Learning Objective:

• Understanding Christian beliefs about the soul and the body.

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will reflect upon their responses to an online philosophical game.
• Analyse a clip from the television show Doctor Who and reflect upon statements made about the nature of the soul.
• Reflect upon the possible existence, purpose and significance of the human soul.
• Evaluate the following points of view – materialism, idealism and the biblical Christian explanation of the link between soul and body – as they relate to the issue of human consciousness.
• Synthesise learning by writing a critical assessment of the three theories about human consciousness explored in this lesson.

Supporting Values Education:

The value of respectful attitudes recognises that disagreement and difference of opinion is possible when students are encouraged to consider different, opposing answers to big questions of meaning. This lesson encourages students to consider different explanations for human consciousness, weighing their respective strengths and weaknesses against each other.

STARTER:

During the lesson, you will introduce three theories on the relationship between body and soul. The modern scientific materialist view, as advanced by Francis Crick, concentrates on the processes of the body and denies the soul. The philosophical view of Descartes concentrates on the human thought process and denies the body. Finally, the Christian view unites body and soul, with an emphasis on their interdependence.

This lesson takes its starting point from the online game Staying Alive from the www.philosophyexperiments.com website run by Philosophers’ Magazine. The game is concerned with the question of identity, and in particular what part of our existence we consider to be ‘us’, or the soul. It is worth pointing out that this game does not reflect Christian thinking in particular (indeed neither of the options provided for the final question fit comfortably with orthodox Christian belief). Nevertheless, it is still a valuable discussion starter for the class. If you have internet access, start the lesson by letting the students play the game online (it only takes a few minutes). If you do not have internet access in the lesson you could either set the game as homework at the end of a previous lesson, or visit the site thoroughly yourself and recreate it yourself in the classroom.

To play Staying Alive click on the link below:

www.philosophyexperiments.com/stayingalive/Default.aspx

Once everyone has had the chance to play the game, discuss their progress with the class. You might like to compare the different answers that everyone gave, and whether the feedback indicated that they had consistent views of what part of them had to remain intact for them to have survived the different scenarios.

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

Introduce the clip from the Doctor Who Christmas 2017 special Twice Upon a Time (BBC DVD, 2018, certificate 12). Click here to buy the DVD online. Explain that in this episode, The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) has encountered a previous incarnation of himself (the first, originally played by William Hartnell but portrayed here by David Bradley), as well as meeting Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie), a friend of his who died after being made into a Cyberman. The Doctor refuses to believe that Bill is really Bill, seeing her as some kind of duplicate, but Bill maintains that she is the real Bill. In this clip, Bill’s true nature becomes clear. Ask the students to pay particular attention to the different interpretations of Bill’s nature once the facts about her are revealed, comparing them to the options offered at different stages in the Staying Alive game.

• Start time:       0.39.24 (beginning of chapter 8 of the DVD)
• End time:         0.41.22
• Clip length:      1 minute and 58 seconds

The clip starts with The Doctor watching a data projection and reading, ‘Professor Helen Clay, University of New Earth’. It ends with Bill saying, ‘I’m Bill Potts, and I’m back.’

Ask the students whether Bill really is Bill as she claims, or ‘just’ a computer accessing her downloaded memories. Remind them of Bill’s comment: ‘What is anyone supposed to be but a bunch of memories. These are my memories, so I’m me. I’m Bill Potts, and I’m back.’ Do the students agree that humans are just a bunch of memories, or is there something more that gives us our identity? Draw out from them the concept of the soul, which in Christian thought distinguishes human beings from other forms of life on Earth. You might like to point out that many secular thinkers today prefer to talk in terms of human consciousness, rather than using the spiritually loaded phrase ‘soul’.

Explain that for the remainder of the lesson, you are going to look at three contrasting points of view concerning the human soul and consciousness. The modern scientific materialist view, as advanced by Francis Crick, concentrates on the processes of the body and denies the soul. The philosophical view of Descartes concentrates on the human thought process and denies the body. Finally, the Christian view unites body and soul, with an emphasis on their interdependence.

According to materialism, the human being is a machine that has no user, and our feelings of being a unique individual are false; we are simply at the mercy of our bodily and mental functions. This perspective is sometimes described as ‘nothing buttery’, not because of any aversion to dairy spreads, but because it says the mind is nothing but the physical component parts.

Read the following quote from one of the discoverers of DNA, Francis Crick:

‘Your joys, your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will are no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their assorted molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: ‘‘You’re nothing but a pack of neurons’’.’
(Taken from Crick’s The Astonishing Hypothesis)

Ask the class to discuss in groups how they feel about this theory:

• Do they accept the idea that they are nothing more than a machine?
• How would they explain their thoughts and emotions?
• How could they use this theory to explain why they didn’t do last week’s homework?

Introduce the second theory on the nature of being: idealism.

Ask the pupils if anyone has heard the phrase ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (‘I think therefore I am’). Do they know what it means? Explain that it was coined by the philosopher Descartes. He doubted the existence of the outside world, but he could not refute his own doubting and therefore deduced he must exist to be thinking these thoughts. For Descartes the world of thoughts and reflection was more important than the material world. For example, Descartes did not believe animals could feel pain as they had no rational thought – he would have made an unlikely advocate for animal rights!

Descartes’ theory – idealism – is opposed to the materialism of Crick. For him the human spirit, particularly reason, is our reality. To claim that we are nothing but machines is a denial of the human experience we share.

Ask the class how they respond to Descartes’ ideas. Which theory do they prefer – materialism or idealism? What shortcomings can they see with either theory?

The third view point is the biblical, Christian perspective. The Bible provides a view of a person as being both body and soul. This is not to say that there are two versions of people. Rather, Christians believe they have a body but that they are the soul. A complete person is an embodied soul – and in heaven Christians believe they will still be embodied souls, although the nature of the heavenly bodies will not necessarily be the same as earthly bodies.

Divide the class into pairs and ask them to look up the following Bible references. What evidence is there in these verses for the Christian view of the importance of both body and soul?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
(Deuteronomy 6:5, NIV)

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV)

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Matthew 10:28, NIV)

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
(Romans 12:1, NIV)

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
(Philippians 3:20-21, NIV)

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
(1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NIV)

Allow five-ten minutes for this activity, then ask for feedback. Throughout the Bible reference is made to body and soul – both are described as being part of God’s design for humanity, for this life and for eternity.

SUMMARY AND ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING:

As a final exercise, ask the students to write a critical account of all three theories of the soul that they have looked at in this lesson. Each theory should be assessed for its strengths and weaknesses, with the three being compared and contrasted with one another as appropriate. Students may choose to include a final comment indicating their own views on the nature of the soul/human consciousness.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Internet access during the lesson.
• A copy of Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time.
• Bibles.