What is our interpretation of the human person? Are we just a body? If so, then books like The Illusion of Conscious Will make perfect sense in explaining the world around us and our consciousness in deterministic terms, using physical and biological processes as the explanation for everything, making free will an illusion.
As a thought experiment, let us ask that, if we are just a body and we could "make a human" with a 3D atomic printer - is that a product considered a person?
YES ABSOLUTELY! For someone who believes that the universe is fundamentally a physical place with no such thing as a spiritual world, then I would understand completely if they said "yes, that is a person made up of the same atoms as you and me and is, therefore, a person." In that case, the reductionism of the person to their physical and biological processes makes perfect sense. In that case, free will is on shaky ground because if everything is a physical process then there is some credibility to the idea that "I know your brain, so I know you." The advent of biological processes being subject to the uncertainty paradigms of quantum physics will call much of this physical determinism into question even within the purely scientific realm.
I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE? The next layer is someone who doesn't believe in God but believes, for any reason, that there is something "more" to the universe than the four dimensions of space and time. They may believe in "a spiritual interpretation of string theory," they may believe in non-physical human elements, they may believe that they are "not religious but spiritual," or any other belief that questions the premise that "if you know the physical state of a brain then you know the brain." For this person, who doesn't necessarily ascribe to Christian anthropology, it would still not make sense that just by knowing where all the atoms are in my brain right now, you could theoretically tell me what I will choose to do tomorrow.
ONLY GOD KNOWS - Our opinion should be framed by a Christian anthropological world view that teaches us that the person is made up of not just a body, but also a soul and the spirit. Without getting into the far-reaching implications of this definition of personhood, we can just say here that a human body printed on a 3D printer needs to be more than just a body to be a person. The obvious next question is - "well, does that printed body get a soul and spirit from God?" This is a similar question to "if we clone a human, are they a person?" In both cases, it is beyond the scope of my understanding, but I welcome your thoughts in the comments section, below.
The conclusion I want to make is that our anthropology will have a direct effect on our interpretation of free will. If we see a person as just a physical body, then free will is questionable. If we see a person as an image of God, then free will is an essential part of our nature as physical, emotional and spiritual beings.
Is the question "do identical twins both have souls" different from the question of whether or not clones have souls?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that there was a question that twins would not each have their own soul. If animals have a soul (psyche) and that is explained by the fact that they express emotions, then if one were to argue that twins share a soul then they would have to share emotions. Clearly that is not the case. Is there another theological or Christian anthropological justification that twins share the same soul?
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