The Importance of Language

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"I don't agree with Steve Gould and everything, but I certainly agree with him on that," he says. "If we look at the human fossil record, it's remarkable that in our ancestry, over the space of about a million years, one human organ quadrupled in size." He adds: "To this day, we do not understand what the forces were that led the brain to undergo such incredible hypertrophy" In so doing, it produced a number of unique structures which are clearly modified versions of what were typical parts of a primate brain; organized in a somewhat different way in us.

There’s a sort of spark to life — moments that stir up something inside of us that we can’t explain. Maybe you've experienced this while playing with your dog, or singing along at a concert, or seeing the Northern Lights.

Perhaps these sparks are simply neurons firing, chemicals releasing, and muscles contracting. Or perhaps these sparks point to something like a soul, something transcendent. How do we know which it is? And what do we do when our evidence remains elusive?

This episode is an excerpt from a Veritas Forum at MIT in 2016. You’ll hear from biologist Dr. Ken Miller (Brown University), and philosopher Dr. Alex Byrne (MIT), as they discuss the human soul, evidence, and what gods we do — or don’t — believe in. This vibrant conversation is moderated by Dr. Ian Hutchinson, a nuclear physicist at MIT.

Watch the full Forum event here.
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