Dust To Dust? Mind-Body Dualism In Multiple Fields Of Research

Mulder & Jobs, Madonna & Spafford

1990s television aired two legendary primetime slogans: first, a poster on an FBI basement office wall that says, “I WANT TO BELIEVE,” and the other an ever constant tagline to begin every episode, “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.” On one occasion however, the opening tagline was changed in episode eleven of the seventh season of the X-Files, surely making Anselm proud: “BELIEVE TO UNDERSTAND.” After years of searching, Mulder learns the fate of his abducted sister. Overlooking a mass grave of children, Mulder’s voiceover says, “I want to believe so badly; in a truth beyond our own… in what cannot and will not be destroyed. I want to believe… that which is born still lives and cannot be buried in the cold earth, but only waits to be born again at God’s behest.”¹ When the show concluded two years later, the series’ final scene ended with Mulder reaching for and holding Scully’s cross necklace and saying, “I want to believe that the dead are not lost to us.”

For those averse to otherworldly fiction, at the other end of reality a pioneer of technological innovation also hoped for the soul’s existence. Dying of cancer, Steve Jobs reflected to his biographer,

“For most of my life, I’ve felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eye. I like to think that something survives after you die. It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures. But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch. Click! And you’re gone… Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices.”²

Both writers of primetime science fiction and modern biographers of technological innovators can powerfully grip their audiences’ emotions with a pointed reflection on the soul’s existence. How is it that the hope of humanity being made of more than we can see connects regardless of who the audience is? Because it is a timeless question with eternal ramifications as old as the Bible’s oldest book (Job 14:10): “Man dieth, and wasteth away: Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?”

In my very first philosophical paper, I aim to show that the existence of the soul is not only a heartfelt longing but a truth we can confidently affirm. First, I will look at historical views of the soul’s existence. Religious considerations will then be given, followed by specific examples of paranormal and scientific research that argue for something more than the physical body. This will lead to a selection of philosophical arguments. Finally, the paper will conclude with reflections to be considered. In addition to trusting Scripture, historical views, religious beliefs, paranormal experiences, scientific research, and philosophical arguments also show that it is both faithful and reasonable to believe in the existence of the soul. While our physicalist culture marches to the tune, “You know that we are living in a material world,” we can sing with full assurance, “Even so, it is well with my soul.”

Historical Views with White Horse Inn & JMac

In this section I will give a brief overview of three main views concerning the human constitution. In California, there are two well known Christian authors from different streams: Michael Horton and John MacArthur. Though both of them would prefer to be called Christian ministers far more than philosophers, the philosophical explanations in their systematic works helped me to form the structure of this section—their study is respectable and their language is accessible. In both of their systematic theologies, they discuss the issue of what it means to be human. In chapter 12 of Horton’s work and chapter 6 of MacArthur’s, they show three views on the human constitution: trichotomy, dichotomy, and monism.

Trichotomy is the belief that mankind is made of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Focusing on the Christian heritage, MacArthur writes, “Trichotomism was popular among the Alexandrian fathers of the early church, especially Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–ca. 215) and Origen (ca. 184–ca. 254). This view went through a general decline until the nineteenth century, when it became more popular.”³ Horton’s focus is less ecclesiastical. He shows that the Platonic view of humanity is centered on one’s soul. In the third century, Plotinus developed a three-part system: “the One (eternal, absolute, transcendental), the Nous (ideas, concepts), and the World Soul (including individual souls, incorporeal and immortal).”⁴ His system lead to the ranking of humanity’s parts. He shows that history records the Gnostics used this system, tired to blend it with Christianity, and the result was that the spirit ranked higher and was more important than the body.

Dichotomists believe that humanity is made of a soul and a body, with the terms soul and spirit being interchangeable. There are biblical arguments between the trichotomist and dichotomist views, but the main takeaway from a philosophical viewpoint is that both of these views are not held by physicalists. MacArthur focuses on the main consideration for this paper, that there’s more than meets the eye: “Both dichotomism and trichotomism correctly affirm that man consists of more than matter.”⁵

In the philosophy of mind debate, monism is the opponent between those who believe that what we see is what we get and those who hold that there is more than meets the eye. While this may be seen as the more modernistic view, Horton lists several from ancient history that held to forms of monism: “… ancient Indian philosophers (around 600 BC) [and] Thales, Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Epicurus were defending it in Greece.”⁶

