I continue my blogs with excerpts from the book by richard swinburne, the evolution of the soul, REVISED EDITION. Swinburne makes a number of excellent comments regarding the immateriality of the human soul, though he accepTs the premise of darwin that “men evolved from apes, and apes from more primitive animals evolved from a soup of inanimate atoms. . . .” the issue that is our concern is how the mind and soul relate to the material body, and it is this issue that will be my focus IN THE FOLLOWING BLOGS.
in the prolegomenon to his book swinburne states that “humans (and the higher animals) consist of two separate parts - soul and body - while physical events are goings-on in the body. soul and body interact.” (how this interaction occurs has been a major focus of my writing in my books and blog posts.) swinburne describes in detail “what the human soul is like . . . these include freedom of will - to choose between alternatives without our choices being predetermined by prior states of affairs. [his] central theme . . . was the theme of substance dualism - that humanS consist of two separate substANCES, BODY AND SOUL.”