Closer To Truth

Big Questions in Free Will (Part 1)

CONSCIOUSNESS - What is free will? Do we have free will? The ‘Big Questions in Free Will’ project tackles these issues in a multi-year study. In Part I, scientists and philosophers research, test, and advance thinking on free will.Featuring Alfred Mele, Galen Strawson, John Searle, Peter van Inwagen, Christof Koch, Uri Maoz, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Thalia Wheatley, and Peter Tse.

What Exists? (Part 2)

COSMOS - What’s the ultimate stuff of reality? What’s absolutely fundamental and non-reducible — the fewest number of categories within which every specific thing, of every general kind, can be classified?Featuring Barry Loewer, David Albert, Luke Barnes, Raymond Tallis, and George Ellis.

Can the Cosmos Have a Reason?

COSMOS - Perhaps we cannot know the reason for the universe, if there is any. But is it even possible for the universe to have a reason? If yes, how would natural regularities and rules compare with some kind of goal or God?Featuring Alexander Vilenkin, John Polkinghorne, Michael Shermer, Stephen Wolfram, and Stuart Kauffman.

Can Brain Explain Mind?

CONSCIOUSNESS - What is it about the brain that enables some scientists to claim they can explain mind? And what is it about scientific explanations that some philosophers reject?Featuring Christof Koch, Rodolfo Llinas, Raymond Kurzweil, John Searle, and David Chalmers.

Where are All Those Aliens?

COSMOS - Most scientists assume that the universe must be populated with innumerable alien intelligences and civilizations—after all, we humans can't be so special. OK, so where are they, these "innumerable alien intelligences and civilizations"? How come there's zero evidence?Featuring Jill Tarter, Douglas Vakoch, Frank Drake, Raymond Kurzweil, Francisco Ayala, Steven Dick, and David Brin.

Big Questions in Free Will (Part 2)

CONSCIOUSNESS - What is free will? Do we have free will? The ‘Big Questions in Free Will’ project tackles these issues in a multi-year study. In Part I, scientists and philosophers research, test, and advance thinking on free will.Featuring Bertram Malle, Eddy Nahmias, Roy Baumeister, Patrick Haggard, Adina Roskies, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Alfred Mele.

What is the Mind-Body Problem?

CONSCIOUSNESS - How is it possible that mushy masses of brain cells, passing chemicals and shooting sparks literally are mental sensations and subjective feelings? They seem so radically different.Featuring John Searle, Ned Block, J.P. Moreland, Marvin Minsky, and Colin McGinn.

Why a Fine-Tuned Universe?

COSMOS - How can so many numbers of nature, the constants and relationships of physics, be so spot-on perfect for humans to exist? Beware: there is more than one answer lurking here.Featuring John Leslie, Steven Weinberg, David Gross, John Polkinghorne, Robin Collins, and Paul Davies.

Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

COSMOS - Forget science. Forget God. This is the ultimate question: What if Everything had Forever been Nothing? Not just emptiness, not just blankness, but not even the existence of emptiness, not even the meaning of blankness, and no Forever. If you don't get dizzy, you really don't get it.Featuring John Leslie, Peter van Inwagen, Bede Rundle, Quentin Smith, Richard Swinburne and Steven Weinberg.

How Could God Interact with the World?

MEANING - If God exists, and if God ordains history and generates miracles, how does He do it? Fiddle with each and every atom? Command all of them en masse? What possibly could be God's technique?Featuring Robert Russell, John Polkinghorne, Paul Davies, Alvin Plantinga and Ernan McMullin.