Closer To Truth

MEANING - Humans have a sense of right and wrong. Does this mean that morality is absolute? And if absolute, would God be needed to make it so? Even theologians are perplexed by God & Morality; some even admit it. Featuring J.P. Moreland, Richard Swinburne, Francis S. Collins, Michael Tooley, and Michael Shermer.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Consciousness is what mental activity feels like, the private inner experience of sensation, thought, and emotion. Consciousness is like nothing else. Featuring David Eagleman, Warren Brown, Keith Ward, Christof Koch, and Tim Bayne.

COSMOS - When you ask "what things really exist", and you think deeply about this universal probe, you see the whole world anew. It's such a simple question; how does it inspire such profound insight? Featuring Roger Penrose, Peter van Inwagen, John Searle, William Lane Craig, and John Leslie.

MEANING - Does God have real choices? Or is God bound tightly by God’s own nature? Can God do absolutely everything? Can God be ‘brave’? Can God ‘improve’? For God to be God, how can God be constrained all? Featuring Michael Almeida, Hugh McCann, Matthews Grant, and David Hunt.

CONSCIOUSNESS - As far as we know, brains are the most highly organized matter in the universe. How they make their magic is just astonishing. Featuring Arnold B. Scheibel, Carmine D. Clemente, John D. Schlag, Christof Koch, Mike Merzenich, and Rodolfo R. Llinas.

COSMOS - Everyone knows that the universe is huge, but no one could have imagined how staggeringly immense the universe, or multiple universes, may actually be. It stops your breath. Featuring Martin Rees, Max Tegmark, Alan H. Guth, Andrei Linde, and Paul Davies.

MEANING - Does everything need a cause? Everything in the universe surely does. But what about the universe as a whole? And what about God—assuming God exists—does God need a cause? Featuring William Lane Craig, Quentin Smith, Alister McGrath, David Shatz, Charles L. Harper Jr., and Peter van Inwagen.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Everyone wants to know ‘Truth’. But what is Truth? People argue about Truth; people fight about Truth—consider politics and religion. But what is the basic meaning of Truth itself? Featuring Simon Blackburn, Raymond Tallis, John Hawthorne, John Hick, and Michael Shermer.

CONSCIOUSNESS — What is the nature of art? What makes something “art”, and why should we value it? What are aesthetics and art theory? Can philosophy of art enhance appreciation and practice of the arts?

CONSCIOUSNESS — Can art inform the classic mind-body problem? While the relationship between mental activity and physical brain continues to baffle (especially consciousness), can the existence and process of art provide insight?

COSMOS — It’s the ultimate puzzle. It’s the haunting question. Why is there “something” rather than “nothing”? It seems impenetrable, uncrackable, unfathomable. But are there ways?

CONSCIOUSNESS — What is happening in our brains when we perceive and appreciate the arts? What are the neural substrates of artistic sensations, feelings, and emotions? How do diverse arts affect the brain?

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?

MEANING - It’s intended as ultimate purpose: salvation means eternal life with God. For believers, what actually happens, what kind of life? For non-believers, what can we learn about how religion works?

MEANING - Can atonement absolve sin? For believers, how could The Atonement work? What’s the process? For non-believers, what does The Atonement say about the kind of God that supposedly designed it?

MEANING - Why the astonishing claim that Jesus is God? Not like God. Not representing God. But literally God? One need not be a Christian, or even a theist, to appreciate the arguments.

COSMOS - Here’s the claim: each level of the scientific hierarchy — physics, chemistry, biology, psychology — has its own special laws that can never be explained by deeper laws (physics). How can this be?

CONSCIOUSNESS - What makes a human being a "person?" What provides our sense of unity and continuity? While most people assume that to be a person is to have a soul, most philosophers-and some theologians-believe that persons are all material.

CONSCIOUSNESS - How does consciousness weave its magical web of inner awareness-appreciating music, enjoying art, feeling love? Even when all mental functions may be explained, the great mystery-what it "feels like" inside-will likely remain.

COSMOS - Here’s the claim: conditions of the universe relate to the presence of observers. Does the Anthropic Principle convey deep insights? Or thwart science? For sure, it’s often misunderstood and controversial.

COSMOS - We search deepest levels of cosmic reality, the big picture of the puzzle of the universe — beginning, size, structure, future, far future. We seek significance in cosmology, if there’s any to be.

COSMOS - Why do the “constants of nature” — masses of subatomic particles and strengths of forces like gravity and electromagnetism — have the values they do? Does fine-tuning “cry out” for explanation?

COSMOS - Here’s the claim: cosmic conditions that allow complex structures — galaxies, stars, planets, people — depend on a few “constants of nature” lying within tight ranges of values. But is fine-tuning valid?

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! 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 ex...

COSMOS - What could be more startling than many universes – multiple universes, innumerable universes, perhaps an infinite number of universes? But does the multiverse really exist?