Do we have an immaterial soul? Daniel Dennett vs Keith Ward

High profile atheist philosopher Daniel C Dennett goes head to head with Christian theologian Keith Ward in this extract from their debate on mind, consciousness and freewill.

In this excerpt Dennett and Ward debate the nature of the soul.

The Big Conversation is a unique video series from Unbelievable? featuring world-class thinkers across the Christian and atheist community. Exploring science, faith, philosophy and what it means to be human.


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[MidiwaveProductions]

Information is not conscious (can not experience). Hence information cannot be a subject. Information can only be an object. Therefore Dennett is wrong.

[suoutamaki]

completely off topic but the unbelievable logo in the back reminds me of the amazon logo.

[alexrothwell]

I think Dennett's weakness is that he hasn't actually solved the hard problem of consciousness at all. Instead, he's just given us an account of how he thinks our thought processes developed, and mistakenly believed that that explains everything. However, the question still remains, why do I have a subjective, first-person experience? Many scholars (both theist and atheist) would criticise Dennett on this point.

[ed]

'I' am immaterial. As proof I have removed my brain and continue to function absolutely as normal.

[PhozMix]

Since this series began I've been looking forward to this debate the most. The pairing of opposition is about as close to perfect as you can get.

Two opposing philosophies, two A grade philosopher giants in their respective circles.

[rizdekd]

I've listened to many of these discussions and despite all the claims about the hard problem of consciousness, I've never heard anyone explain how anything 'nonphysical' explains it. By posing a soul or 'immaterial' mind, we've only pushed the dilemma back a notch with still no explanation, but now we've pushed it out of the realm of study with anything by the equivalent of naval-gazing and cloud talk. If the soul is immaterial/nonphysical such that it can't be detected by apparatus in physical world, how does it influence our physical brain-nerves which in turn cause our physical muscles to move to do things?

[liammccann]

The fact that we are 'rational' beings, means we know we possess something that is immaterial.

[Himanshu_Khichar]

Hindu philosophy has all these questions answered with logic.

[TieXiongJi]

Experience forms the patterns and habits of the self. The memories inform the origin and history of the pattern. Brain injury leading to memory loss does not necessarily destroy the experienced patterns.

[ciarandudley]

The substance of thought is also the subject of thought. The object thought [about] is also the thinking subject. These are two sides of the same coin that is self-consciousness. Reality belongs to the same unity as our ideas and our ideas belong to the same unity as reality.

[bozhidarbalkas]

Lk 10:19 Jesus speaking: "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy". "Enemy" is anyone who does not believe in Jesus. The verse is just too stupid to ever read it. And it is a huge lie.

[johnhammond]

Years of listening to the ‘unbelievable’ radio program and still waiting for any real evidence of Gods existence to be presented?

[johngibson]

I find it hard to believe that some people still have a hard time realising are brains are the thing that interprets the world around us. Chemicals and signals. As Dan put it, not a ghost in the machine but our neural networks making sense of input info from our senses.

[bozhidarbalkas]

We can live forever and we still cannot prove or disprove that we have a "soul". We also cannot know where this soul in our bodies is; nor ever know what it is doing while residing in us.

[michaeldeo]

Do we have an immaterial soul?

No! When the breath of life leaves the body, the body returns to dust. All thinking ends in death.
The only thing left is the memory of us in the mind of Yahweh.

[cmtengineeringservices]

We got a immaterial minds chain, one after one...not one or ( idea I exist ) is a production of mind..but its not real.

[Daz]

How is it possible to demonstrate an entity that's non-physical and undetectable as the cause?

There is this phenomena of self/consciousness that exists and only appears to exist for a person when their body contains a living working brain. So how can one excluded this incredibly positive correlation as the most likely explanation in favour of a soul which has never been observed and is undetectable due to being stipulated as non-physical. We have no way to investigate the non- physical (if it's even a thing).
So how can we be justified believing a non-phyical entiry as more likey a cause than the brain, we can't..

[matthewgrant]

And Judeo-Christians have been getting it wrong all along!! 😂😂😂

[Benjamin-tozq]

As a Christian I dont think we have a soul. Or a spirit. I think all we are is body. Who we are will live on in some way after death, until the resurrection when we get new transformed bodies. The dualistic notion of body and soul is a pagan idea.