Science Versus Religion: The Age Old War

This is a fictional debate between a mathematician and a Christian, but it provides a basis for real discussion.

C: Do you believe in God — that Jesus died on the cross for your salvation and the salvation of all mankind for all time to come?

M: No, I was raised Catholic, but my scientific training has convinced me to turn my attention to my scientific work in mathematics. I no longer believe in a supreme deity like God.

C: You will burn in Hell forever for that, you know?

M: That’s according to what you believe. If there is no God, as science posits, then there is no soul. No soul means when one dies, one just dies and ceases to exist.

C: Well, what do you think animates you if it isn’t your soul?

M: My consciousness. It appears that it is an emergent property of the many neurons firing below its surface. If I decide I want to move my arm, there is some descent from my consciousness back into the neurons firing network whence it comes, and the necessary firing of neurons transpires to allow me to move my arm. Such is the way it goes for all of my bodily motions that animate me and allow me to speak. So, it doesn’t require the supernatural explanation like a soul to answer this kind of question.

C: Well, I have never heard of an emergent property before.

M: It is a property of complex systems. Take water, for example, the water molecules are not wet. But, when you…