Tag: Materialism

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
August 17, 2022

Categorized
Neuroscience and Mind

Tagged
Alzheimer’s disease, Andrew Newberg, Atheism, atheists, Brain, brain activity, brain imaging, brain scanning, Brain Weaver, Christian meditation, depression, emptying the mind, faith crisis, faith in God, God, Materialism, meditating on God, meditation, Michael Egnor, mind, mind-brain dualism, mind-brain problem, mystical experience, near-death experiences, Neurology, neuroscience, neurotheology, occipital lobes, Parkinson’s disease, psychedelic drugs, psychotherapy, Religion, religious faith, schizophrenia, soul, speaking in tongues, spiritual experiences, Theism, theists, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism}

Into the Mystic with a Neurosurgeon and a Neurotheologian

_{Michael Egnor

August 17, 2022

Neuroscience and Mind}

Today’s ID the Future continues the conversation between neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and neurotheologian Andrew Newberg. In this second and concluding part of their discussion, they further explore what experiments using brain scans reveal about how the brain is affected by meditation and mystical experiences, including near-death experiences. Also, what parts of the brain light up, and what parts go dormant, when someone is “speaking in tongues,” and how does someone who has this experience describe it, and does that description mesh with or clash with what turns up on the brain scans? Tune in to hear Newberg’s answer to this and other issues related to the mind-brain problem and the mystical. This interview is posted here by permission of Mind Read More ›

The Servant of God Mother Clara Zizic, Monastery of the Community of Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate in Sibenik, Croatia

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
August 15, 2022

Categorized
Neuroscience and Mind

Tagged
Andrew Newberg, Atheism, Brain, brain scanning, centering prayer, Christian mystics, contemplation, FMRI, Franciscan Nuns, frontal lobe, functional magnetic resonance imaging, God, Materialism, meditation, Michael Egnor, mind, mind-body dualism, mind-brain problem, mystical experiences, neuroscience, neurotheology, parietal lobe, prayer, Religion, Roger Scruton, soul, Theism, transcendence}

The Mind/Brain Problem and the Power of Meditative Prayer

_{Michael Egnor

August 15, 2022

Neuroscience and Mind}

It’s hard to know where the brain ends and the mind begins. How can studying our brains give us insight into our minds? On this ID the Future, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor sit down for a chat about all things brain related including neurotheology, methods of studying the brain, and research on how various forms of religious and non-religious meditation actually change the wiring of the brain, including in particular a study Newberg did on Franciscan nuns and what they refer to as “centering prayer.” This interview is borrowed, with permission, from Mind Matters, a podcast of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

Collision galaxies. Three-dimensional parabola with collision of galaxies. Universe with stars and stars. Starry sky

^{Type
post

Author
Paul Nelson

Date
August 13, 2022

Categorized
Intelligent Design, Science

Tagged
__edited, Adolf Grünbaum, animal phyla, dialectic, God of the gaps, Materialism, methodological materialism, methodological naturalism, origin of life, Ron Numbers, Ronald Numbers}

Paul Nelson on Freeing Minds Trapped in a Naturalistic Parabola

_{Paul Nelson

August 13, 2022

Intelligent Design, Science}

On this ID the Future from the vault, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson continues sharing with host Andrew McDiarmid about pursuing intelligent design theory in a science culture committed to naturalism. As Nelson puts it here, it’s about trying to communicate with scientists who are trapped in a “naturalistic parabola.” That parabola sets the rule and defines the boundaries for science: naturalistic answers only. And it extends to infinity, so no finite number of objections or counter-examples can force naturalistic scientists out of it. Nelson, however, offers an alternative strategy for drawing them out of the parabola.

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
August 8, 2022

Tagged
ankles, apostle Paul, Aristotle, atomism, backward wiring of the eye, Brian Miller, Charles Darwin, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, Darwinism, Demiurge, Democritus, designer substitute, ENCODE project, Epicureans, Evolution, Frances Ayala, Intelligent Design, Jerry Coyne, Junk DNA, Living with Darwin, Materialism, Michael Behe, Nathan Lents, Natural Selection, optimality, Panda’s thumb, Philip Kitcher, photosynthesis, Plato, pseudogenes, purpose, Rube Goldberg machine, Stephen Jay Gould, stoics, suboptimal design, systems biology, systems modeling, teleology, transcendent mind, watch argument for design, whales, William Paley, wrists}

