Can Brain Alone Explain Consciousness?
Can physical facts about the brain account for mental experiences of the mind? Has philosophy of mind made progress? We take a 15-year journey with John Searle and David Chalmers.
Religious Faith: Rational or Rationalization?
There is strain between faith and reason, yet many people proclaim their faith. Why? What generates faith? God? Or human psychology? Should we want to have faith?
Can God and Science Mix?
Science and religion each claims dominion over deep reality. But science and religion are not parallel. All should believe science, humanity’s common language, while religion has many skeptics.
How do Language and Consciousness Relate?
Why the tension between consciousness, my inner experience, and language, enabling thought and culture? Does consciousness cause language? Or language cause consciousness?
How Could God Make Miracles?
Where do miracles fit in belief systems that center on God? If God exists, how could God make miracles happen, and what would miracles imply about the way God relates to the world?
What is the Doomsday Argument?
Have we underestimated the risks of global catastrophe and human extinction? There is an odd argument that claims to justify end-of-the-world worries with raw statistics.
When Brains Go Bad?
What does brain damage do to people? By observing strange behaviors in brain-impaired patients, scientists discern how normal brains works For example, what happens to “the self”?
Is Consciousness Ultimate Reality?
Some say that consciousness is the only true reality—that everything else, including the universe, comes from consciousness. If so, how would consciousness relate to the world?
Can Dualism Explain Consciousness?
Dualism claims reality has two parts, a physical and a nonphysical (mental or spiritual), both equally real. Dualism is believed by most people but rejected by most philosophers and scientists.
What is Causation?
Why does one thing ‘cause’ another thing? Is causation fundamental, primitive, real—not reducible to, or explainable by, anything else? Or is causation a human construct, derivative, artificial? At stake is what existence is about.
Does God Know Everything?
Western religions claim that God is all-knowing. Then the trouble starts. What does it mean to know everything? Is God’s knowledge of the future truth? Are ‘possibilities’ truth? Can God know infinities of truths? Does omniscience test a theistic God?
How to Argue for God?
Is there a supreme being, a creator of all things, a God? Can arguments—reasons, logic, ways of thinking—cut through traditions, norms, feelings? Believers bear the burden of proof.