Why Science CAN Address The Hypothesis Of A Soul

The vast majority of humans accept that we have an immaterial soul and that science has nothing to say about it.  This rather lengthy excerpt from the author's book, "The Soul Fallacy: What Science Shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs", challenges that belief.

You don’t have a soul: The real science that debunks superstitious charlatans

The following is condensed from a discussion with two scientists and myself. One of the scientists wants to belief that there is a supernatural and tries to support his position by saying that the functions of the mind are immaterial and that “spirit” is supernatural (making a distinction without a difference, a logical fallacy). He offered no evidence for any of this, of course. The lesson? Even some advanced scientists can let their desires overrule science-based thinking. This scientist tried to compare Cyberspace with the mind to make his point. Here are the major points we made:

Cyberspace is made up of transistors and capacitors in computers. Love is a chemical process and chemical processes exert force. Cyberspace is a place of electricity that also exerts force. 

Cyberspace exists only because the 0’s and 1’s exist on a hard drive or in RAM somewhere. Cut out those 0’s and 1’s and you are literally cutting out a piece of “cyberspace”. And then, of course, you can put those pieces into a box. 

Your mind exists inside the network of your neurons, just like cyberspace exists inside the network of computers. Start cutting out pieces of the brain and putting them in a box (to use your previous analogy) and you will be cutting out pieces of the person’s mind. 

Ideas are groupings of neurons that are firing in certain patterns as are behaviors and music is actual sound-waves moving through the air. 

The mind isn’t immaterial. it is layers and layers of neural pathways that are processing signals. Stop those signals from processing and the mind goes away. 

Information IS the electrons and capacitors. Take away the electrons or the capacitators and the information no longer exists.  

Example. Hydrogen is not water. Oxygen is not water. Combine the two in a specific formation and you get water. The same is true of the information in a computer. Combine the hardware with the electricity in a specific configuration and you get information. Take any part of the hardware away, and the information disappears, just as would happen if you took the oxygen away from water.  

Computers use 0’s and 1’s to store information. The exact medium changes depending on the storage device. Those 0’s and 1’s when put into the correct pattern ARE THE information. The information is a physical thing made up of 0’s and 1’s put into a specific pattern. Change the pattern and the information is gone. 

The internet and love and anger are all material as they all exert force. 

Computers don’t have any capacity to access and display immaterial things. Only material things