A Plurality of Religions; A Singular Conclusion

Spanning thirteen volumes and totaling over 10,000 pages, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics conveniently compares the concept of the soul among various religions. Jewish thought is the basis for the New Testament view of the soul. However, its entry on the soul shows that Old Testament views, Jewish works that would be considered non-canonical, and Paul’s (a Jew) teaching on our anthropology together form a Jewish understanding that humanity is not only materialistic physical bodies. “The psychological terminology and ideas of the NT are, as we might expect, largely continuous with those of the OT and the subsequent Jewish literature… It is necessary to emphasize the fact that the NT psychology is, in general, continuous with that of the OT and the Apocrypha… [and Paul’s writings] offering the most important and original development of the OT conceptions.”⁷

The Buddhist conception of the immaterial is summarized in this way: “My ‘self,’ as changing constantly, undergoes at death but a relatively deeper change; my new ‘body,’ determined by my kamma, becomes one fitted to that new sphere, wherever it be, in which my past thought and will have determined that my new thought, call it soul or spirit or mind, be renewed.”⁸

Another non-Western thought, Hinduism, teaches the reincarnation of the soul. “At an unknown date, perhaps in the 7th or 8th cent. b.c., the belief in transmigration and karma was formed among a small group of thinking men in N. India and gradually spread from them to the whole Hindu people.”⁹

The religion of Islam would also not be materialistic. “The soul is an incorporeal substance… it is immortal. The πνεῦμα is its instrument, by means of which it animates the body and renders it capable of motion and perception. These views were adopted, and even elaborated, by the Muslim philosophers of the 11th or 12th and later centuries.”¹⁰

More religious examples could be given, but these show that a Christian is not alone in holding to a belief in an immaterial, eternal soul that is distinct from the body. Though the specifics would not be entertained by New Testament Christianity, they still show that belief in the existence of a human soul spans many religions and precedes Christianity by many centuries. Where the soul goes when it departs the body will vary greatly from one religion to another, but that the soul exists is not debated. Therefore, a sampling of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam all show that a human soul is part of being human. While a faithful Christian will not hold to religious pluralism in regard to the soul’s salvation, a faithful Christian can point to these religions’ dualistic philosophies and show that the soul’s existence is reasonable.

Spooky Mulder

Though the X-Files were entertainment, history is filled with stories of unexplainable events (the Bible is a good place to start). I usually use my final papers in the adult SS class that I teach for one or two lessons per year; however, I would lose most of them at this point. Why is that? Why does the most supernatural yet genuine religion in history now avoid talk of anything supernatural? I suppose some of it is fear of being labeled with those who lie, embellish, or (forgive the generalization) are just plain crazy. But, as argued by the very respected Mike Heiser (recently deceased and formerly the longtime scholar-in-residence for Logos Bible Software), if you have 10,000 reports of a paranormal experience, all it takes is one genuine event to change the entire paradigm. Now, I am well aware that historical, religious, and philosophical arguments will carry more weight. However, there are growing numbers willing to give an ear to explanations for the “unexplainable.”¹¹ While listening to NPR (not typically friendly toward anything religious, supernatural, or unexplainable), to my surprise, UpFirst had an episode in July 2022 about near-death experiences.¹²

For personal interests, I have listened to more recounting of NDEs than I can remember. Many of them describe events that, if true, blow up the paradigm as Mike Heiser says—seeing unknown family members that are revealed later to be ancestors, surgery patients identifying objects in the operating room nearby or pointing out the color of the shoelaces on a nurse that quickly entered then left while the patient was unconscious, etc. Personally, I have no reason to believe that every single person is lying; some might try to get book deals, but many are told by normal, smart, working, “not-crazy” people.¹³ Since these stories can be so subjective and unverifiable, it is promising in this area of philosophical thought that reputable Christians would touch the issue.

In “Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality,” Gary Habermas and J.P. Moreland follow an outline that appears to be fairly typical for a work on the philosophy of mind. The oddity is that three of the seventeen chapters are given to NDEs. Even a summary of those three chapters would require more than the space of this paper, but I will summarize the recurring points. First, the people who report an NDE are rarely seeking fame or money. Often, the person’s story will be met with skepticism or even ridicule. Typically, to share an NDE is a risk and not a guarantee of any reward. Second, people of all ages have reported NDEs. Third, NDEs are not limited to Christianity. Fourth, NDEs can occur at various “stages” of the dying process (the authors categorize them into three dying-states: near death, heart stoppage, brain activity ceasing). Finally, they are often described as a reality more real than this reality.

