مهدی گلشنی

As generally accepted, consciousness or mind and material brain are closely related to each other; but how? Quantum mechanics is a new pathway to understand the hard problem of consciousness and its relation to the brain. Consciousness has specific properties such as unity, irreducibility, non-locality, etc. The completely different features of classical physics (locality, reducibility, determinacy, etc.) hindered the success of scientists to study consciousness. But quantum mechanics with its features (non-locality, irreducibility, indeterminacy, etc.) gave scientists hope to study consciousness. Several quantum approaches to consciousness have been proposed in recent decades; the most important point about these approaches is that each one has used its own philosophy to determine its viewpoint about the mind’s nature and even its quantum approach. In general, all scientific theories are based on some metaphysical principles which come from the worldview of scientists. In this article four contemporary approaches are discussed: The Eccles-Beck, Stapp, Penrose-Hameroff, and Avicenna-Bohm theories; philosophical and scientific points are highlighted for each of them. Finally, the theory of Top-Down Causation is discussed because we think it can provide a fertile philosophical ground for theories of “mind-brain relation” and “quantum consciousness”.

Since old times the two dimensionalities of human beings, i.e., their having a material body and an immaterial soul (spirit), has been a controversial problem. In the Abrahamic religions, the human soul is considered to be immaterial and in interaction with the body. Furthermore, it is considered to be a special effusion of God to each individual human being. During the modern times, with the dominance of empiricism, the prevalent view considers human soul a byproduct of matter. In fact, from the naturalistic viewpoint of modern science, there is no place for mind or consciousness as a novel and immaterial subject, but there are some important ideas about this subject, and some eminent scientists of our time believe that the human soul is immaterial and is never explainable by science. Among the latter group, there are some celebrated scientists who believe that human soul is God’s special effusion to human beings. In this article, we mention and analyze some of these important ideas.

Abrahamic faiths, which are among the divine revelations, consider science to be the knowledge of the universe and humans. The proper understanding of science is the study of the natural world through the lens of religious metaphysics which takes into account all relevant factors from a religious viewpoint.This study aims to survey the effect of religious worldview on the metaphysical principles that govern science, and deals with the following questions:1) What effect do religious metaphysical foundations have on the interpretation of scientific theories? 2) How scientific work, in the light of the divine worldview, ensures the material and spiritual needs of mankind? 3) Is experimental science influenced by religious and philosophical values and insights? 4) Are various human and natural sciences far from value judgments?In this paper, we use the fact that all scientific theories are based on some metaphysical assumptions that are not taken from these sciences but are rooted in philosophies or religions and provide a worldview for the scientist. Furthermore, these worldviews affect scientists’ motivations and their choices of theories.We argue that the worldview of monotheistic religions puts the totality of scientific issues in the context of religious metaphysics.

Science seeks to discover the order present in nature and describes this order in the form of laws. Religion is a response to a Transcendent Being Who transforms our lives and gives it a meaning. Traditionally, spirituality was regarded as an integral aspect of religious experience, and spirituality and religion were inseparable. But, the decline of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world have given rise to a broader view of spirituality which includes reference to those aspects of human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world, without necessarily bringing in a supernatural reality. Scientific revolution started in the seventeenth century with the works of F. Bacon, Descartes, Galileo, Newton, Boyle, etc. and gave rise to the promotion of empiricism by Bacon and Galileo and the propagation of mechanical worldview by Descartes, Galileo and Newton. Gradually the power of Newtonian system impressed the scientists, and the role of God was first reduced to the initiator of the universe and with the French enlightenment it was eliminated. With the appearance of Philosophers and scientists like Hume ,Kant ,August Comte, Marx, Darwin , Durkhim , Freud and logical positivists, empiricism became the dominant philosophy and with that metaphysics ,religion and spirituality went into the sideline.Several important currents started during the second half of the twentieth century which had a revival effect on religion and spirituality and some eminent scientists of our era –including some non-theists – have emphasized the necessity of going beyond the material features of life and paying attention to its spiritual aspects (values, meanings, etc.).