Science and Religion

 Read Clayton's Religion and Science - Chapter 6

Compose your reflection essay (minimum of 400 words) and post it on the discussion board

Your reflection essay should respond to one of the following sets of discussion questions:

1. Which theory of mind do you find your self most attracted to (eliminativist, epiphenomenalist, emergentist, dualist, etc.) and why?
2. Consider the different views of mind or consciousness across the various religious traditions. Which religions make very strong claims about a non-physical mind or soul, and which make the most minimal claims? Which of these views can be most easily synthesized with contemporary neuroscience, and which raise the greatest difficulties?
3. What’s the most minimal theory of mind that a religious person could endorse? Can one be religious and a naturalist at the same time? Could one hold an eliminativist view of mind and be religious at the same time? Could a religious person say, ‘You’re nothing but a pack of neurons’ (Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis)? 
4. How might the believer in an immortal soul answer the neuroscientist? Where do you think the debate would go from there? What are the costs and the benefits of engaging in this discussion? (Would it even be productive?)
5. If key religious experiences can be described neurologically, does this diminish or increase their significance? What might be the implications for religion if neuroscience is able to discover the  neurological processes that produce other emotions, say, love, guilt, or the desire for justice?