On Theism & Immaterial Minds

[FallentoReason]

Dualism incorporates all that. If one is a substance dualist, then the belief is that the mind is a combination of causal relations (i.e. complex neuronal structures and other physical aspects of the brain) and qualia (i.e. how we experience qualities and properties of things, such as an apple's "redness").

I understand what dualism tries to incorporate. That wasn't really what I was asking, but you have just demonstrated my problem with dualism claims. Saying the soul is responsible for qualia is tantamount to a "soul of the gaps" argument.

What I was really looking for, however, was the reason that you feel that both sides of the debate are on equal footing.

Oh my bad! I was still half-asleep when I responded.

Well, it seems to me that naturalism can't account for some things such as belief and knowledge -- let alone consciousness -- while a purely immaterial outlook is on par with pink unicorns. So perhaps, what I really meant to say was that both sides are equally extreme in their claims, therefore I think a more reasonable answer is somewhere in between e.g. dualism.