Retiring the Soul

I was just watching National Geographic's "Science of Evil," and one of the researchers being interviewed suggested that research about how the brain works is going to put the soul out of a job because we know that evil choices are just neurons firing, and circumstance influences our morality.

His thought on this was that if people don't believe their souls will continue on, they will make their choices in the present moment, and this could be a good thing. In his view, things like suicide bombing won't happen if we didn't have the continuing soul as a sort of parachute to protect the perpetrator from his or her own act. Even though their body dies, they can be confident that the soul will live on after their act. Without a soul, people won't have motivation to face martyrdom.

I can see his point, but I don't think it's fully thought out. I actually think it reflects the particular researcher's scientific inclination to despise religion. In contrast, I think many people's fear of consequences for their souls prevent self-indulgent behaviors that could harm others. The desire to do good for the soul is also a motivator for good.

In other words, we might gain some good by giving up the soul, but we would lose some as well. It might be a wash.