Do Not Underestimate Science

In the Letter "The hard problem" (24 April, p. 463), E. J. Neafsey comments on a previous Letter by M. J. Farah and N. Murphy ("Neuroscience and the soul," 27 February, p. 1168), which claimed that neuroscience may eventually be able to explain all aspects of being human. Neafsey asserts that Farah and Murphy's Letter demonstrates "a somewhat naïve and simple faith in scientific progress." He then refers approvingly to the philosopher David Chalmers's characterization of consciousness as the "hard problem" that will forever defy a reductionist, scientific explanation.