Religion, Neuroscience and New Physics in Dialogue : Stone Age Souls in Modern Minds

Can we live with being merely a brain with a history of being souls? Can our supra-nature, learnt in the crucible of religion and expressed in theology, survive without being exiled to the quantum mysteries of consciousness? Our very survival depends on these questions being answered and in a manner by which a non-expert can understand. The book explores these ideas and posits how we might be able to understand ourselves as merely brain without the confusion of pixie dust in the nanotubules, reorienting ourselves to the idea of Nature, and our humane ethical response. By looking at the challenge of neuroscience to identity and our souls, the book explores the tension of being scientific and theological and helps guide the reader to what can be said by either front in our axial age. The work places the soul, neuroscience and the new physics (as refuge for emergence of souls) into a conversation that considers what can be said about the Real of reality, including G-d. The book works theology, religion and science together so that each is given its voice and place in the conversation on how humans can become nature realists as a response to our challenges as a species with respect to climate change and worldwide pandemics. Cover 1 Front Matter 3 Half Title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Preface 11 Chapter 1-7 23 Chapter 1 Stone Age Souls 23 Why Does It Matter? 26 Positivism, Scientism and the Myth of Modernity 30 Returning the Bedrock of Essential Concepts: Do They Theologically Matter? 32 Humans are Uniquely Created by God with a Divine Purpose 35 Humans Are Uniquely Related to God on Account of This Creative Action or Word of God 36 Humans Are Free to Engage with This Unique Relationship, and in Fact, Some Kind of Afterlife or Extended Life Is Indeed Dependent on This Engagement 37 The Account of Divine Activity—Whether Torah or Jesus Christ—Is the Evidence of the Reality of the Above Points 40 Chapter 2 Modern Minds— Education to Reality? 43 Origins, and Models of Science and Theology 43 Let’s Get Physical 47 Cognitive Studies and Theological Anthropology10 51 Returning the Eden: Theological Anthropology 52 Emergent or Nonreductive Materialism 56 A Critique of Dualism 59 A “New” Emergence Theory 62 Chapter 3 Multiverses or the Home of God? 67 What Is Core Theory? 68 A Basic Quantum Mechanics 73 Understanding Symmetry 80 Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Theory 83 Re-Understanding Quantum Mechanics: String Theory and Supersymmetry Redux 87 The Metaphysical Implications 91 Chapter 4 Three Great Errors: Deconstructing Nature, Naturalism and Scientism: Fictions or Delusions? 95 Nature and the Natural Redux 96 Rejecting Reductionism 102 Making Decisions 106 A Philosophy of Nature Realism, the Role of Religion and the Image of God 108 Chapter 5 Returning the Soul: Fictions or Illusions? 111 Culture, Civilization and Gods 112 When Religion Becomes a Delusion? 116 Education to Reality? 118 The Soul and Science 120 Chapter 6 Can We Be Good? What Models Do We Have? 123 Theological Responses to Postmodernism 127 A Postfoundationism or a Reconstruction? 131 A Morality of Sentiment 134 Poetic Naturalism or Nature Realism 137 Toward a Theological Theology 138 Chapter 7 Concluding Postscript or We’re Okay? 141