Last time I talked a little bit about the roll of genetics and environment in terms of our questioning of what a soul is. I also discussed the old Jewish notion of nefesh which can mean life in its full sense rather than a soul as a kind of substance. I suggested that it is this notion of soul as living that seems to best fit LDS notions. What I want to talk about now are a few of the common criticisms regarding a soul in a Mormon context.

The first concern was mentioned in the comments to last week’s post. That is the concern regarding the so-called “God spot” or “God gene.” Now I blogged about it last year, for those who are interested, here and here. Most of the controversy comes out of a recent book called The God Gene. The title is fairly misleading, since the author doesn’t think there is “a” gene that gives us religious experience. However he does argue for a biological basis for religious experience.

It is important to realize that first, the study is extremely controversial. As I mentioned in one of the above posts, there are some studies undermining the claims of the book. The basic idea is that in the temporal lobe there is a region which, when exposed to weak magnetic fields, produces religious experiences. The person claims to feel the presence of an entity and often make religious interpretations of the experience. The problem is that the experiments, when tested, run into problems. Some claim that when the experiment is conducted in a double blind test the phenomena disappears. That is, when neither the experimenter nor the subject know when the event being measured is actually occurring, the results simply don’t occur. Such double blind tests are essential in science since history has taught us that people are very suggestible. Even when scientists try not to affect the subjects, the mere fact they know what is going on often makes the subjects know if a real effect is going on. That’s why, for instance, in drug tests, it is essential that neither doctor nor patient know who is being given the drug and who is being given a placebo. Suggestibility is a very significant effect and not using double blind studies usually rules the whole study to be untrustworthy.

However even if this phenomena is proven, what does it establish? Nothing really. At best it tells us that a process of discerning spiritual experiences is found in a significant measure in the brain and not in any spirit substance making us up. However no one would say, for instance, that because some manipulation of the visual cortex makes us see sights that aren’t there that somehow the sight is “fake.” We simply recognize that we are fallible beings and that our mental processes sometimes mislead us. If we do have a way of detecting spiritual phenomena, one might well expect that it would be a brain structure dealing with it. (Although to be fair, it might also be a structure in our spirit bodies.) The point is, that such a brain process tells us nothing about the soul or spirits.

The second part of the study is that brain structures related to spirituality is tied to a specific gene, VMAT2. This gene seemed tied to meditative practices by Zen monks and Catholic monks. However it seems, based upon my limited reading, that this phenomena while related somewhat to Mormon religious practice, isn’t really something key in Mormon thought. We really don’t have a mystic tradition. Further Joseph Smith speaking about charismatic gifts said that without intelligence and information that the experience wasn’t genuine. He was more concerned with people “appearing” to speak in tongues and flopping around on the ground. (This was common in the religious movement called the Shakers from which many converts to Mormonism came from) Even in our interpretation of religious experience we tend to distinguish revelation from the good feelings of the spirit. While those feelings of the spirit might be related to the this gene or the part of the brain I mentioned earlier, that is but one part of what a Mormon considers religious experience. Further, as I said, Mormon materialism would strongly suggest that for any mental phenomena there is some physical structure or process which generates it. So finding any genes or parts of the brain related to spirituality actually is evidence for Mormon views and not a problem.

Of more concern with genetic aspects to religious experience is the idea that some people might be more spiritual than others because of their genetic makeup. However D&C 46:11 suggests that not everyone receives the same spiritual gifts. If it turns out that this is because of genetics and inheritance, should we somehow be upset? Does it matter what mechanism God uses to give spiritual gifts?

Some point to recent twin studies where people’s religiosity appears genetic and complain about how unfair this is. That is, how likely someone is to be religious in their life appears highly correlated to genetics. But we already recognize this as a part of life. Further the LDS notion of work for the dead suggests that all people will have an opportunity to accept the gospel in at least the next life. So, if some people are by nature disinclined to be religious, they’ll still have an opportunity to accept or reject the gospel in the next life. I’d just note that being religious need not be the great test of this life nor what everyone comes here to experience. The Lord seems to have made it so most humans are not exposed to the gospel or at best to a limited and often misleading portion of his gospel. That suggests that perhaps our judgments about fairness are misplaced.

The last thing I wished to touch upon while discussing the soul is the issue of Near Death Experiences (NDEs). Now many scientists are highly critical about NDEs. They note that much of the phenomena appears extremely similar to what occurs when the brain is short of oxygen. That is especially true of the tunnel of light which can be explained neurologically. Further many note that NDEs often have strong cultural elements to them. Thus what a Japanese Shintoist experiences is often radically different from what a Mormon would experience.

I simply don’t have time to go through a study and critique of NDEs. There are whole scientific journals on the subject. Further I acknowledge that many of the criticisms critics make are valid. However just because some experiences are false does not mean that all such experiences are false. In a sense it is no different than religious experience in general. Clearly people having religious experiences get many different ideas from them. Those ideas often conflict with each other. But that doesn’t mean that somehow all religious experience is untrustworthy. It may be that we strongly interpret such experiences based upon our culture. Further, LDS theology allows that God will give people experiences according to their limited understanding. (And I’d include that qualification of ourselves – the understanding of religious experiences in 1830 was often quite different from how they were understood by 1844)

I do want to touch upon a few aspects of NDEs that are related to the question of the soul. The first is a claim by by the philosopher J. P. Moreland that NDEs tell us that our souls are immaterial. The claim is that when a person experiences a NDE they don’t experience themselves as having a body. The problem with this interpretation is that in NDEs the person still has a specific place and time. That is they see themselves as floating above their body, moving down the hospital hallway or so forth. That notion of place and time suggests materiality to me. Further if we don’t “see” spirits in our everyday lives, why should we assume that a person having a NDE would see their spirit body anymore than we would? I’d also add that not all NDEs are missing bodies. Indeed there are thousands of years of tradition in which people in out of body experiences do have a body. (Often called an astral body) I’m not here to make a judgment on the reality of these experiences. (I suspect the majority aren’t accurate, but that doesn’t mean all are) Rather I just wish to point out that NDEs seem to suggest more the Mormon view of soul than other forms of Christianity.

I should add that science is investigating NDEs as a real out of body physical phenomena. Many hospitals have placed markers on shelves. Those markers can’t be seen by people walking in the room. However if someone does have an out of body experience where they are really floating above their body, they should be able to see them. The investigators question people claiming such out of body experiences at these hospitals to see if they can describe the markers. Thus far no one has.