Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryPhilosophy

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Forgotten Game: War's Scars

Stephen Post and Michael Egnor: Restoring Community Amid Division

In the dialogue on his new book, Dr. Post defines love simply: when the well-being of another person becomes as real and meaningful to you as your own, you love that person

Michael Egnor adds that classical philosophers defined love as “willing the good of the other,” not merely liking someone and Stephen Post agrees.

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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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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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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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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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Legosteine, Hintergrund

Personhood: What it really means to be human

Are we more like detachable Lego bricks or like parts of a body? A Mind Matters News podcast with Eric Jones explores this

The relational model has practical consequences. It considers flourishing as less about “me” and more about “we.”

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Alien extra-terrestrial life forms, micro-organisms, floating in cosmic space, outer space

In What Sense Is Origin of Life From Space a Scientific Question?

We can never know for sure what happened in the remote past. But future discoveries could, in principle, either strengthen or confirm the life from space claim.

One thing emerges clearly from the life from space approach: Intelligent design is a viable hypothesis for the origin of life.

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A conceptual artwork showcasing a robot in prayer, symbolizing faith, spirituality, and worship in a dark room with fire in the background.

Unexpected: ChatGPT and the Return of God

Scott Ventureyra talks about ChatGPT and other large language models (chatbots )AI in the unlikely role of unexpected apologists for Christianity

Far from heralding a coming secular triumph over God, the verbal output of chatbots suggests that, generally, people conclude that God must in fact exist.

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A woman stands contemplative in a futuristic mirror maze, surrounded by reflections and green neon lights.

Monkey Wrenched: Science & the Specter of Private Truth

The landscape in which science flourishes has greatly changed. A rising power threatens even popular science staples like Darwinism. I call that new power “private truth.”

Many people experience a vast liberation when they are freed from the constraints of logic, reason and evidence. They won’t part lightly with their new freedom.

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A sharp pencil between two erasers on a blue background.Unfree creativity and censorship, concept

Science Cancellation Continues: Meet the Latest Victim

Marty Rowland, an editor at the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, has been fired for publishing an article arguing the carbon dioxide and a warming climate are not problems

Nothing great is at stake in what happened to Kimmel. In the domination of science by ideology, by the myth of “settled science,” the stakes couldn’t be more profound. 

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DNA strands in endless space

In What Sense Is Origin of Life a Scientific Question?

Recently, a friend recommended a paper on theories of the origin of life. (Yet another one?) But this one proved most interesting…

We’re allowed to consider that intelligent design may have got life going provided we locate it somewhere between Star Wars and Star Trek.

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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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