Brain Drained

How Materialism Terribly Wastes Your Mind

"Christianity is evidentially challenged." Jim looked at me evenly as he spoke. We were eating lunch at a local Indian restaurant where we frequently met to discuss my Christian faith and his atheism. Jim had been a Christian in the past, but had since become inclined toward naturalism, including a naturalistic view of human beings. On this particular day, he told me some of the reasons why he thought Christianity lacked evidential support. One reason stood out: according to Jim, the human mind was a purely physical entity, a fact that he said fit beautifully with naturalism but poorly with Christianity's traditional account of the soul.

Jim is not alone. Distinguished thinkers like...