Mind Matters News

Archives

Researchers: Adult Human Brains Can Grow New Neurons

The Karolinska Institutet-based team found early-stage brain cells in older people in the hippocampus, the memory area of the brain
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor urges caution: Making a difference in neurodegenerative diseases will be more difficult than simply growing new neurons.

Skepticism: Four Challenges From Near-Death Experiences

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor offers these challenges to those who would explain away NDEs as a mere malfunction of the brain
He also offers the Pam Reynolds challenge: The near-death experience of a woman whose body was cooled and her brain drained of all blood.

J.P. Moreland: Which Model of the Mind Best Explains Reality?

Moreland notes that the soul's organizing role in the body sounds a lot like what scientists now call information
The physicalist claims that everything about us can be explained by biology, chemistry, and physics. But as Moreland pointed out, this view leaves out important parts of reality.

Methodological Naturalism: Helpful Rule or Hindering Dogma?

If the observable data points to outcomes that natural causes cannot adequately explain, then ruling out supernatural causes from the outset is not scientific humility — it’s dogma
The conversation highlighted the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads — even if it leads to the possibility of divine intervention.

Today’s Free Will Debate Shows How Science Culture is Changing

The fact that this Sapolsky–Mitchell debate is still raging shows that eliminative materialism and physicalism are experiencing setbacks in our philosophy of science culture today
Interestingly, Mitchell uses evolution to establish free will. Most uses of the concept would be to deny or diminish it, as in “We evolved to be violent,” etc.

An Experimental Physicist Reacts to Pop Physics Re the Big Bang

Physicists Brian Cox and Sir Roger Penrose make a number of claims about infinite and endless universes. But how much of this is really physics? We asked Rob Sheldon
We hear so much these days about the need for more trust in science. Making science sound like a carnival of unlikely stories is not helping.

Podcast: Free Will, Determinism, and the Immortal Soul

Michael Egnor explains, to claim, “There is no free will,” is to make a rational argument while denying the very capacity that makes rational argument possible
In an intellectually rich discussion on Mind Matters News, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor and host Dr. Robert J. Marks explore the scientific, philosophical, and theological dimensions of free will, determinism, and the immaterial nature of the soul. The conversation centers around contents of the new book The Immortal Mind by Egnor and Denyse O’Leary. What emerges is a compelling case not only for the reality of free will, but also for the immortality of the human soul, grounded in reason and neuroscience. Neuroscience, Free Will, and the Soul The self-refuting nature of free will denial The conversation begins with an analogy: If a spilled bottle of ink coincidentally formed the words “It’s going to snow,” no one would believe that message had real meaning.

Michael Egnor on Faith, Reason, and the Architecture of Reality

In this week’s podcast, discussion with Robert J. Marks, he talks about the relationship between arguments from philosophical reasoning and faith
Egnor describes faith as a deep relationship that may not always yield happiness about life circumstances but fosters lasting joy, independent of circumstances.

Information, Evolution & AI: A Conversation with William Dembski

In discussion with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, Dembski stresses that AI is a tool, not a mind. Treating it otherwise leads to addiction, manipulation, and cultural decline
Information isn’t free, Dembski says, and machines aren’t magic. By remembering what makes us human, we can use technology without losing ourselves to it.

Michael Egnor: Science Offers Evidence of an Immaterial Mind

At the Knight and Rose show, he and co-author Denyse O’Leary talk about how split-brain surgeries, veridical near-death experiences, and terminal lucidity challenge materialist views of the mind.
In their book, The Immortal Mind, Egnor and O'Leary argue that an immaterial, immortal soul best explains human consciousness, free will, and abstract thought.

The Skeptic, the Neuroscientist and the Neurosurgeon Walk Into a…

… most interesting discussion by all accounts. Skeptical science writer Michael Shermer hosted sometimes-controversial neuroscientist Christof Koch and Christian neurosurgeon Michael Egnor
The fate of consciousness studies may depend on how committed researchers are to finding the facts vs. how committed they are to protecting a materialist view.