Lots of references to the mind and the consciousness. There is no scientific definition of the former, and no consensus on the latter. If, as seems likely, they are emergent phenomena, then they are labels, and do not constitute things in their own right. Personally, I think that "mind" is unhelpful (and seems to derive from vitalism or dualism) and "consciousness" is downright misleading. The question "how do brains do what they do?" is the really relevant one, and we've made a number of very strong inroads into understanding the most complex mechanism known to us. We don't hear "why are livers magical?" yet physiologically they both originate via much the same physical mechanisms and from much the same raw materials as brains.
"Souls" are the hangover from a complete misunderstanding of what living creatures are and how they operate. These days, belief in them is wilful, not enlightened. It's generally based on the premise that "if it feels like it's what it is, then it probably is that". Yet time and again - and especially in the fields of psychology and neuroscience - that has not held up. The notions of will and volition as we experience them are looking under threat (as started in the 1970s by Benjamin Libet's experiments which showed that action potentials can originate before conscious awareness). If there was a shred of evidence for a soul, that would help; but they seem to be only wishful thinking originating from our fears of death, and the desire to transcend it. There's no evidence that either that happens (despite the fact that there would be 100,000,000,000 human souls alone kicking around to date), or any idea of how it could (other than "magic pixies"). Until it does, it remains very much in the "garbage" pile.
"Souls" are the hangover from a complete misunderstanding of what living creatures are and how they operate. These days, belief in them is wilful, not enlightened. It's generally based on the premise that "if it feels like it's what it is, then it probably is that". Yet time and again - and especially in the fields of psychology and neuroscience - that has not held up. The notions of will and volition as we experience them are looking under threat (as started in the 1970s by Benjamin Libet's experiments which showed that action potentials can originate before conscious awareness). If there was a shred of evidence for a soul, that would help; but they seem to be only wishful thinking originating from our fears of death, and the desire to transcend it. There's no evidence that either that happens (despite the fact that there would be 100,000,000,000 human souls alone kicking around to date), or any idea of how it could (other than "magic pixies"). Until it does, it remains very much in the "garbage" pile.
