No. That answer is pretty clear from the now famous split brain experiments. It may seem like I just took a firm stand in favor of atheism and materialism, but neither is the case. As I have noted before, Dualism has never been the doctrine of any major church. Dualism is the view that body and soul consist of distinct substances, ontologically independent of one another. This is the gospel according to Walt Disney: the poor dog dies, but its vaporous, milky soul floats loose. By contrast, the teaching of Christianity (at least its major institutions) has always been the resurrection of the body. Christ didn't float out of the tomb, he got up and walked out. Why else was it necessary to roll away the stone? And as he did, so shall we do, if ... Or so the Gospel promises.
These sorts of metaphysical/theological questions are often thought to be irresolvable, but this one, I think, has been resolved. According to Dualism, the soul somehow inhabits the body during an ordinary lifetime (with occasional release time, if you believe in astral travel). My soul is the real "me," while my body is a mere vehicle. Of course the driver has to get his information from the world by means of the senses and the physical brain, and by those same devices has to steer the vehicle. It is pretty clear that physical factors can influence the soul. See: alcohol. But as to how the "immaterial soul" and the material body interact, no dualist could ever quite say. This is the famous interaction problem, and it has long been the major weakness of dualism. But however the connection takes place, this much seems clear: unlike the body, the soul of the dualists is one single thing. Information flows in, and the will flows out. And the soul is where our human consciousness is located. Nothing that happens to the brain can alter the fundamental unity of the soul.
The split brain experiments demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the soul is no more unified than the brain. The latter consists of a number of distinct organs, divided into two hemispheres. The left side of the body is directly hooked up the right hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. In most people, the two hemispheres are connected by a thick cable of nerves called the corpus callosum. What happens if the corpus callosum is cut, and the two halves of the brain can no longer communicate with one another? The answer, astonishingly, is almost nothing.
Cutting the CC is a radical treatment for severe epilepsy. It keeps the brain storm from crossing between the two hemispheres and so turning into a major seizure. Patients who undergo such a procedure will afterward report that nothing has changed. But everything has changed. Such a person is now in fact two people rather than one.
In the experiment, the split brain subject is asked to focus his eyes on a dot on a screen. Then a word like "cat" is flashed briefly to the right of the dot. The way the eyes and optical systems work, the subject will see the word only with his right eye. It will then be transferred to his left brain. Ask him what he say "cat." That's no problem, because the part of the brain that handles language is on the left. Now a similar word is flashed briefly to the left of the dot. Say: "pan." Now ask the subject what he saw, and he will say nothing. The word went to his right hemisphere, which is real good with pictures but can't talk or read or write. The right brain can't tell you what it saw. However, it can draw it. Put a pencil in the left hand of the subject (it has to be the left hand, because that's the hand controlled by the right brain), and he will draw you a picture of a pan.
If there really were an ontologically independent entity dwelling within the body and interacting with it, you might suppose it would at least be able to get the word "pan" from one side of the brain to the other. But no, once the corpus callosum is cut, all communication ceases. Consciousness of concepts and images, the work of the soul if anything is, now goes on in separate chambers. The human being has become bisouler.
I find nothing to be distressed about in this. Everything that is wonderful works in this way. A great painting is chemical pigment given form by the genius of the artist. No paint and canvass, no painting. A cathedral is stone and wood similarly ordered, but with human beings convening to prey; and it is that activity on the part of physical brains bringing left and right palms together, that is the soul of a church. No physical brains, no prayer. A human being is an extraordinarily complex organism, capable of doing the work of breathing, eating, praying, and philosophizing. We cannot understand the soul apart from the activity of some body. If indeed life after death is in the cards, the resurrection of the body is the only way we can understand it.
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