Here's the abstract that I submitted to the Evangelical Philosophical Society, hopefully they accept it and I can present the full version at the conference in November.
In this paper I will argue that Christian worship entails intentionality and casually efficacious mental content. I will define worship as directing one’s affections towards God. There have not been any plausible materialist (excluding non-reductive materialism) theories of intentionality or mental content. Eliminativism denies intentionality and mental content altogether. The Christian philosopher/theologian must have a plausible theory with respect to how the Christian worship’s God – worship is a necessary element in the believer’s relationship with God. Since mind/body dualism can explain intentionality and causally efficacious mental content, a form of mind/body dualism (not necessarily Cartesian substance dualism) seems to be required by the Christian in order to have a plausible explanation for how worship takes place. Thus mind/body dualism is the default position for the Christian. This places the burden of proof on the Christian materialist to give a Christian explanation of worship without a plausible theory of intentionality and causally efficacious mental content.
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