IN FOCUS: Meditation research
You’ve probably noticed: research into meditation has been all over the news lately, from the New York Times to Scientific American. More and more serious […]
Archives
Is altruism real?
Think you’re a loving friend, committed family member, and a diligent worker? Well, think again. Many biologists would argue that you’re nothing but a collection […]
Book review: Andrew Newberg’s Principles of Neurotheology
Until recently, the standard position in the perennial religion vs. science wars was one of truce. Stephen J. Gould, the late evolutionary biologist, coined the […]
Tales of the cuddle chemical
It’s a “love drug.” It’s a “cuddle chemical.” The hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin has gotten a lot of good press in the recent past, as […]
Review: Principles of Neurotheology
One of the most fundamental quandaries in theology and philosophy is the pernicious difficulty of using the mind to examine itself. The trickiness of inverting […]
Review: The Grand Design
It often seems that religion and philosophy have been fighting a losing battle. They’re no longer seen as credible in terms of addressing questions like […]
The threat of artificial intelligence
A mere ten years ago, neither Facebook nor YouTube existed. Google was obscure. Obviously, times have changed since then – so imagine how much will […]
Review: The Empirical Stance
Renowned philosopher of science Bas C. van Fraassen (Princeton University) had long remained silent on issues of religion. So by his own admission he was […]
Predestined to be liberal?
Most people like to think they’ve carefully thought out their positions. They’ll say that they’ve fairly assessed both sides of an issue and have come […]
Religion affects decisions by shaping how we perceive
How do we make decisions? It may seem to be a question more suited for philosophical treatises or neuroscience journal articles than the study of […]