[_hexley_]

> One point against the traditional belief is that if you've ever read Aristotle you might be shocked to learn that the Greeks of antiquity believed that "soul" was quite physical

Aristotle's view is, to a large extent, the traditional religious belief (at least in the West). Aristotle would not have held that the soul was physical as you say, rather that the soul was the "form", or the animating principle of the physical body. The "magical phenomena" as the "residue of traditional religious beliefs" you mention is not really "traditional" at all. Descartes came along in the 17th century with his "res cogitans" and mucked up the whole issue by explicitly rejecting the traditional Aristotelian view.