Closer To Truth Podcasts

CONSCIOUSNESS - Consciousness is the great mystery of inner awareness. Where does it exist? Humans, obviously. Animals? Which animals? Chimps, elephants, dolphins, dogs? Termites, snails, amoeba, bacteria? What about non-biological intelligences like super-supercomputers of the future?

MEANING - God is supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing and all good. In addition, is God is supposed to be 'all-free'? What does it mean for God to be perfectly free? Can God do literally anything? Can God make choices or must God always do the 'best', whatever 'best' may mean for each action? Are there any limits on God's freedom?

MEANING - How to imagine the experience of eternal life? Would we sense ourselves? How would we feel? Whom would we know? What would we do? What would God do? Living forever seems so absurd, yet eternal life is the promise of almost every religion. But if we cannot even imagine what eternal life will be, how can we have hope in its reality?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Physically, humans and animals seem similar. Mentally, humans seem so superior. What's so special about human nature?

COSMOS - Some scientists claim that the universe did not have a beginning. Some theologians contend that the universe did not need a beginning.

COSMOS - What if nothing ever existed? Scientists claim that the universe came from nothing. But what's the nature of nothing? That's where the confusion lies.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Why do we spend so much of our lives not awake? What do sleeping and dreaming reveal about consciousness?

COSMOS - In the far, far future, what happens to planets, stars, galaxies, black holes? What’s the ‘Big Rip’ and the ‘Big Crunch’? And if 'multiple universes’ exist, if one universe ends, do others begin?

CONSCIOUSNESS - Some claim their scientific study of ESP overturns the worldview of science. Should we take these startling pronouncements seriously? If so, what would it mean for events in the physical world to defy all known physical laws? Either there is something misleading about those events or something beyond those physical laws.

CONSCIOUSNESS - If ESP is real--that's a big "If"--then our entire worldview would change. Existence would be somehow enlarged. But extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

COSMOS - More than one universe? A ridiculous question no more! How could multiple universes be generated, and can we ever find evidence, one way or another? Talk about expanding your horizons: you can't imagine what's in store!

MEANING - God is supposed to have perfect knowledge, which includes all true statements about the future. Does this mean that God knows everything about what is to come? But if the future doesn't yet exist, then there is nothing now to know. Theologians battle among themselves.

CONSCIOUSNESS - If it seems obvious that you are perfectly free to choose and decide, then it seems perfectly clear that you underestimate the problem (and have never questioned a philosopher). Free Will is a huge problem.

COSMOS - Science and religion-each pursues Big Truth and offers total solutions. Science works. That's for sure. Religion? Not so sure. Does any reality exist beyond the expanding reach of science?

MEANING - No one denies the diversity of human religions, and the apparent incompatibility of their core beliefs. Many believe only their own religion to be True. Some claim all religions reflect the same Truth. Others assert that differing dogmas expose the emptiness of all religion.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Is our mental life a random accident, solely the product or byproduct of physical brain? Or is there something deeply special about conscious awareness that may reveal a hidden reality?

COSMOS - Consider humanity's astounding progress in science during the past three hundred years. Now take a deep breath and project forward, oh say, three billion years.

MEANING - Turn the tables on whether God exists. Atheists take their best shots at disproving God; theists deflect the arguments, defending God. Atheists come harder still; theists fight back. We keep the arguments tough-minded and the thinking critical.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Do we survive bodily death? Can our personal awareness transcend physical decay? There are no bigger questions and there are no shortages of answers. Some claim to have evidence.

COSMOS - Some scientists take time travel seriously. Should you? What does time travel reveal about the nature of space and time and the laws of physics under extreme conditions?