(January 7, 2016 at 3:27 pm)Drich Wrote: Here is a simple way to look at it: The Brain is just a receiver/OS that drives the hardware/Your bodily function. The soul is the you 'program' located in 'the cloud.'That's one way of looking at it and a common metaphor. I've used it myself. But it is still a metaphor and, as I'm starting to realize, not the best one. Those who are committed to physical causal closure and metaphysical monism bring up the 'interaction problem'. While this is an argument from ignorance, it remains persuasive to many. It is not an insurmountable objection but doing so inevitably leads to a larger more complicated discussion about nature of causality. If mind is an emergent property, as many physicalists claim, then it is almost by definition an essential one that cannot be reduced. Most physicalists will deny that there are essential properties because that opens the door to consideration of ideas like formal and final causes.
That said, the idea of a ectoplasmic-type soul, distinct from the body isn't an exclusively Christian idea nor is it even a necessary Christian doctrine. If living human beings are hylomorphic unions, then a soul without a body isn't a complete human, hence Christians can say that the dead 'sleep' until they are revived in new glorified bodies.
