Denyse O’Leary

Denyse O’Leary is a freelance journalist based in Victoria, Canada. Specializing in faith and science issues, she is co-author, with neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul; and with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor of The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (Worthy, 2025). She received her degree in honors English language and literature.

Archives

Does Quantum Mechanics Help Make Sense of the Soul?

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 29, 2025}

Quantum mechanics seems to be the game-changer that Albert Einstein (1879–1955) feared it would be. It is certain to liven up discussions about the soul.

Skeptic Michael Shermer’s Non-Vision of the Soul

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 28, 2025}

Responding to Michael Egnor at COSM 2025, he said that the soul is an explanation but not a good explanation for our relationship to our bodies.

Does Quantum Mechanics Help Us Make Sense of the Soul?

_{Quantum mechanics seems to be the game-changer that Albert Einstein (1879–1955) feared it would be. It is certain to liven up discussions about the soul}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 27, 2025}

Shermer told Mind Matters News after the event that he would bump up his credence in the existence of souls from 1% to 2% out of 99%.

Skeptic Michael Shermer’s (Non)-Vision of the Soul

_{Responding to Michael Egnor at COSM 2025, he said that the soul is an explanation but not a good explanation for our relationship to our bodies}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 26, 2025}

He sees words like “mind” and “soul” as just linguistic placeholders until we have a fully material explanation for how we function.

So, Chimps Are Rational Now, Too? War on Human Exceptionalism Goes On

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 26, 2025}

The trouble many researchers go to in order to try to efface the stark reality of human exceptionalism is astonishing.

Does Neuroscience Show That We Are Mere Biological Machines?

_{At COSM 2025, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor assembled his strongest evidence for no}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 24, 2025}

Egnor thinks that the strongest evidence that the mind is not merely the brain comes from epilepsy and split brain research.

Does Animal Intelligence Point to a Platonic Realm of Pure Information?

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 20, 2025}

How could a life form like an ant — not known for creative or independent thinking as such but rather for a hive mind — “evolve” such a strategy?

Animal Intelligence: What We Might Expect — and What Surprises Us

_{One risk with trying to put animal intelligence on a continuum with human intelligence is that it can result in apparently pointless controversies}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 19, 2025}

Some feats of apparent intelligence point to information sources that did not likely just evolve over time among the life forms.

Calm Down, the Universe as a Simulation Is Mathematically Impossible

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 19, 2025}

The idea that information underlies the universe is compatible with the very intelligent design theory that Lawrence Krauss has opposed in the past.

On New Book, Elite Opinion Cuts Loose from Reality

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 18, 2025}

All these intellectual worthies, in deadly earnest virtue, choose to miss the point.

Physicists: Math Shows That the Universe Can’t Be a Simulation

_{The physicists argue that pure information underlies the universe of matter and energy, as a Platonic realm of ideas}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 15, 2025}

We seem a long way now from the once-dominant science view of eliminative materialism in which even human consciousness was not considered real.

Mass Delusion Is Interesting — Especially Among Opinion Leaders

_{The reaction to a new book, The Arrogant Ape, provides a classic in elite opinion, aired without reference to reality}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 14, 2025}

All these intellectual worthies choose to miss the point: No life form other than humans writes books, reviews books, or contemplates any of the issues raised.

The Neanderthal Story Keeps Evolving (Even if Nothing Else Does)

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 14, 2025}

The University of Seville announces that Neanderthal footprints found along Portugal’s Algarve coast have led to unexpected insights about Neanderthal culture.

Perhaps Neanderthals Never Truly Went Extinct

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 14, 2025}

A critical part of the original tale of the Neanderthals is that, because they were stupid, we smarter, more evolved modern humans finished them off.

Tales From the Neanderthal Nights: Why They Really Disappeared

_{A new paper offers an assessment that does not need the Neanderthal to be the subhuman whose disappearance is explained by evolution. Arithmetic will suffice}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 13, 2025}

There seems less interest today in maintaining a “subhuman” status for our Neanderthal ancestors. It’s good if that sort of thing makes people uncomfortable.

The Neanderthal Story Is Still Evolving (Even If Nothing Else Is)

_{Their children of mixed heritage may have suffered from a genetic problem; also, what we can learn about Neanderthals from fossil footprints}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 13, 2025}

We can learn a lot from fossil footprints — who went where, when, and why — that static artifacts don't tell us by themselves.

Astrobiology as a Secular Quest for Meaning

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 13, 2025}

I don’t think this stuff does any harm — as long as it is understood as drama and not given undue importance in science or philosophy.

Near-Death Experiences: Explaining vs. Explaining Away

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 12, 2025}

The first rule of a scientific approach should be to take seriously what is happening before rushing in with a “science can explain this” hypothesis.

A War Between Evolutionary Biologists May Be Looming

_{Nathan Lents says it doesn’t make a lot of sense” to think of sex in humans as binary. Colin Wright says, “Stop misleading the public”}_{Denyse O'Leary
November 11, 2025}

Science is incompatible with the onslaught of post-modernism. A major rift in biology may be looming straight ahead.

War Between Evolutionary Biologists May Be Looming

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 11, 2025}

Nathan Lents says it doesn’t make a lot of sense” to think of sex in humans as binary. Colin Wright says, “Stop misleading the public.”