The God's Drink Whiskey

I've just finished Steve Asma's excellent book the The God's Drink Whiskey.
The book was a real eye opener in so many ways.

I do subscribe to Buddhist philosophy on most counts, however, something has been bothering me. It's the bit about "no soul" other than what our neurons physically create. I presently teach some Korean kindergarten kids at an English language school. They all have their unique characters and quirks. A couple of them are incredibly smart and talented. I watch them grow and develop various talents and minor obsessions about stuff like dinosaurs and bird wings. I just cannot reconcile the Buddhist standpoint on "no soul". I assume you are watching your son growing up so you probably understand what I'm trying to say. It seems that we all come out ready packaged with a personality of our own. Sure we could explain that we have a tendency to project our own mind onto things... but that just doesn't seem to fully explain it.

There are some other things, for example; what is it that attracts people to each other? I mean there are those with whom we have an instant connection. That goes even for little kids who don't have enough experiences to base their people preferences on them. The other curious thing is people's taste in things. We seem to be born with our sensory preferences too. One banal example is that most kids will pick something off their plate and declare that they hate it.

Having been brought up in an atheist environment obviously contributed to my scepticism about religion. None the less I have always felt that there is something else out there that stirs the spoon in the murky soup. Perhaps not a God per se, an all seeing all powerful being nor a cosmic energy of 'New Age' ...and definitely not aliens :-) ...but there is something...and I'd very much like to work out what that is.