Peter Chan

Soul, God, and Morality: a Critique of Two Religious Beliefs Peter Chan

Soul, God, and Morality is meant to take care of two religious beliefs: in the existence of God or deities, and the persistence of persons as souls in a spiritual hereafter. In contrast with the normal kind of introduction to the philosophy of religion, it is light on the theism-atheism issue, but heavy-footed against the theory of spiritual souls. Among other things, what this book presents is one sustained and decisive argument against the belief that a person's consciousness and memory are carried by the soul capable of persisting into a spiritual hereafter. The author contends that for reason of the problem of unconsciousness, and for what is now known of correlations that exist between brain and mind, the soul theory in all its forms is not trustworthy. As to the existence of God and deities, he further contends that the only justifiable position to take is to remain agnostically silent. However, despite the speculative nature of religion, the author believes that the altruistic posture of certain religion 'founders' is yet to be respected. To do so might still be considered as religious in an agnostic (with respect to the supernatural) and soul-less (neuroscientific) world. But he also holds that the basis of morality is actually grounded within human nature itself. As such, there is no excuse for not trying to be moral.