Michael Egnor M.D. and Denyse O’Leary on Evidence for the Existence of the Soul
The existence of the human soul is usually described as a matter of faith unprovable by science. But is that true? What if evidence exists that we each do indeed have souls and even, that life continues after death?
Whether we have souls and what happens to us after death — obliteration, reincarnation, heaven, hell — is a question about which humans have obsessed for as long as we have records of our existence. Indeed, it may be the ultimate question, for as a suicidal Hamlet laments in Shakespeare’s most immortal soliloquy:
To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause…
Wesley’s guests on today’s program respond to Hamlet’s dilemma in their new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul — which argues both that there is abundant scientific data demonstrating the immaterial existence of the human person and that this reality continues after we die.
Award winning brain surgeon Michael Egnor M.D. is a professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics and Neurosurgery Residency Director at the Renaissance School of Medicine in Stony Brook. He was named one of New York’s best doctors by the New York Magazine in 2005. He received his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hydrocephalus Association in the United States and has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence and making his second appearance on this podcast.
Denyse O’Leary is the author or coauthor of several books on the topic of science, creation, design, and spirituality, including coauthoring The Spiritual Brain. She received her degree in honors English language and literature. She is published regularly in Discovery Institute’s Science and Culture Today and is the Editor of Mind Matters.
Show Notes
- The Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence
- The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul by Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary
- The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary
- “Why the Soul Doesn’t — and Can’t — Weigh Anything” by Denyse O’Leary
- Dr. Michael Egnor Reads From His New Book The Immortal Mind