Closer To Truth

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?

MEANING - You've heard the raucous noise about God; now listen to the cogent arguments, con and pro. Not that determining the existence of God is up for vote; when searching for Truth, majority opinion counts for nothing.

CONSCIOUSNESS - Is consciousness something special in the universe, a carrier of meaning and purpose? Or is consciousness a mere artifact of the brain, a by-product of evolution? I hope consciousness is special, which is why I must be a skeptic.

COSMOS - If the universe had been ever so slightly different, human beings wouldn't, couldn't, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems.

MEANING - To argue for God, the easy way appears to be ‘design’, the obvious order and apparent purpose of the world. How could all of this be if there were no God? Quite easily, says science. What’s the deep thinking on both sides?

CONSCIOUSNESS - If mind and brain are the same thing, then the physical world is likely all that exists. But if mind and brain are not the same thing, then what? Could reality go beyond the physical?

COSMOS - What do scientists mean when they call the laws and regularities of nature "beautiful"? On the largest supra-cosmic scales, and on the smallest sub-atomic scales, why do scientists use "beauty" to assess their theories?

MEANING - How can you know whether God really exists, if you do not know what God really is? Diverse religions have diverse views and surprise is in store.

CONSCIOUSNESS - How can the mindless microscopic particles that compose our brains "experience" the setting sun, the Mozart Requiem, and romantic love?

MEANING - In every generation, some religious believers imagined their time to be the end time. Why is this so? Is our generation different? What, in a religious nutshell, is the End Time?