Brian Miller: The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology

_{Brian Miller

August 8, 2022}

Today’s ID the Future brings listeners physicist and engineer Brian Miller’s recent lecture at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, “The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology.” Miller rebuts several popular arguments for evolution based on claims of poor design in living systems, everything from the “backward wiring” of the vertebrate eye to whales, wrists, ankles, and “junk DNA.” But the main emphasis of this discussion is the exciting sea change in biology in which numerous breakthroughs are occurring by scientists who are treating living systems and subsystems as if they are optimally engineered systems. Some in this movement reject intelligent design for ideological reasons. Others embrace it. But all systems biologists treat these systems as if they are masterfully engineered Read More ›

The Very Large Array (VLA) radio-astronomy antennas, in New Mexico, is one of the most impressive observatories in the world. The Sun was piercing through after a major storm during a public tour.

^{Type
post

Author
Paul Nelson

Date
July 11, 2022

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
alien life, Atheism, Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan’s Contact, Contact, cosmos, design detection, DNA, DRAKE equation, extra-terrestrial intelligence, Fred Hoyle, Gifford Lectures, Gloria Patri, intelligent causes, Intelligent Design, Materialism, methodological naturalism, Michael Behe, National Academy of Sciences, Paul Nelson, philosophical naturalism, Pi, prime numbers, pulsars, religious skepticism, Robert Crowther, science fiction, search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, SETI, Stephen Meyer, superstition, The Demon Haunted World, UAP, unidentified arial phenomenon, William Dembski}

Carl Sagan’s Love/Hate Relationship with Intelligent Design

_{Paul Nelson

July 11, 2022

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, philosopher of science Paul Nelson explores an intriguing tension in the thinking of famous scientist and science popularizer Carl Sagan concerning his agnosticism shading into atheism on the one hand, and on the other hand his embrace of certain ideas consistent with the theory of intelligent design. As Nelson is quick to clarify, if Sagan had lived to see the rise of the contemporary intelligent design movement, he probably would have rejected it, particularly its theistic implications. And yet, Nelson says, Sagan’s thinking and arguments laid out in his Gifford lectures and in his science fiction novel Contact strongly support the idea that intelligent design can be detected. Nelson goes further, saying that if we Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 16, 2022

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
alkaline thermal vents, Brian Miller, Charles Darwin, Darwin, design logics, devolution, DNA, E. coli, enzymes, error-correction mechanisms, Evolution, hype, James Tour, Jeremy England, Life on Fire, Materialism, Michael Russel, Molecular Machines, Natural Selection, Naturalism, Nature Communications, organizational blueprint, organizational design, origin of life, RNA, RNA first, RNA-World hypothesis, Robert Shapiro, Science Daily, self-organization, self-replicating molecules, self-replicating RNA, self-replication, Steven Novella, synthetic organic chemistry, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, University of Tokyo}

Origin-of-Life Mystery at the University of Tokyo, Pt. 2

_{Brian Miller

May 16, 2022

Evolution}

Today’s ID the Future is Part 2 of physicist Brian Miller exploring a recent report from the University of Tokyo claiming a big breakthrough in origin-of-life research. As Miller and host Eric Anderson make clear, the university’s laboratory work on RNA, detailed in a recent Nature Communications article, involved the intelligent interference of the lab scientists and, despite this intelligent interference, the devolution of RNA rather than the evolution of increasing RNA sophistication. Miller says that it’s ironic that Steven Novella, a scientist committed to puncturing science hype, seems to have fallen for the hype surrounding this laboratory work. Miller and Anderson go on to discuss critiques of origin-of-life tall-tale claims, critiques coming Robert Shapiro, James Tour, and others. Life, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
David Berlinski

Date
March 30, 2022

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
agnosticism, Atheism, Darwinism, David Berlinski, emotivism, Evolution, God, human exceptionalism, human rights, Humanize podcast, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, Jewish Holocaust, Marcel Schützenberger, Materialism, metaphysics, methodological materialism, Michael Behe, Natural Selection, nature rights movement, Nazis, Nazism, nihilism, Notre Dame, Peter Abelard, philosophy of science, random mutations, self-referential fallacies, The SS State, Theism, Wesley J. Smith}

David Berlinski on Nazism, Darwinism, Emotivism, and Nature Rights

_{David Berlinski

March 30, 2022

Ethics}

On today’s ID the Future, Human Nature author David Berlinski continues his conversation with host Wesley J. Smith. Here Berlinski reflects on the Jewish Holocaust, the destructive nihilism of the Nazis and the SS, and the shortcomings of Neo-Darwinism as an explanation for the diversity of life. Berlinski and Smith also discuss the increasingly widespread attacks on human exceptionalism, the growth of emotivism and why it’s a problem, and the bizarre nature rights movement. This is the second and concluding part of a conversation borrowed, with permission, from Wesley J. Smith’s Humanize podcast.

