-1997)
God’s voice?That’s just the other hemisphere talking.
![Page 70: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/70.jpg)
There are…recent examples [of TE], like one of the founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Movement, Ellen White. Born in 1827, she suffered a brain injury aged 9 that totally changed her personality. She also began to have powerful religious visions.
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TE)
Disruptions of this general area may also lead to increased ritual behavior.
![Page 71: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/71.jpg)
Michael Persinger
80% of Dr Michael Persinger's experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on …[left temporal lobe] brain areas gives them a feeling of 'not being alone'. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation.
![Page 72: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/72.jpg)
Scientists like Andrew Newberg want to see just what does happen during moments of faith. He worked with Buddhist, Michael Baime, to study the brain during meditation. By injecting radioactive tracers [PET scan] into Michael's bloodstream as he reached the height of a meditative trance, Newberg could use a brain scanner to image the brain at a religious climax.
So, religion is something that only happensoccasionally?
![Page 73: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/73.jpg)
Out-of-body experience?
![Page 74: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/74.jpg)
Even Richard Dawkins…
![Page 75: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/75.jpg)
The “God Module”
V.S. Ramachandran
People with temporal lobe epilepsyhad religious hallucinations
After seizures, they were more prone to prefer religious wordsover erotic words. Control grouppreferred erotic words.
![Page 76: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/76.jpg)
I see my wife; she produces activity in my visual cortex
Seizure or stimulation causes activity in my visual cortex even when my wife is not there. Therefore, my wife is always an illusion?
![Page 77: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/77.jpg)
Religion is not just:
• Feeling another presence
• An out-of-body experience
• Ritual
• A climactic moment of faith
![Page 78: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/78.jpg)
Just because activity in the brain correlates with experiences of God does not mean that God does not exist.
![Page 79: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/79.jpg)
Outline
• Introduction
• Neuroscience background
• Free Will
• Ethics
• God
• Conclusions
![Page 80: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/80.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
![Page 81: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/81.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
• This includes mechanisms of will, moral choice, and perceptions of God
![Page 82: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/82.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
• This includes mechanisms of will, moral choice, and perceptions of God
• From this it does not follow that:
![Page 83: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/83.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
• This includes mechanisms of will, moral choice, and perceptions of God
• From this it does not follow that:
• Free will is an illusion
![Page 84: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/84.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
• This includes mechanisms of will, moral choice, and perceptions of God
• From this it does not follow that:
• Free will is an illusion
• Utilitarianism is correct
![Page 85: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/85.jpg)
Conclusions
• Mental functions are produced by the brain
• This includes mechanisms of will, moral choice, and perceptions of God
• From this it does not follow that:
• Free will is an illusion
• Utilitarianism is correct
• God is an illusion
![Page 86: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/86.jpg)
Accept the science, but be critical of the non-scientific conclusions.
![Page 87: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/87.jpg)
Other interesting topics
• “Mind reading” fMRI scans• Remote control of rats• Neural control of prosthetic limbs• Mentally moving a cursor for shut in patients• Closed loop experiments: “Brain in a dish”• Split brain experiments• Hemineglect• Prosopagnosia• The case of H.M.; no new memories• “Gay” rams?• Spiritual machines?
![Page 88: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/88.jpg)
Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul?
By John Beggs
Thanks!
![Page 89: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/89.jpg)
Successfully uploaded 9.6MB file NeurosceinceRoomForSoulBeggs.ppt.
It may be accessed via this URL: https://www.slashtmp.iu.edu/public/download.php?FILE=jmbeggs/12502F84fuG
•
Or email me at: [email protected]
![Page 90: Modern neuroscience: Room for the soul? By John Beggs](https://reader033.vdocuments.us/reader033/viewer/2022061501/551c1049550346ad4f8b538c/html5/thumbnails/90.jpg)
Religious experience has a cognitive component
Differences betweenhappy emotions and religious thoughtsinvolve cognitive areas