No. 7 Story for 2025: World’s “Best-Known Journalist” Meets Michael Egnor

4th of July, americans, atheists, blueberries, Christof Koch, CNN, Denyse O'Leary, Discovery Institute, Faith & Science, faith and science, fireworks, Gaza, Independence Day, Israel, journalists, July 4, Medicine, Michael Egnor, Michael Shermer, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, Piers Morgan, Piers Morgan Uncensored, Roman Catholics, scripture, Seattle, Skeptics, Sunday Times, The Immortal Mind, YouTube videos
Piers Morgan, who is Catholic, says he already believed in life after death from faith and Scripture. What he wanted, he said, was scientific evidence for it. Source
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Does Quantum Mechanics Help Make Sense of the Soul?

Bayesian reasoning, Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, consciousness, COSM 2025, Faith & Science, George Gilder, immaterial reality, information, Jay W. Richards, life after death, Measurement Problem, Michael Egnor, Michael Shermer, Neuroscience & Mind, neurosurgeons, physics, quantum mechanics, Roger Penrose, Technology, The Human Advantage
Quantum mechanics seems to be the game-changer that Albert Einstein (1879–1955) feared it would be. It is certain to liven up discussions about the soul. Source
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Skeptic Michael Shermer’s Non-Vision of the Soul

Bayesian reasoning, body, brain, COSM 2025, David Deutsch, Faith & Science, Francis Crick, materialist paradigm, Michael Egnor, Michael Shermer, mind, near-death experiences, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, neurosurgeons, Skeptics Society, soul, The Astonishing Hypothesis, The Beginning of Infinity
Responding to Michael Egnor at COSM 2025, he said that the soul is an explanation but not a good explanation for our relationship to our bodies. Source
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A Disagreement with Shermer on the Ethics of IVF

bioethics, chattel slaves, Children, Christian bioethics, Christof Koch, conception, Denyse O'Leary, Faith & Science, human beings, in vitro fertilization, industrial manufacture, IVF, Medicine, Michael Shermer, organ donors, persons, Piers Morgan, Roman Catholicism, sexual slaves, Skeptic (podcast), soldiers, The Immortal Mind
It is quite possible to seek good ends (children) by bad means (their industrial manufacture). These are very real concerns. Source
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Faith, Reason, and the Search for Truth: Stephen Meyer and Michael Shermer

Brian Keating, Bryan Callen, complex life, consciousness, Energy, Faith & Science, faith and science, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, mathematics, matter, Michael Shermer, mind, origin of life, Podcast, Skeptic Magazine, skepticism, Stephen Meyer, The Bryan Callen Show, truth, UC San Diego, universe
Dr. Meyer calls math mind-independent. We discover it, we don’t invent it. And it’s conceptual, not a physical material thing. Why is that Important? Source
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Fossil Friday: New Evidence for the Human Nature of Neanderthals

anatomy, antibiotics, Australian aboriginals, behavior, Bence Viola, biospecies, body decoration, cave art, cavemen, eagle talons, Fossil Friday, gene pool, genetic admixture, glue, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, human nature, Human Origins, human uniqueness, jewelry, lordosis, mating partners, Michael Shermer, native Australians, Neanderthals, ochre, painkillers, paleontology, seafood, spinal curvature, stone circles, Svante Pääbo, Thomas Huxley, University of Toronto
What is at stake is not just some esoteric species problem in the ivory tower, but the very question of human nature and human uniqueness. Source
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Watchdog Group Calls Professor Dave “Anti-Semite of the Week”; Plus an Appeal to the New Atheists

anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, beheadings, colonizers, Dave Farina, Evolution, evolutionists, Hamas, Holocaust deniers, IDF, insults, Intelligent Design, Iran, Israel, Jerry Coyne, Jewish people, Judaism, Lawrence Krauss, Michael Shermer, New Atheists, Palestinians, pogrom, Professor Dave Explains, rape, Richard Dawkins, science educator, StopAntisemitism, terrorists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Why Evolution Is True, YouTube videos, Zionism, Zionist State
Does this have anything to do with intelligent design and the evolution debate? Yes, two things. Source
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Alfred Russel Wallace’s Bicentennial Year: A Cause for Celebration and for Sadness

Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry, Arthur Conan Doyle, bicentennial, Charles Smith, Chemistry, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, cosmology, Darwinism (book), Elusive Victorian, Evolution, George Beccaloni, Heretic in Darwin’s Court, In Darwin’s Shadow, intelligent cause, Intelligent Design, intelligent evolution, James T. Costa, Lord Rayleigh, Man’s Place in the Universe, Martin Fichman, Michael Shermer, Nature's Prophet, Origin of Species, Peter Raby, Radical by Nature, Revolt of Democracy, Richard Dawkins, Ross A. Slotten, Social Environment and Moral Progress, spiritualism, that biology, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Wonderful Century, The World of Life, Tropical Nature, Usk, Wales, William Crookes, William Fletcher Barrett, William James, William Paley
All the hyperbole shows the fix is in — Wallace has been made safe for scientism and Darwinian reductionism. The academy can breathe easy. Source
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Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar

23andMe, antiseptic, birch tar, birch wood, Clive Finlayson, Germany, Gibraltar Museum, glue, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, insect repellent, intelligence, Michael Shermer, Middle Palaeolithic, missing link, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, paleontology, Patrick Schmidt, ScienceAlert, University of Tübingen
The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligent. Source
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