There are two more questions about the soul that I want to address in this series of posts (scroll down for the first two posts on this topic). The first is the question of how two completely disparate substances, one material (the brain) can interact with another that's immaterial (the mind or soul).
In philosophy this is called the Interaction Problem, and has been said by some philosophers to be the most overrated problem in all of philosophy.
The first thing to say about it is that the fact that we cannot explain how something happens is not a reason to think that it does not happen. Isaac Newton could not explain how gravity worked but that didn't deter him from believing that it did.
Likewise, contemporary physicists may not be able to explain certain quantum phenomena like superposition or quantum entanglement, but they can show in their labs that these phenomena occur.
In the same way, the difficulty in explaining mind/brain interaction is not a sound reason for rejecting the claim that these substances do interact.
Perhaps an analogy can be found in the interaction between the information stored on a hard drive and the image on your monitor. Although information is stored in a pattern of zeroes and ones, the information is not the pattern, nor is it material. Yet somehow the material computer is able to convert this immaterial information into a physical image - which is material - on the screen that has meaning - which is immaterial - to the viewer.
Another analogy: When you inadvertently stub your toe an electrical (material) impulse travels along the nerve fibers in your leg to the brain. In the brain this electricity generates a series of electrochemical reactions (material) that result in the sensation of pain (immaterial). How the immaterial sensation arises from molecules of chemical compounds reacting with each other no one knows, but it's obvious that it happens.
The second question I'd like to consider is this: What difference does it make in my life or yours whether we believe we have souls or not?
One way to approach this question is to point out that if we believe that we are fundamentally an immaterial soul or mind it makes several other beliefs much easier to hold. For example:
It's very difficult to maintain a belief that we have free will if all we are is matter. Matter is subject to the laws of physics and chemistry, and if we're solely material beings then our choices are all the product of those laws. Any control we think we have over them is an illusion.
Furthermore, if we have no free will, if all our choices are determined by our brain chemistry, then there's really no moral right or wrong. Morality depends upon the ability to make genuine choices, and if we can't make genuine choices, if our choices are determined for us by factors over which we have no control, then we're not much different than animals and the concept of human dignity has no purchase.
If, though, we are an immaterial soul, then perhaps it's this soul that's the seat of our free choice.
If we have a mind we not only have an answer to the question of why we believe we're a self but also an answer to the further question of what makes us the same self over time.
If we're just matter then there's nothing significant about us that does not change with time. Our appearance, our personality, our memories all change, so if our material bodies make us who we are we're confronted with the fact that we're in a state of constant flux, we're a different person from year to year.
If that's so, how can I be held responsible for things someone else who had my name but was not me said or did a decade ago? On the other hand, if we are an immaterial soul, then perhaps it's this soul that gives us continuity and makes us the same person over time.
Moreover, if we believe that we are a soul that possesses a body it's much easier to also believe that we survive the death of our bodies. If our bodies are all there is to us then life after bodily death becomes much harder, if not impossible, to account for. If there is life after death then this life takes on meaning and significance that it would not otherwise have if we are simply annihilated at the conclusion of this existence.
And, of course, if in the world there are immaterial substances like mind or soul then it's easier to believe that other immaterial minds, such as God, exist.
So, ideas have consequences. The consequences of believing that we are souls are profound.
