[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

The intellect, like the will, is essentially spiritual, yet associated with the brain. If the intellect was purely material, it would reduce to a machine, capable of error, placing all thought in fundamental doubt. But since we can know some things with certainty, this premise must be false.

My point regarding the “murder gene” was meant to highlight the problem of reducing the mind and will to material phenomena.

[allmendream]

Well any premise that intelligence or will is “essentially spiritual” is useless. Whereas any premise that it is a function of physical processes will be of use in terms of diagnosis, understanding, and further study.

We devote a huge amount of resources to our brain because of the physical necessity of a larger brain to conduct higher cognitive function. If humans had “spirit” brains - why the associated physical cost in birthing and maintaining our large brains?

If someone gets a spike through the speech forming part of their brain and can no longer form words - is it a mechanical or a spiritual defect?