Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryReligion

notre-dame-de-paris-cathedral-france-stockpack-adobe-stock-78749167-stockpack-adobestock
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. Read More ›
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Progress of lighting with candle, tungsten, fluorescent and LED

McDowell: Is It Time Christians Moved Beyond the Evolution Wars?

Actually, a paradigm shift is already underway, Traditional Darwinism faces challenges on a number of fronts within biology studies
Today, people can be atheists and dismiss Darwin all the same. So Christian evangelists and apologists need to reckon with that. Read More ›
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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. Read More ›
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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. Read More ›
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The image contains various celestial objects and mathematical calculations subtly illustrated on a dark starry background, ideal for space and science enthusiasts.

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. Read More ›
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Gelbe Narzissen im Frühling

Pew: Rate of Decline in Christian Belief in U.S. Is Slowing

The decline may be in the process of reversing itself. News items tell the story
Perhaps many people no longer see the triumph of hardcore materialism as inevitable — or even possible. Read More ›
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Saint Catherine's Monastery. Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai. Bell tower at Saint Catherine's Monastery. The monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world

Egypt To Expropriate Historic St. Catherine’s Monastery?

The fate of St. Catherine’s as a symbol is of greater importance than the fate of this particular holy site and its resident monks
Religious freedom includes the right to maintain sacred sites as well as to worship freely. Read More ›
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Cave entrance with sunlit stone steps, man ascending stairs towards bright light at end of tunnel. Symbolizing afterlife, near-death experience, inspiration, or hope beyond darkness.

Near-Death Stories: Has An Undiscovered Country Been Discovered?

A Catholic priest looks at ways we can understand these brushes with an unseen world
Fr. Hilbert notes that such documented lucid experiences as he recounts can hardly be the mere outcome of a dying brain shutting down. Read More ›
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Brain psychology mind soul and hope concept art, 3d illustration, surreal artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea

Can Christianity Just Abandon the Idea of the Soul?

Theologian Nancey Murphy thinks that the Christian tradition can do without the idea of a soul, by relying only on faith in a bodily resurrection
The view Murphy outlines at Closer to Truth has more in common with modern materialism than with a traditional Christian understanding of the human soul. Read More ›
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152874 3d illustration of molecule model. Science background wit

John West’s New Book Stockholm Syndrome Looks at Francis Collins

It’s not possible to reconcile Collins’s treatment of unborn children with a Christian view of them
The genome mapper is widely cited as a famous Christian in science but West asks us to look a little deeper — into his actual policies. Read More ›
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Colorful space galaxy cloud nebula. Stary night cosmos. Universe science astronomy. Supernova background wallpaper

Ross Douthat Makes the Case that Religious Belief Is Rational

His new book is written largely with the agnostic or full-on atheist in mind but believers would certainly also benefit, as I did
He notes, if our brains evolved merely to help us stay alive, then it’s strange that those same mental states could invent the telescope to explore the cosmos. Read More ›
homo-heidelbergensis-is-an-extinct-prehistoric-man-he-used-m-782439397-stockpack-adobe_stock
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct prehistoric man. He used more advanced tools than Homo erectus, such as hand axes and spears, and probably fire

A Catholic Priest Talks About Human Evolution

Fr. Martin Hilbert approaches the topic from the perspective of evidence, reason, and faith — and realism about what is at stake in the discussion
Fr. Hilbert shows that we have not found anything that justifies a Darwinian approach to life as somehow more compatible with science than a Christian one. Read More ›
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Panoramic view of the Earth, sun, star and galaxy. Sunrise over planet Earth, view from space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

New Book: The Catholic Case for the Design of Nature

Fr. Martin Hilbert notes that the history of life seems more like a separate collection of bushes than a single tree
The great Catholic theologian Aquinas noted that “what happens in the working of nature is either always, or mostly, for the better,” which rules out chance. Read More ›
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A glowing smartphone displaying the text AI agent highlighting artificial intelligence and AGI during the singularity as a virtual assistant representative and customer service support rep

Why We Must Not Use AI In Ministry: Response to Jay Owen

An open letter to Jay Owen, a popular proponent of AI in ministry
Smith: “It’s really hard, but I hope you’ll consider what I have to share and stop telling people they should use AI in ministry.” Read More ›
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James Webb Space Telescope reveals emerging stellar nurseries and individual stars in the Carina Nebula

Douthat: Our Minds Are Tied to Reality

The New York Times columnist thinks everyone should be more religious

“The world is intelligible,” Ross Douthat said to Jonah Goldberg on “The Remnant” podcast. Douthat, an opinion columnist at The New York Times, has a new book coming out on religion and why “everyone should be more religious,” and he joined Goldberg to discuss the book along with our current political landscape. Douthat, a Catholic, referenced fine tuning and the profound evidence of intentional design in nature as one of the motivations for his own faith. He told Goldberg that it’s remarkable that we have minds that are able to accurately comprehend the world around us, let alone the chemical makeup of the universe. Our questioning natures, bent on discovering the truth of things, demonstrate that we live in something Read More ›

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Land with dry and cracked ground. Desert,Global warming background

Daniel Dennett Made Atheism Easy to Understand

In the process, he somehow also made it less believable
Dennett may be best remembered for inadvertently helping to reduce the popularity of atheism Read More ›
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Homme dans une église parlant à l'assemblée

Are Churches Becoming Victims of Stockholm Syndrome?

In a new book, John West looks at the problem of evangelical church leaders adopting the belief systems of their opponents, perhaps to stay safe
The challenge, he argues, is to maintain Christian values while challenging Christian leaders who compromise in order to stay safe and successful. Read More ›
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old books background

Rodney Stark: A Historian Finds a History Amid Cultural Myths

As his views matured, Stark found himself more and more opposed to the nineteenth-century positivist founders of social science
Stark, reappraising the role of religion, found that seeing history through a positivist, materialist lens reduces its complexities to caricatures. Read More ›
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Evangelist Hello Name Tag Sticker Supporter Preacher 3d Illustration

Richard Dawkins as an Unlikely Evangelist

As a recent book of essays demonstrates, the once much-vaunted new atheism spurred many thinking people to become Christians
Leading atheist philosophers have found Dawkins’s arguments superficial, many find his “warfare” thesis against religion shallow and his certitude unjustified. Read More ›
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The confrontation of a heatwave and a melting glacier, symbolizing the collision of rising temperatures and shrinking ice masses. Concept of climate change impact on glaciers. Generative Ai.

New Atheism Is Shrinking and It’s Not Entirely Clear Why

Now, there is an eerie unfashionable silence that fashionable media are beginning to notice. For one thing, it is affecting Richard Dawkins
The Woke, it turns out, are no more tolerant of atheists than they are of anyone else with divergent views. That may be what finally fells new atheism. Read More ›