Every religion deals with ultimate futures. What happens to the person? Reincarnation? Reabsorption? Resurrection? What is the final state of the world? Innumerable cycles? A new heaven and a new earth? Is eternity on offer?
Can non-Western traditions discern new perspectives of fundamental reality, the deepest levels or categories or grounds of being? Can novel ways of seeing the world’s foundations and joints give ultimate insight into meaning and purpose?
Science and religion: clash or consilience? Science commands broad consensus, which religion cannot. Religion claims ultimate insight, which science cannot. Should the conflict be taken seriously? Can complementarity make sense?
What kinds of afterlives do the world’s religions offer? Soul/spirit in heaven or hell, with or apart from God? Reincarnation with innumerable rebirths, seeking liberation and nirvana? Resurrection of the body, reuniting with a soul/spirit?
Given the enormity of evil & suffering, can the world make sense? To Abrahamic religions, with an all-powerful, all-good God, evil and suffering are problems to solve. To Eastern religions, evil and suffering are keys to human fulfillment and all reality.
Can understanding how the mind appreciates art give insight into how the mind works generally and broadly? What is it about art that it can penetrate mental barriers and reveal mental mechanics? How does art influence multiple cognitive and emotional processes? Art’s diverse functions—communications, expression, social cohesion tease out and reflect diverse mental faculties. We…
Since ancient times, certain spaces have been deemed sacred, serving as holy places that religious believers believe provide clearer access to transcendent realms. What is it about these spaces (cathedrals, mosques, synagogues, temples) that are considered sacred? How does architecture engender transcendence? We follow an architect who engages cognitive science to compare sacred and secular…
How can music, the auditory arts, take us beyond ourselves, generating a sense of awe and grandeur, opening up new ways of knowing and revealing new kinds of understanding? What is it about music that triggers the transcendent, and why are transcendent experiences more common in encounters with music than with visual arts? We follow…
How can art, the visual arts, take us beyond ourselves, generating a sense of awe and grandeur, opening up new ways of knowing and revealing new kinds of understanding? What is it about art that triggers the transcendent? We follow an experimental psychologist who is also a theologian as he tests the art-transcendence connection.
Understanding the nature of aesthetics requires careful experimentation and innovative ways to reveal essence and tease out aspects of aesthetics. What are key characteristics of an aesthetic sense of things? Are there common behavioral terms that standardize perceptions of art, enabling brain blood flow during mental activity to reveal neurocorrelates of aesthetic experiences? We follow…
Explore diverse theories of consciousness, like materialism, dualism, panpsychism, idealism, and diverse ways of thinking about consciousness, like neuroscience, philosophy, wisdom traditions. Compare theories of consciousness on a ‘Landscape of Consciousness’.
Dualism is the theory that ultimate reality is composed of two radically different kinds of things, physical things and non-physical things, and that body with brain and spirit or soul account for consciousness. What are arguments for and against Dualism?