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The Soul Fallacy
The Soul Fallacy: What Science Shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs | Julien Musolino
3 posts | 2 read
Most Americans believe they possess an immaterial soul that will survive the death of the body. In sharp contrast, the current scientific consensus rejects the traditional soul, although this conclusion is rarely discussed publicly. In this book, a cognitive scientist breaks the taboo and explains why modern science leads to this controversial conclusion. In doing so, the book reveals the truly astonishing scope and power of scientific inquiry, drawing on ideas from biology, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the physical sciences. Much more than chronicling the demise of the traditional soul, the book explores where soul beliefs come from, why they are so widespread culturally and historically, how cognitive science offers a naturalistic alternative to religious conceptions of mind, and how postulating the existence of a soul amounts to making a scientific claim. Although the new scientific view of personhood departs radically from traditional religious conceptions, the author shows that a coherent, meaningful, and sensitive appreciation of what it means to be human remains intact. He argues that we do not lose anything by letting go of our soul beliefs and that we even have something to gain. Throughout, the book takes a passionate stand for science and reason. It also offers a timely rejoinder to recent claims that science supports the existence of the soul and the afterlife.
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BestDogDad
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I found this book to be really well written and easy to read. The author leaves no stone unturned, he examines a number of tangential ideas thoroughly. From the soul's beginning as a creation of our pre-scientific ancestors to make sense of biological and psychological phenomena to modern theological views and dismissal by modern science, I found that this journey through the life of the soul never dragged.

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BestDogDad
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Being married to a science teacher, I can attest that the war on Darwin continues, at least where we live. The parents that don‘t want evolution taught because it‘s “just a theory” (among other things) readily accept religious supernatural ideas at the drop of a hat. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Lindy 🤷‍♀️ 5y
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BestDogDad
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Kudos to the thinkers who took on the church back when it was unheard of.