Head to head
Christian Soul Theory vs Eliminative Materialism
Christian Soul Theory and Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Christian Soul Theory belongs to the Dualism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Eliminative Materialism to Materialism.
- On life after death, Christian Soul Theory says “Yes” and Eliminative Materialism says “No”.
- On meaning and purpose, Christian Soul Theory says “Cosmic/Ultimate” and Eliminative Materialism says “Humanistic only”.
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The claim
In brief
Christian Soul TheoryThis theory posits that the human person is composed of two fundamentally distinct substances: a wholly immaterial, substantial soul (the self) and a physical body or brain. The soul is the locus of consciousness, provides personal identity, and interacts with the body in a cause-and-effect manner.
Eliminative MaterialismPaul and Patricia Churchland hold that common-sense psychology, our everyday talk of beliefs, desires, and experiences, is a radically false theory that a completed neuroscience will displace rather than smoothly reduce. Consciousness as we ordinarily conceive it is a brain-generated picture shaped by evolution, and our self-understanding, introspection included, will be rebuilt in neuroscientific terms.
What consciousness is
Christian Soul TheoryConsciousness and the mind are grounded in the substantial, unified, wholly immaterial soul, which is the entity that has experiences and grounds personal identity.
Eliminative MaterialismWhat we call consciousness, as folk psychology describes it, does not exist in that form. The real phenomena are neural processes, which only a mature neuroscience will describe correctly.
Big questions
Christian Soul TheoryUnlikelyIf consciousness requires a radically separate, nonphysical substance (soul) that is divinely created or allocated, non-biological intelligences could not generate this necessary component, making AI consciousness impossible.
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Christian Soul TheoryYesThe soul is the ‘real you,’ existing independently of the body and providing the clearest mechanism for the persistence of individual consciousness post-mortem, fulfilling the core tenet of Abrahamic religions.
Eliminative MaterialismNoSince the mind is the brain, nothing mental survives the brain’s death.
Christian Soul TheoryNoUploading neural patterns and pathways would only duplicate the physical basis of consciousness. Since the necessary nonphysical substance (the soul) would be absent from the duplicate, first-person mental self-preservation would be impossible.
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Christian Soul TheoryCosmic/UltimateAs a theological theory, it provides ultimate meaning, purpose, and value tied to divine creation, destiny, and the spiritual nature of human existence.
Eliminative MaterialismHumanistic onlyPatricia Churchland urges us to see ourselves as organisms in nature, understood by scientific methods, with no cosmic purpose.
Nature of mind
Ontology
Christian Soul TheorySubstance Dualism. Reality consists of at least two ontological categories: physical (brain/body) and nonphysical (soul).
Eliminative MaterialismPhysicalism (eliminative)
Mind and body
Christian Soul TheoryInteractionist: The immaterial soul relates to the physical body/brain in an informing and cause-effect way, meaning physical states cause phenomenal states, and phenomenal states cause physical states.
Eliminative MaterialismThe mind is the brain. Patricia Churchland calls her program a ‘unified theory of the mind-brain’ and treats claims that mind goes beyond brain as the residue of folk myths.
Fundamental or emergent
Christian Soul TheoryPrimitive. The soul is a substantial, nonphysical substance, often held to be created and allocated by God (Creationism) rather than arising from material processes.
Eliminative MaterialismNeither
Qualia
Christian Soul TheoryQualia (qualitative feel) are phenomenal properties borne by the immaterial soul, which provides the single, unitary awareness of complex experiences.
Eliminative MaterialismQualia as folk psychology and philosophers conceive them are expected to give way to neuroscientific description; the view treats consciousness as a kind of illusion generated by the brain.
How it works
Mechanism
Christian Soul TheoryInteractionism, which requires that the physical world is not causally closed, allowing the nonphysical soul to exert causal power over the physical brain and vice versa.
Eliminative MaterialismTheory displacement. Folk psychology will be replaced the way outdated scientific theories were, its principles and ontology discarded rather than mapped onto brain states.
Where it is
Christian Soul TheoryThe non-extended soul is associated with the body, being fully 'present' at each point within it.
Eliminative MaterialismIn the brain.
What it does
Christian Soul TheoryThe soul's main functional role is providing causal efficacy for mental states (especially in relation to libertarian free will) and grounding personal identity. It also gives form to and animates the body.
Eliminative MaterialismBehavior is caused by neural processes; neuroscience is expected to explain it better than folk psychology does.
Evidence and criticism
Testability
Christian Soul TheorySpeculative/Philosophical. Direct empirical testing is impossible due to the soul’s nonphysical nature. It is argued that empirical evidence for survival beyond death (like NDEs/OBEs) would instantaneously falsify materialism and support dualism.
Eliminative MaterialismConceptually testable
Tests so far
Christian Soul TheoryReported observations such as near-death experiences (NDEs) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are cited by adherents as phenomena requiring a nonphysical explanation, which the soul provides.
Eliminative MaterialismThe view stakes its claim on the future course of neuroscience; whether folk categories survive in mature brain science is the long-run test.
Criticisms
Christian Soul TheoryThe primary tension is the problem of mental causation (how an immaterial soul can causally interact with the physical body/brain) and the conflict with the widely accepted scientific principle of the causal closure of the physical world. Critics often attribute persistence in this view to 'folk myths' or persistent traditions.
Eliminative MaterialismCritics say denying subjective experience defies both intuition and direct evidence; Galen Strawson calls the denial of experience ‘the strangest thing that has ever happened in the whole history of human thought’. There is also tension between Patricia Churchland’s talk of reduction to neurobiology and the eliminativist claim that folk psychology will be displaced rather than reduced.
Sources
Key sources
Christian Soul Theory
- The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism (2023)
- The Soul: How We Know It’s Real and Why it Matters, J.P. Moreland (2014)
- Mind, Brain, and Free Will, Richard Swinburne (2013)
Eliminative Materialism
- Neurophilosophy, Patricia Churchland (1986)
- Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism (Landscape of Consciousness), Patricia Churchland