An NDE is no guarantee that one has seen Jesus (many do not). Moving from philosophy to theology for a moment, the authors concede that demonic deception could be involved.¹⁴ But, when the authors make their final synthesis and conclusions, they arrive at this point: “The data show that some NDErs apparently report objective data that could not have been gained by any natural means. We also think that this approach can be developed into what we term a minimalistic case for at least the initial stages of an afterlife [and therefore the existence of an immaterial soul].”¹⁵

Another paranormal acronym is an OBE, an out-of-body experience. Not all NDEs result in an OBE, but some do. And, not all OBEs occur near death. The main consideration here is that an unexplainable event adds credence to the explanation that humanity is more than bodily matter. There is “something-else-ness” to our constitution. Again, we must be cautious; these could be demonic counterfeits. But all it takes is one genuine OBE to change things, and we have that in Paul. Theological implications aside, the New Testament records a possible OBE description in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul refrained for 14 years from telling people about his experience. However, his reason was not as ours would be. He did not fear being ridiculed; he feared the opposite—being the object of man-centered attention that came with supernatural revelations. It pained him to reveal his experience to the Corinthians. The reason he kept it secret for 14 years is because mystical ascents were not unheard of in the worldview of his culture.¹⁶ In Paul’s day, an OBE would not have put you on the front page of the World Weekly News tabloid with Bat Child and a living Elvis—it would have put you on the front of Christianity Today along with the super-apostles Paul warned the Corinthians about. In Mark Seifrid’s commentary of Paul’s OBE experience, he gives this wonderful philosophical truth in favor of dualism and against monism: “His description of his revelatory transport challenges any monistic anthropology, i.e., any attempt to reduce human existence to a bodily existence[.]”¹⁷

Scientific Scully

“I’ve always held science as sacred. I’ve always put my trust in the accepted facts. And what I saw last night, for the first time in my life, I don’t know what to believe.” In the pilot episode of the X-Files, after Scully says she is well-studied on Einstein, Mulder replies that “in most of my work the laws of physics rarely seem to apply.” As time passed, Scully’s field reports revealed an evolution of her preconceived beliefs. Though this made for great television, it also describes a materialist-turned-dualist brain surgeon.

Moving to the scientific realm, a prominent figure in Habermas and Moreland’s work is Wilder Penfield. He was a brain surgeon from Princeton University who was responsible for mapping brain functions to regions in the brain. At first, he was a materialist. However, one test was “quite a blow to his materialism.” He would have held to the notion that all matters of the will, mind, and decision process were purely material matters of the physical brain. During tests, he could get a patient to have various physical reactions based on how he probed their brain. But, when it came to immaterial matters of the will, he was forced to confess that “there is no place … where electrical stimulation will cause a patient to believe or to decide.”¹⁸ He eventually came to this conclusion: “For my own part, after years of striving to explain the mind on the basis of brain action alone, I have come to the conclusion that it is simpler (and far easier to be logical) if one adopts the hypothesis that our being does consist of two fundamental elements.”¹⁹

More of Moreland

Keeping with author J.P. Moreland, he has also written on the soul from a non-paranormal angle. In the fifth chapter of his philosophical book “The Soul: How We Know It’s Real and Why It Matters,” Moreland gives five main arguments “for Substance Dualism and the Immaterial Nature of the Self.”²⁰ I will give the main points of each. First, “Our basic awareness of self” says that we recognize we are not identical with our body. We are “aware of our own self” even if we lose a limb. “If my arm is cut off, I do not become four-fifths” of who we were before. Second, “Unity and the first-person perspective” says that we are more than physical objects. Why? Because if we were only physical then we could be completely described in physical terminology. Therefore, since we are described in non-physical ways we must have a non-physical substance.²¹ Third, “the modal argument” is a little more challenging to follow. He says that we can possibly be disembodied or not possibly disembodied. Since it is possible to consider what it would be like to be in our body or out of our body, then we are not our brain or our body. In this argument, I fall back to my love for technology with this example that may make sense if it does not crash. Data can or cannot be on a floppy disk. I can imagine data on a 1.44 MB floppy disk, and I can imagine data on my first external storage from Circuit City, a 128 MB USB thumb drive. Therefore, since I can imagine data on both a floppy disk and a USB drive, my data is not the floppy disk or the USB drive but only stored on the floppy disk or the USB drive. My data is a separate entity. Fourth, “free will, morality, responsibility, and punishment” is used to show that we are agents in events that happen and not simply a collection of one physical causation after another. This would likely have the most familiar points as it discussed free will and not robot-like in our decision-making. Fifth and finally, the “sameness of self over time” uses the examples of a heap of boards becoming a raft and a distant cloud that appears to be one object to show that though the parts may change, the object remains the same. Our biological matter is constantly in a state of change with gaps at the atomic level (like a cloud has gaps as droplets replace droplets and a raft has gaps with boards that can be replaced). Yet, no matter what replacements take place in the droplets, rafts, or our biological cells, the identity of the object/person does not change. The identity is not specifically tied to the minute parts of the whole.

