Clive Hamilton's "The Freedom Paradox. Towards a Post Secular Ethics" (Sunday Forum)

by Debb , Wednesday, February 04, 2009, 12:16 (1567 days ago) @ James

» But the suggestion you seem to make is that people who do not believe in an
» immortal soul or "spirit" or whatever you want to call it, are
» determinists who do not think that mankind can change for the better.

I am sure there are many people who have a materialist outlook who are not reductionist, but there are many who are. For example, one young man wrote that a certain personality type is caused by the lack of a chemical in the brain and the lack of that chemical stops the individual experiencing prosocial emotions. It is that kind of reducing of everything to a chemical action that I find difficult to accept. I am not denying that chemical actions and interactions do take place, and that they have their part to play, but I would not want to explain human personality and behaviour in those terms.
»
» Most people I know who do not believe in some
» separate entity called the "soul" still think that behavior can be changed
» by cultural means, but that is going to take a long time because we have
» thousands if not millions of years of biological evolution to struggle
» against.

There was a long period of time when I did not believe in anything called soul or spirit. It was as though all the years of Christian experience just petered out, and I was left with something that felt less muddled, clearer. I started to believe that this material reality was all there was and that when we die, that is that. We leave behind only the effects of our actions, nothing more, and so it was important to do what good I could while I was alive to contribute to life on this earth. I would have agreed then, and I still do, that change can take place by cultural means and also that it will take millions of years to come to fruition.

After about a decade of that kind of thinking, I sat for some weeks with a close friend who was dying, and was there when she died, and was conscious of her spirit lingering in the room where she died. After that, I set out on a path towards a new kind of spirituality and eventually back to a new kind of Christian belief. So, now I believe in the soul and spirit (which I see as two different aspects of life), but it took a long time to get to that belief.
»
» The main problem with a belief in an immortal "soul" is that anyone who
» has had a loved one suffer brain damage, or have seen them suffer the slow
» death of Alzheimers has to wonder where "they" have gone. They have not
» gone to heaven because they are still here on earth in a nursing home.

Yes, it is a painful experience to watch someone "lose it", especially when someone who has always been calm and kind becomes so violently aggressive that they have to be restrained. For me that is the worst change that can come with some kinds of dementing illness. Where has the person gone? I don't think anyone has the answer to that.

» By understanding these forces we are in a much better position to try to
» change behaviors, like aggression and war by cultural means. Non belief in
» the immortal soul does not mean a descent into a mindless mechanical
» determinism.
I agree, James.