Nicolas Humphrey - Do Persons Have Souls?

Is the 'real you' a special substance that is nonphysical and immortal? Most regular people would agree, but most scientists would not. What are you? A body alone that is dead forever once it dies? A soul temporally inhabiting a body? A body unified with a nonphysical entity of some kind? What some theologians think may surprise you.



Nicholas Humphrey is an English psychologist, based in Cambridge, who is known for his work on the evolution of human intelligence and consciousness.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[timorean]

We did not "become" spiritual beings, we always were, but have been drifting away form it, for a while now.

[lukeabbott]

I think Nicolas Humphrey's ideas are stupid and false. Don't bother arguing with me about it because either (a) I'm right, or (b) he's right, meaning you and I don't really exist so there's no use in arguing.

[courage]

Talk to Bhikkhu Anālayo if you get the chance. You barely engage with any Buddhists and I’m sure a conversation with him would be very fruitful! Thanks!

[alexandersalamander]

I cannot make any sense of the argument that consciousness evolved to bring meaning to us. How is that even remotely possible? Why is it necessary that we have a conscious experience in order to do the good things Humphrey claims we need it for?

And of course he explains nothing about what consciousness actually is it’s just some kind of illusion, but of course an illusion is a state of consciousness and not the other way around.

[vitr]

After you are watching a football game, you may observe the fans’ reactions of the loosing team. The first person was upset and angry and made him out of control for a while. The second fan was more calming and said to his friends that the game was very good match. We might win if our defense was not missing some key players due to the injury.

Human always has soul and just needs to connect to their consciousness in a peaceful ways.

[bluelotus]

Persons ARE souls, and as long as they are embodied they HAVE a problem.

[SRAVALM]

Spirit in scripture is photon. It's not a belief. We are photon beings -- we are Spiritual beings.
Spirituality is not a belief it is a way of life -- lifestyle. Recognition of the All or creator of Universe.
An acknowledgment, an integration in with mother nature, respect for animals, for all life. Seeking to know thyself. Contemplation, charity. True being.
Being the image of God, soul. To value the sciences, art, poetry, intellect, expression, action, life. A reverence.

It's a false believe is the same as saying it's a false life.
Wake up. Foolish materialists .

[Luniverspin]

Wrapping such subtle nuances in only 7 minutes is a sign that M. Humphrey masters perfectly his topic - even while he needs to gently address M. Kuhn's obvious disgust of being "tricked" by some kind of illusion. WoW.

[supremereader]

Thank you for these wonderful, wonderful videos 🙏 I watch at least one almost every night and have had a positive impact on my life.

[ericjohnson]

"We have a duty to make our mark in the universe" - I would agree. But whence cometh this "sense" that we should make our mark? Sounds non-physical to me.

[eagledon]

HTF does this guy know is fact? Only one died and returned to reveal the Truth, JC. One thing for sure- when he dies he will have to explain to God, why he spread such false crap!

[ghostgate]

When he says “human beings aren’t as special as they think they are” would require him to be omniscient. These people portray their own ignorance when they make these grandiose claims.

[trojanhorse]

This materialist is guilty of confirmation bias, straw man argument in relation to the nature of religion, cognitive dissonance, fantasies...& a lot more...

[khaderlander]

So much nonsense in 6 minutes, there are glimpses of something great of what he says then he started reading his own interpretation of his thinking into the narrative and all that meaning is lost into the clouds.

[mintakan]

Reminds of Joscha Bach (computer science, cognitive psychology), in saying that "we are not the body". We are the "simulation", run on top of the material substrate. What matters to us, is what goes on in the "simulation".

[gyozakeynsianism]

What a unique and fascinating perspective. Even false belief has huge and often massively positive consequences. Great artists and political leaders understand this. Unfortunately so do dangerous demagogues.

[heresa_notion_]

There's something off about saying an "illusion" has beneficial effects on our species' evolution, and I think Humphrey has to say exactly what he means by "the illusion". For instance, is he suggesting that merely thinking of a soul as both eternal and immaterial -- specifically-- has helped our species' survival and evolution, above and beyond what just being sentient has done for us? I mean, I guess the Egyptians built pyramids on that notion, but it's hard for me to believe Beethoven composed on that notion (I think he was seeking a better mortality and just improved ours as a side effect).

[vakasm]

He is trying so hard to disprove religion, his hypothesise that evolution has created the soul in our minds....is absolutely absurd and ridiculous, it contradicts itself.

[mosesexodus]

Quantum Physics has shown that Reality is based on Probabilities.

A statistical impossibility is defined as *_“a probability that is so low as to not be worthy of mentioning. Sometimes it is quoted as 1/10^50 although the cutoff is inherently arbitrary. Although not truly impossible the probability is low enough so as to not bear mention in a Rational, Reasonable argument."_* The probability of finding one particular atom out of all of the atoms in the universe has been estimated to be 1/10^80. The probability of a functional 150 amino acid protein chain forming by chance is 1/10^164. It has been calculated that the probability of DNA forming by chance is 1/10^119, 000. The probability of random chance protein-protein linkages in a cell is 1/10^79, 000, 000, 000. Based on just these three cellular components, it would be far more *Rational and Reasonable* to conclude that the cell was not formed by undirected random natural processes. Note: Abiogenesis Hypothesis posits that un-directed random natural processes, i.e. random chance formation, of molecules led to living organisms. Natural selection has no effect on individual atoms and molecules on the micro scale in a prebiotic environment. (*For reference, peptides/proteins can vary in size from 3 amino acid chains to 34, 000 amino acid chains. Some scientists consider 300-400 amino acid protein chains to be the average size. There are 42, 000, 000 protein molecules in just one (1) simple cell, each protein requiring precise assembly. There are approx. 30, 000, 000, 000, 000 cells in the human body.) Furthermore, of all the physical laws and constants, just the Cosmological Constant alone is tuned to a level of 1/10^120; not to mention the fine-tuning of the Mass-Energy distribution of early universe which is 1/ 10^10^123. Therefore, in the fine-tuning argument, it would be more *Rational and Reasonable* to conclude that the multi-verse is not the correct answer while trying to determine the origin of the universe.

A "Miracle" is considered to be an event with a probability of occurrence of 1/10^6. Abiogenesis, RNA World Hypothesis, and Multiverse would all far, far, far exceed any "Miracle". Yet, these extremely *Irrational and Unreasonable* hypotheses are what many of the world’s top scientists _‘must’_ believe in and promote because of a prior commitment to a strictly arbitrary, subjective, biased, narrow, limiting, materialistic ideology / worldview.

Every idea, number, concept, thought, theory, mathematical equation, abstraction, qualia, Information, etc. existing within and expressed by anyone is "Immaterial" or "Non-material". The very idea or concept of "Materialism" is an immaterial entity and by it's own definition does not exist. Modern science seems to be stuck in archaic, subjective, biased ideologies that have inadequately attempted to define the "nature of reality" or the "reality of nature" for millenia. A Paradigm Shift in ‘Science’ is needed for humanity to advance. A major part of this Science Paradigm Shift would be the formal acknowledgment by the scientific community of the existence of "Immaterial" or "Non-material" entities as verified and confirmed by discoveries in Quantum Physics.

[vikitheviki]

We are souls and we have 'persons'..