Far beyond the scope of this paper is another area for the dualist to consider: if we are both bodies and souls, then how do they relate to one another? Moreland gives examples of worry, chemistry, medicine, feelings, mental states, and other scenarios to consider how the two parts of humanity affect each other as whole humans. Why do we cry when we are sad? Why do we smile when we are happy? Why are there bodily reactions for things that are not physical causes? Conceding that there is more to the body and soul dynamic than we realize, he plainly states in this section of the book that “the soul is a very complicated thing.”²² Moreland is not alone in admitting the difficulties. In volume six of Jonathan Edwards’s works, “Scientific and Philosophical Writings,” we have his notes on “The Mind.” Here, we read JE’s thoughts on the physical sensations of the body, and we also read about how the immaterial part of man perceives things. JE shows the closeness of these two by showing their relationship when something happens in the other: some may be very drastic²³ and some may be imperceivable. Nonetheless, “The mind is so united with the body that an alteration is caused in the body, it is probable, by every action of the mind.”²⁴ But as with Moreland, JE also does not have all the answers to the mind-body union. Discussing how exactly the immaterial part of man works in relation to God, he says God knows even when we do not: “It need therefore be no difficulty with us, [this all works according] to some rule, no doubt, only we know not what.”²⁵

Reflections: Chicken Soup for the Soul

In preparing this paper, there were a few personal reflections that I noted for possible application in private and in ministry. If all people are bodies and souls, what does this mean for daily experience? I will simply list these reflections before concluding… if all people have both a body and a soul, then what does that mean in regards to racism? We should teach that a different colored body has a soul like ours. If we are bodies and souls preaching to bodies and souls using physical means such as a mouth that forms words that creates sound waves that goes into the ears of another body that is processed by their brain, then we should teach that the preaching and believing of the gospel is more than a physical chain reaction. There must be an unseen power at work within one’s soul to not just hear it but to really hear it. How does a body get a soul? (Due to space I left out the debates regarding preexistence, creationism, and traducianism.). How would an understanding of dualism (regardless of whether one holds to preexistence, creationism, or traducianism) affect one’s understanding of the personhood of the unborn? Or, what about the dignity of those at end-of-life? How would understanding that a human is both body and soul affect how beauty and handsomeness outweigh the soul in our day? As bodies and souls living in a material and immaterial world, when I am attacked spiritually should I look for spiritual causes instead of physical enemies?

Finally, why does it hurt so badly to look at a deceased loved one? If they also are a soul and a body, why do I grieve when I look at them? Could it be that the soul in my body can sense that their body no longer has its soul? Is it possible that relationships and the hopes, longings, desires, loves, and joys that I experience in my physical body are also enjoyments of the soul that last after death and will also be experienced in greater ways at the resurrection? How would this affect my pastoral care?

Conclusion

I have used a wide variety of sources to show that it is universal to wonder about the existence of the soul and that it is reasonable to believe in the existence of the soul: television series, computer history biographies, historical views, religious beliefs, paranormal experiences, scientific research, and philosophical arguments. In light of what we have seen, the burden is not on the dualists to prove the existence of the soul. The burden is on the monist to prove—while going against reason, history, theology, philosophy, science, and the unexplainable—that the soul does not exist. That one can hear such a fundamental question asked in so many representations of humanity, culture, and society shows it is a universal question. And concerning Christianity, it is the only thing that offers a universal solution. A biblically faithful mind-body dualistic understanding of the philosophy of mind is not purely academic—it takes us back to the cross of Jesus Christ where the body of Christ was tortured and the soul of Christ was in travail so that our bodies might be resurrected and our souls might be redeemed.

Back to Princeton

Many years after Dr. Wilder Penfield’s experiments on the human brain, we find another Princetonian who has seen too much to ever be convinced of a physicalist worldview. Last year, I had the opportunity to schedule a call with Dr. Dale Allison, professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, concerning the subject of my experience mentioned above in footnote 13. His 2022 book, “Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age,” did not really teach me anything new, but it did help me to know that someone with such an “academic title” has thought deeply what I have wondered about for almost two decades.

