A Fabulous Evolutionary Defense of Dualism
By Clay Farris Naff
Ah, dualism. It sounds so remote and academic. The kind of thing gowned philosophers might debate while strolling the quad. Sure, dualism is a deal more rarified than “bracketology” – the study, according to ESPN, of who is going to win the NCAA basketball tournament.
Bracketology is huge to people who bet on March madness. The FBI claims that more than $2 billion changes hands during the course of the tournament. That’s a ton of money, but believe me a lot more rides on the outcome of the dualism debate.
Broadly speaking, dualism is the proposition that the universe is composed of both material and immaterial stuff. Traditionally, the immaterial stuff makes up the mind or soul – in contrast to the material brain or body. We all (so far as I know) possess an unshakable feeling of having a mind, and many of us sense a soul within the skin. On the material side, however, I don’t know about you, but I’m generally unaware of having anything inside my head – except perhaps on a morning after I’ve drunk too much. That’s when I know I have a brain, and it’s the size of a walnut.
Continued at:http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/10373/Default.aspx