Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryPhilosophy

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Cognitive Researcher Conducting Perception Experiment with Visual Stimuli Under Natural Light, Selective Focus and Flat Lay Setup

Materialism in Science: Touching Another Hot Button

With a discussion of the findings of rigorous research into telepathy, the challenge to the presumption of materialism in science is beginning to be sounded loud and clear

What’s changed? The cost of protecting materialism in science has risen gradually, consistent with the rising number of situations on which it sheds little light.

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Close up of classified document top secret

Part 2: What If We Apply Harris’s “No Lies” Rule to Warfare?

As a former defense contractor, let me offer a view from reality

Sam Harris treats every lie as if it predictably spirals into atrocity. But most lies are judged against uncertain futures, not guaranteed horrors.

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Abstract image representing quantum mechanics and the mysterious world of subatomic particles, quantum, mechanics, physics

Wall Street Journal: A Disappointing Fret About “Conspiracy Physics”

If physicists are starting to “worry about the consequences” of discussing long-term theory failure, it is reasonable to think that there are even more serious problems within the discipline

If the physics establishment is only just now beginning to see that public funding depends on public legitimacy, well… it’s about time.

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Untouched remote craggy cliff featuring a dramatic hanging overhang against a clear blue sky.

Dawkins Watches as Science Skeeters Off a Cliff, Learns Nothing

The decline is mainly due to the loss of traditional insights gained in large part from religion

It is becoming clear that if we lose our religion, we will lose our science as well.

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The image is a beautiful depiction of a starry night sky. The clouds are soft and fluffy, and the stars are bright and numerous.

Podcast: Mind Before Matter: How an Idealist Looks At the World

Bruce Gordon argues that mind is basic to reality and that materialist views of consciousness do not explain what we know about experience or the world

For example, he points out that electrons are patterns in experience with stable and lawlike behavior. They are not little solid objects that exist in themselves.

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Close up microscopic view of a sperm cell approaching and penetrating a human egg cell during fertilization in the reproductive process

Winds of Change: Skeptic Mag Defends Sex Binary Nature of Humans

It's not Skeptic Magazine that has changed. Rather, a change in our society created a need for a psychologist to come forward there to defend so obvious a proposition

The transgender movement, like the teacher-driven war on math, has embraced the Skeptics’ own approach to reality and now uses it for ITS purposes.

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Fragmented Earth puzzle in space; environmental crisis concept; cosmic background; for climate change awareness

Science Writers Struggle With Reality as Crises Rock Disciplines

A series of recent articles and posts by prominent science and science writing figures leaves me wondering if they know what time it is

It’s curious that so few notice a much more serious threat to science than current politics is: the calls that are coming from inside the house.

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Illustration of basic physics and mathematics formulas and galaxy in universe

When Physicists Clash Over an Allegedly Pointless Universe…

… we end up finding out how much current research appears to be an elaborate waste of public funds

When Piers Morgan invited Sean Carroll and Eric Weinstein on his show, sparks flew. And Sabine Hossenfelder’s comments are an eye-opener.

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Image of smart african american girl reading book and drinking tea, while sitting on sofa in bright flat

In a Materialistic Universe, Literature Doesn’t Make Sense 

Language itself is theological. It’s an ascent

If materialism is false, if there is at least something at work beyond the material realm, then stories just got interesting again.

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A close-up view of a bunch of blue pills, showcasing a background medicine concept.

A Biologist Struggles to Understand “Unscientific Wokeness”

Truth, for many people now, is based on social, emotional, or political needs. And major science publications are buying in

Science, as both Darwinian Jerry Coyne and his non-materialist opponents know it, is one forlorn casualty of late-stage materialism, the world of private truth.

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Golden hand fist illustrations, generative ai

Dogmatic Materialism Is a Damaging Attitude for Science

Richard Lewontin, a dogmatic materialist geneticist, seemed certain that epigenetics should be definitively rejected

The dogmatic mindset is bad for science and the fact that the dogma is materialism may make it worse. It certainly doesn’t mitigate the damage in any way.

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The mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus was chosen by the gods to devise a method to measure the stars

Faith and Science Before Modern Science — a Fresh Look

Winston Ewert offers a surprising look at how Christians debated science theories in the ancient and medieval world

What Christians thought about the claims of classical science should be seen in light of the fact that the science, not the faith, was later overturned.

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Kids sitting on stack of firewood

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.

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storm causing flash floods A storm causing sudden flash floods in a residential area

Why Do We Mourn the Deaths of Other People’s Children?

I share P. Z. Myers’s horror but the problem of innocent suffering is much deeper for the atheist than for the Christian

Whatever little contribution the theory of Darwinian evolution that Myers espouses makes to our understanding of bacteria, it tells us nothing of man.

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Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, France

Can Cultural Christianity Save Christian Culture?

People cannot reconnect with a view on life that they don’t believe, simply to save the things that only such a view can create and maintain

It’s not just about religion. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans could save their Republics once most people stopped believing in the values that created them.

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A cell viewed under a microscope, rendered in stunning 4K detail.

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.

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The sunlight glistens through the clouds, creating a ray of hope and symbolizing the presence of a higher power.

Panpsychist Philosopher Espouses “Heretical” Form of Christianity

The fine-tuning of the universe for life was a key factor in Philip Goff's decision that there must be some sort of God

Goff’s eclectic philosophical journey is not likely over. But, generally, it is best to assume that the New Testament authors meant what they said.

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Space background with giant planetary nebula

“Nature of the Universe” Questions That Still Puzzle Physicists

What would go wrong if we just accepted that we live in a universe designed by a Mind far greater than ours? Would that really be the end of science?

Or just an end to conundrums that aren’t really conundrums if that fact is faced. There is a lot we could be doing with the same expenditure of time, energy, and intellectual skill.

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Glowing Light Bulb in the Dark

Why AI Breaks Down Where Human Creativity Begins

Part 1: AI can handle statements that are internally coherent but that is not the same thing as correspondence with reality

In short, philosophers distinguish between two fundamental theories of truth: correspondence and coherence, and AI does only coherence.

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Big Bang in Space, The Birth of the Universe 3d illustration

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.

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