Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Denyse O'Leary

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cropped view of senior man playing with puzzles on table

For a Long Time, Dementia Was the New Leprosy

It has often been treated with fear and exclusion. Maybe there is more hope now

Dementia is not “inevitable,” in the sense that it would happen no matter what else is in play. Nature is rarely like that. Decisions matter.

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A close-up view of a human egg cell surrounded by sperm cells, illustrating fertilization.

How a Biologist Became a Casualty in the War on Reality

If evolutionary biology’s core belief is that everything human can be reduced to animal impulses, truth is merely a survival strategy. But nonsense proved more successful

Carole Hooven discovered that, where the sex binary nature of humans is concerned, the new elite at Harvard and The Lancet thrive on nonsense. But she can’t.

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Portrait of smiling multinational people different religions stand together. National Religious Freedom Day. January 16. Holiday concept. Template for background, banner, card, poster and wallpaper

At Psych Mag: How Your Brain Allegedly Invented God…

Not THIS again, you say? Yes, this again. Straight out of the 1970s, as if the last fifty years of research never happened

One effect of the presumption of atheism in science is that all kinds of speculation can be grandfathered as reasonable scientific thinking.

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open eye space

Change: Charles Murray Finds Out That He Does Need God

This growing interest in religion is a trend. It is all coming too close together to just be an accident of timing.

Surprised? Joel Kotkin points out that the conventional picture many people have of the religious vs. the non-religious population is gravely distorted.

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A powerful depiction of a person sitting at a desk with paper planes representing different ambitions and dreams flying out the window, symbolizing the launch and pursuit of personal goals, Desk scene

On Atheism’s Watch, Rationality in Science Flew Out the Window

Why did atheists, in charge of science during the last few decades, yield the floor to irrational forces?

Science itself is being deplatformed by Woke relativism, developed by the very people who found atheists quite thought-provoking and fashionable.

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slipping over the edge. just a tiny bit more. falling down the ledge cliff

Researchers Ask: What Happens After a Near-Death Experience?

The experiences themselves tend to attract attention and study. But how do they really change lives?

NDEs do change lives but, according to a recent study, NDErs often require counseling and not many counselors are equipped to support them.

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Emerald Globe Thriving Tree at Earths Core Symbolizing Interconnected Nature and Humanity in an

Why Materialism Will Probably Drift Into Panpsychism

I predict that “Nothing is conscious” will be superseded, among fashionable thinkers, by “Everything is conscious.”

Materialists will try to interpret the workings of the brain as one aspect of consciousness that is a natural part of the material universe.

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Nebula and galaxies in space. Abstract cosmos background

Reviewer Asks: Why Can’t We Just Go Back to Unprovable Faith?

Kathleen Stock’s witty effort to blunt the force of the evidence presented in that new French book, God, the Science, the Evidence, raises a stark question

Why are we asked to discredit the evidence of fine-tuning of the universe? Why is such an antirealist message coming from science?

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A Friendly Encounter Between Human and Alien with a welcoming hand shake. First Contact between humans and aliens. Ai generated

The Science of Extraterrestrials: The Art of Keeping Hope Alive

The science literature on the topic shows an interesting and entertaining back-and-forth relationship with science fiction

Earth appears uniquely suited to life. The question looms: How much can science downplay or avoid facts like that while retaining the character of science?

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Newspaper Rock State Historical Site, Utah, detail

How Many Random Blips Are Needed To Make a Human?

Just asking for a friend… no, seriously, a look at some recent news from human paleontology

Human origins papers are often informative and entertaining, as long as we do not confuse them with understanding the realities of human origins and experience.

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Planets Galaxy Science Fiction Wallpaper Beauty Deep Space Cosmos Physical Cosmology Stock Photos.

French Authors Say Science Points to God; Scientists Listen

But, as materialism wanes and religion slowly revives, will many scientists find panpsychism more attractive?

Something has changed if the magic word “Evolution!” cannot be used to paper over vast improbabilities and silence dissenters in the way that it has for over a century.

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light at the end of the tunnel

One Reason Why Near-Death Experiences Are Difficult to Study

Philosopher Bernardo Kastrup talks at Closer to Truth about the problem of trying to communicate experiences for which there are no words

Much that the NDE experiencer learns cannot easily be expressed, because there are no words for experiences that most people have only after they die.

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Infant chimpanzee in Gombe National Park, Tanzania

Was the Legendary Jane Goodall (1934–2025) the End of an Era?

Perhaps. A more realistic appraisal of the reality of human uniqueness is needed if we hope to prevent the extinction of chimpanzees in the wild

While Goodall believed that there is no sharp line dividing humans and chimpanzees, she herself was one of many who embodied the sharp line.

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Kangaroo at Lucky Bay in the Cape Le Grand National Park

Humanists Cancel Steven Pinker’s Lecture Over Trans Issues

The Humanist Society of Australia pulled out of sponsoring his lecture because they linked him with a defense of the idea that humans are male or female

The episode is part of a much broader picture: When private truth beats public truth, ideology quickly overrules science.

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Punch and Judy show

The “War on Science” as a Punch-and-Judy show

If Michael Mann really wanted to avoid politicizing science, he could have at least started by setting an example.

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Fogbow over misty green hills at sunrise rainbow dawn

Why the Soul Doesn’t — and Can’t — Weigh Anything

The question has nothing to do with whether or not the soul exists

Dr. Duncan MacDougall’s attempts to weigh the soul were ingenious as well as controversial but he misunderstood the soul’s nature.

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Microscopic organisms from the pond water. Nematode - details

Even a worm’s brain proves hard to explain

If even that 300-neuron brain proves a challenge in materialist terms, consider the human brain (86 billion neurons) intersecting with an immaterial mind.

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play button on black background

YouTube Admits to Broad Censorship Program, Vows Reform

Amid the uproar over comic Jimmy Kimmel’s brief Cancellation over comments about the Charlie Kirk slaying, this much bigger story slid by unnoticed

Google says it was largely at the government’s behest. The Biden administration apparently believed in censorship far more than many Americans realized.

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