Download File - A2 Philosophy of Religion

LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE
SOUL (LESSON 4)
MR. DEZILVA
FEBRUARY 4TH
RICHARD DAWKINS (1941 - )
• Context
• A Materialist
• An evolutionary biologist
• Wrote The Selfish Gene where he addresses what humans
are
• Wrote River out of Eden, which focuses on life after death
and what the soul is for him
DAWKINS ON THE SOUL
• The Materialist View:
• No part of a person is non-physical
• The consciousness cannot be separated from the brain
• The Selfish Gene
• Humans are no more than survival machines
• Humans are the vehicles of genes, looking to replicate
themselves in order to survive into the next generation
• “Survival machines – robot vehicles, blindly programmed to
preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”
• The River out of Eden
• Life is just “bytes and bytes of digital information”
• Self-awareness is a result of evolutionary advantages
DAWKINS CONTINUED
• Immortality of the soul arguments have no sound
basis
• Based on wish-fulfillment and for those who fear death
• Consciousness is not some “magic ingredient” that
gives humanity special status as the “image of
God”- it is just an aspect of evolution
• Consciousness is no more than electro-chemical events
within the brain.
CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING OF THE
SOUL
• General Christian Outlook
• God gave people souls as a “divine spark” and
made in God’s image
• Differed between animals (Genesis 2:7) – God
breathed life into man and became a living
being.
• The soul will be judged by God after death
• The decisions that we have made (or not
made) will result in us being judged by God and
facing positive or negative consequences.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOUL
• Characteristics of the soul:
• The soul is the subject of mental and
spiritual states – the essential person.
• The soul encompasses the mind and the
spirit
• The soul includes reason and intellect, but
also goes beyond it.
• A person has the spiritual capacity to
develop a relationship with God – this
comes from the soul.
ORIGINS OF THE SOUL
• Two Christian theories on the origin of the soul:
• Creationism
• The belief that God creates each individual soul every time
a new baby is born.
• When the soul becomes one with the body is debated and
leads to discussion of abortion and murder
• Traducianism
• The belief that the soul is inherited from the parents (similarly
to how eye colour is inherited)
• Believed by earlier Christians; follows from the idea of
Original Sin and the souls were tainted through inheritance.
John Hick (1922 – 2012)
• Context:
• Had a strong religious experience that led him to
accept evangelical Christianity
• Affirmed to the idea that God allows evil because
it helps us develop as humans into virtuous
creatures.
• Argued for religious pluralism
• Wrote a crucial book about life after death and
the soul entitled Death and Eternal Life
HICK ON THE SOUL
• Stems from the Irenaean Theodicy
• Based on the idea that the whole of this earthly life is a vale
of soul making – a testing ground for people in which they
develop moral character.
• The presence of evil helps people to grow and develop
• Hick extends this by claiming that the soul needs a body in
order to continue with its journey in the afterlife and
continue the evolutionary process in which people
continued to learn.
• Replica Theory
• The soul is capable of everlasting life with God (it is not
unchanging like Plato’s soul)
• There is a physical rebirth in which the body is replicated by
God (More on this when we talk about reincarnation)
CHRISTIANITY CONTINUED
• Richard Swinburne
• The Evolution of the Soul
• The soul and the body are distinct from one another – thus,
the soul is capable of survival after death
• Things about us can be explained, but not always in
physical truths
• The most important aspects of us as a person are not found
in the physical bodies
• The soul is unique: capable of logic, order, complex thought
• The soul is aware of its own freedom to make choices
• The soul is aware of moral obligation (recognises goodness)
• Our souls allow for us to have consciousness
• Keith Ward
• Defending The Soul
• A response to scientists that claim humans are just physical beings
• Without the soul, morality becomes a matter of personal choice
and tastes, but we need the moral claims in order to progress
• The moral claims come from God and help us achieve that
special dignity of being human (rather than animal)
• Without the soul, humanity lacks any sense of final purpose
• Refers to Genesis to include the idea that man was made
from material form, but filled with the spirit of God and given
the goal of his existence.