One theme in this chapter is the degree to which we can correlate thinking, emotions, the will, memory, personality, even spiritual experiences to particular regions of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease and physical accidents can fundamentally change all of these faculties, showing a strong connection between our brains and these functions that since Descartes have often been attributed to the soul. In this light, what role do you think the soul might play in human personhood? Do you think belief in a detachable soul is an essential Christian belief? What do you believe about the resurrection of our bodies and how would you relate this event to the human soul?
What aspects of the way you think about yourself and others around you come from your cultural and family background? How distinct would you say your sense of yourself is from that of those around you? Take into consideration the fact that we can also create ourselves as a kind of “anti-self” to those around us; here our context is still creating us, only in reverse. What legitimate role, if any, might stereotyping or prejudging play in our sense of ourselves and others?
What do you make of existentialism? To what extent would you say this movement that emphasized choice influenced the spirit of the late twentieth century—or is existentialism itself a reflection of a broader zeitgeist? To what extent would you say that contemporary atheists are aware or unaware of the meaninglessness and nonexistence of moral norms that seem to follow logically from their position?
What do you make of the shifts that flowed inadvertently from Descartes’s “Copernican revolution” in which he turned the focus of truth from “out there” to inside our heads? Do you think the impact of this inward turn can be avoided, once the issue of certainty is questioned? Do some research on the many voices out there that currently decry Descartes.
How do you think you would live, act, even vote differently if you took this as your fundamental conception of the human person: someone created in the image of God, a neighbor whom God expects you to honor, respect, and love, whether near or far?