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
March 23, 2022

Categorized
Physics and Cosmology

Tagged
Albert Einstein, Aristotle, beginning of the universe, Big Bang, Borde–Guth–Vilenkin theorem, Brian Miller, bubble universes, Casey Luskin, CMBR, Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, cosmic background radiation, cosmological constant, cosmology, cyclical universe, Edwin Hubble, eternal inflation, eternal universe, fine tuning, Fred Hoyle, general theory of relativity, Georges Lemaître, Intelligent Design, Lawrence Krauss, Materialism, multiple universes, multiverse, oscillating universe, quantum cosmology, specified complexity, steady state model, Stephen Hawking, string landscape model, Universe from Nothing, Vesto Slipher, Wheeler-DeWitt equation}

Physicist Brian Miller Answers the Big Bang Evaders

_{Brian Miller

March 23, 2022

Physics and Cosmology}

On this ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller looks at various attempts to evade the mounting evidence that the universe had a beginning, a Big Bang. Miller and host Casey Luskin first review the fascinating history of how the eternal universe model of the nineteenth century gave way to the Big Bang model. Then Miller walks through about a half a dozen attempts to evade a cosmic beginning after the Big Bang model had won the day. These evasions include the steady state model, the idea of an eternal cyclical universe, and the string landscape model. According to this model, our universe exists in a multi-dimensional brane (not “brain”) which exists in a higher dimensional space, and our multi-dimensional brane Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Richard Weikart

Date
March 21, 2022

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
Adolf Hitler, anti-Semitism, assisted suicide, biological determinism, biological evolution, Charles Darwin, Columbine shooting, Darwinian Racism, Darwinism, environmental determinism, Eric Harris, Eric Metaxas, Ernst Haeckel, Eugenics, Euthanasia, Evolutionary Ethics, fatalism, Free Will, Friedrich Nietzsche, From Darwin to Hitler, genetic determinism, Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gypsies, Holocaust, human evolution, imago dei, Marxism, Materialism, Mein Kampf, Might is Right, moral relativism, Natural Selection, Nazis, Nazism, Peter Singer, postmodernism, racism, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Weikart, scientific racism, Slavs, Social Darwinism, struggle for existence, struggle for living space, white nationalism}

Eric Metaxas and Richard Weikart Spotlight Darwinian Racism

_{Richard Weikart

March 21, 2022

Ethics}

Today’s ID the Future brings listeners a lively conversation between radio host and bestselling author Eric Metaxas and historian Richard Weikart about Weikart’s new book, Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. Weikart provides a quick flyover of the evidence that the outlook of Hitler, the Nazis, and contemporary white nationalists is significantly shaped by Darwinism and the arguments of early Darwinists. Metaxas and Weikart then contrast the Darwinian foundation for morality with the Judeo-Christian foundation, which holds that all humans are made in the image of God and therefore possess inherent worth, regardless of race and regardless of one’s “fitness.” This episode is reposted here, with permission, from The Eric Metaxas Show. Check out Weikart’s new Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jay Richards

Date
March 14, 2022

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
anti-design, apologetics, Atheism, biological complexity argument, Casey Luskin, Christian apologetics, Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, Cosmological Argument, Darwinian Evolution, demarcation argument, design argument, design argument from human reason, Evolution, fine tuning of physics, history of science, Human Reason, Intelligent Design, Isaac Newton, Jay W. Richards, Materialism, natural science, origin of life argument, origin of the universe Kalam cosmological argument, philosophical materialism, philosophy of science, Privileged Planet argument, public evidence scientism, purpose, teleology, theistic Darwinism, theistic evolution, Thomas Nagel}

Jay Richards on the Art of Answering Theistic Evolutionists

_{Jay Richards

March 14, 2022

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, philosopher Jay Richards offers advices on engaging with evolutionists over the issues of origins, evolution, and intelligent design. In his conversation with host Casey Luskin, he says that if someone tells you he’s a theistic evolutionist, first find out what he means by theism and evolution. The latter term, in particular, can have widely varying meanings, and the average lay persons who see themselves as theistic evolutionists likely see God as actively and creatively working in the history of life to steer evolutionary outcomes, including the origin of humanity. What they may not realize is that such a view takes them well outside the bounds of what academic theistic evolutionists generally mean by the term Read More ›