Neuroscience, free will and faith
In episode 5 of our Science and Faith series, we were joined by Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie (Lecturer in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh), Revd Prof. Alasdair Coles (neurologist and ordained priest in the Church of England), and RME Science and Faith’s Catholic Advisor, Fr Robert Verrill. We started this programme with questions aimed at helping us understand the scope of neuroscience, its current big questions, main challenges and future developments.
We were fascinated to hear from Prof. Coles about some of the anatomy and mechanisms of the organ central to our conversation, the human brain. It is a vastly complicated structure with different parts, all of them with distinct functions which, at the same time, work together as a whole. Dr Lane Ritchie and Prof. Coles walked us through the role that the brain plays in the conscious control of our actions, as well as different conceptualisations of free will, and, indeed, whether such a thing exists. These concepts were foundational for our section on consciousness and artificial intelligence.
Later on, Prof. Coles shared his thoughts and research on near-death experiences. We concluded with Dr Lane Ritchie’s fascinating remarks about the emergence of religion, the nature of religious experiences and why they are interesting from the neural point of view.
I am really just my brain? Is religion a mere by-product of our mind?
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Revd Prof. Alasdair Coles: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/medicine/neurology-and-clinical-neuroscience/neurology-and-religion?format=HB&isbn=9781107082601
Dr Sarah Lane Ritchie:
Resources
Vatican Observatory Foundation https://www.vofoundation.org/faith-and-science/about/
Christians in Science https://www.cis.org.uk/resources/
Faraday Institute for Science and Religion https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk
Interactive Science and Faith workshops https://gatbb.co.uk