“What, then, do I believe? I believe I observed the impossible… [perhaps] the Supreme Being was trying to convince a skeptical historian of early Christianity that something supernatural could have happened to Jesus’s lifeless body. If I saw for myself that a piece of matter can disappear from one location and then reappear in another, should it not be easier for me to believe that Jesus literally rose from the dead… this outlandish experience, all by itself, tells me that there is more on earth than my science teachers imagined. The world must be far odder than we regularly take it to be. Another lesson I come away with is that I cannot be closed-minded about the incredible stories that so many others often tell. To behold the impossible with one’s own eyes inexorably raises the odds that others have beheld it, too. Of course, for a historian such as myself, this opens Pandora’s box. But I did not open the box. I just happened by when the lid popped off. And I cannot put it back on without lying to myself.”²⁶

My opening thesis stated that “in addition to trusting Scripture, historical views, religious beliefs, paranormal experiences, scientific research, and philosophical arguments also show that it is both faithful and reasonable to believe in the existence of the soul.” Yes, the human constitution is made of a physical body and an immaterial soul, but perhaps those same categories of arguments could be taken a step further in a future paper. Not just humanity, but what if the entire creation is dualistic—I would not say nonhuman material has a soul, but perhaps the constitution of all creation has both a physical form and an immaterial form. I would not even think of opening that box, but in October 2005 I just happened by when the lid popped off. And like Allison, I’d be lying to myself if I tried to put the lid back on.

1. Amy M. Donaldson, We Want to Believe: Faith and Gospel in the X-Files (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2011). (Note: though the title is perhaps , Donaldson got her Phd from NO ↩
2. Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 571. ↩
3. John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 422. ↩
4. Michael Horton, The Christian Faith : A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2011), 374. ↩
5. Ibid., 423. ↩
6. Ibid., 375. ↩
7. Hartley Burr Alexander, C. A. F. Rhys Davids, et al., “SOUL,” ed. James Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908–1926), 733. ↩
8. Ibid., 733 ↩
9. Ibid., 742 ↩
10. Ibid. 746. ↩
11. Why should a Christian care? Because, if nonbelievers seek answers for the “unexplainable” events of life, the church should be prepared to listen and respond with [my phrase] “a theology of the paranormal.” Why? Because, if we don’t give them God’s truth the devil will give them his. ↩
12. Lee Hale, “How a Near-Death Experience Could Change the Way You Live.” NPR.org, July 25, 2022.‌ https://www.npr.org/2022/07/25/1112563553/near-death-experience-research ↩
13. If the noncondescending tone of this section hasn’t already revealed my hand, it has been about 6,700 days since October 2005 when I began an ordinary shift one night at work. It wasn’t an NDE (or a UFO or Bigfoot or anything “religious”), but almost two decades have passed since three of us at work saw what we saw. I’ve replayed that night in my mind thousands upon thousands of times, and I still have no answer for what we saw take place. ↩
14. For example, it would take some philosophical and theological maneuvering to reconcile separate NDEs that say Jesus is real, all religions are the same, all religions are false, God is the universe, and we are all one consciousness. I think of Dale Allison’s wisdom on this: “The task, when facing a multiplicity of competing claims, is not to resign in despair but to work all the harder, to endeavor to find, if possible, the truth amid the discordant voices. We should sort the wheat from the chaff, not toss everything out to be burned.” (Allison, 188). ↩
15. Gary R. Habermas and J. P. Moreland, Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004), 218. ↩
16. 1 Enoch 14:8, 39:3-4, and 71:16–17 are given as examples by Seifrid. ↩
17. Mark A. Seifrid, The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Second Letter to the Corinthians, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2014), 439. ↩
18. Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, 167. ↩
19. Ibid., 168. ↩
20. J. P. Moreland, The Soul: How We Know It’s Real and Why It Matters (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 145. ↩
21. This point was new to me, and it was powerful. It makes one wonder what Old Testament prophets who preached against idolatry would say if they heard the affectionate terms we give to non-physical objects, such as cars, computers, clothes, etc. ↩
22. Moreland, The Soul, 135. ↩
23. One of my all-time favorite JE passages (on Luke 22:44) is about the relationship between Christ’s body and soul: “The anguish of Christ’s soul at that time was so strong as to cause that [awful] effect on his body. But his love to his enemies, poor and unworthy as they were, was stronger still. The heart of Christ at that time was full of distress, but it was fuller of love to vile worms: his sorrows abounded, but his love did much more abound. Christ’s soul was overwhelmed with a deluge of grief, but this was from a deluge of love to sinners in his heart sufficient to overflow the world, and overwhelm the highest mountains of its sins. Those great drops of blood that fell down to the ground were a manifestation of an ocean of love in Christ’s heart.” ↩
24. Jonathan Edwards, Scientific and Philosophical Writings, ed. John E. Smith and Wallace E. Anderson, Corrected edition., vol. 6, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1997), 339. ↩
25. Ibid., 339. ↩
26. Dale C. Allison Jr., Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022), 167–168. ↩