One of the things I like about Andrew Sullivan’s blog is that he links to an amazing variety of material. Yesterday, for example, there were links to essays on agnosticism, the Pope’s visit to Britain, Susanna Heschel’s takedown of the same Pope’s link of atheism and Nazism, and the continuing power of confession on former Catholics, in addition to other fare. Each of these deserves close reading, reflection, and might be worthy of comment.

However, the one that takes the case is this piece from a scientist who seems to think he has found incontrovertible proof for the non-existence of the soul. He cites the case of a stroke victim who cannot recognize her own arm. He concludes:

Now consider yourself. Consider your own left arm. It feels perfect, under your control, a part of you, exactly where it should be. But this unified perception relies on neuronal machinery humming in the background, far beneath conscious awareness. Your sense of unity, only perceptible to you, is a sheen on the surface, not a deeper layer of reality.

Where does this leave the soul? Does the soul make any sense in the face of a brain and mind so easily fractured by ischemia? A soul is immaterial, eternal, a little god, impervious to injury, able to survive our deaths. Yet here we see one injured, tethered so close to the injured brain that there is no string. We see a hole, and through it we get a glimpse into the brain’s inner workings. One part is damaged; another part falsely thinks it is whole. How does the idea of a unified soul make any sense in the face of this data?

That this sophomoric argument is made by a reputable scientist and posted on what I can only assume is a reputable website, is laughable. In fact, Weisman has never bothered to engage with the philosophical literature on the nature of the soul. As a reader of Sullivan’s website commented: “Mr. Weisman’s article is a perfect example of the arrogance of those who use science to rebut philosophical and theological concepts which they can’t be bothered to actually study.”

That the soul might be divided is hardly surprising to anyone who has read a little philosophy. That the soul might not be in tune with the body is no news to Christian theology. One despairs of the future of intellectual life, and of the relationship between science and religion, if either side is carried out by people who write and publish this sort of thing.