When it comes to the problem of mind, there are some people who maintain that the mind is just reducible to the physical brain. Those are physicalists, also known as materialists. And then there are those who defend dualism, which is the idea that you are a non-material soul, and you have a body (which includes your brain). Who is right? Well, let’s take a look at the science and see.

This post is from Mind Matters, and it’s written by Dr. Michael Egnor.

He says:

Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891‒1976), who pioneered epilepsy surgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute in the mid-20th century, asked this very question: What does the brain do? He explored the question during eleven hundred “awake” brain operations over four decades. He needed patients to be awake so that he could communicate with them, to be sure that he was not damaging vital tissue while removing the tissue that was prone to epileptic seizures.

Penfield could do brain surgery while a patient is awake because the brain has no pain sensors. A local anesthetic (similar to the novocaine used in dentists’ offices) ensures that there is no pain in the scalp either during the surgery. Neurosurgeons still do this type of surgery today.

While epilepsy patients were awake and their responses to brain stimulation could be observed, he mapped their brains using electrical probes to find and remove seizure foci but also to determine which parts of the patients’ brains did what. He could answer questions like “What part of the brain makes us move our muscles?”, “What part of the brain enables us to see?” and “What part of the brain enables us to have memories and emotions?”

What fascinated Penfield is not so much what he found—i.e., which parts of the brain caused movement, perception, memory and emotions—but what he didn’t find.

Penfield could find no part of the brain that, when stimulated, caused patients to think abstractly—to reason, think logically, do mathematics or philosophy or exercise free will.

He noticed the same thing about epileptic seizures as about stimulation during surgery. Patients who were having seizures did all sorts of things—they jerked their muscles, they saw flashes of light or had unusual sensations on their skin. They even occasionally had specific memories and emotions. Then they fell unconscious.

But patients never had intellectual seizures. That is, they never had seizures that caused them to reason, think logically, or do mathematics or philosophy. There are no “calculus seizures” that cause them to uncontrollably take first derivatives. There are no philosophical seizures that cause them to uncontrollably contemplate Plato’s Republic.

Penfield asked the obvious question: why did brain stimulation only cause certain mental operations, like movement, perception, memory and emotion to happen, but not other ones, like abstract thought and free will?

It sounds like the brain is responsible for low-level interactions with the body itself. It reminds me of “device driver” software, which allows higher software to interact with hardware devices, like graphics cards and hard drives. What the progress of neuroscience seems to show is that the brain is doing device driver work, but something else is doing higher operations. And that something else is what substance dualists like me would call a “mind”.

There are lots of good philosophical arguments for minds, such as consciousness, direct first-person access to your thoughts, persistent identity over time that does not depend on your (changing) physical body, the intentionality problem (thinking about something else is not something that a material system can do), as well as free will. And there are more of those, too.

But it’s nice to see that there are scientific arguments as well. By doing the neuroscience, we can find out what the brain controls, and what it doesn’t control.

I thought this part of the article was interesting:

Penfield started out as a materialist, like most scientists do, but, as he learned more about the mind and the brain he became a dualist. He concluded in his book Mystery of the Mind (1975) that the mind is something separate from the brain, and that there are aspects of the mind that don’t come from the brain but are spiritual in nature. As he put it, “The mind must be viewed as a basic element in itself . . . That is to say, it has a continuing existence.” (p. xxi.)

The article mentions a new book coming out in June 2025, entitled “The Immortal Mind”. And I’ve already contact one of the authors of the book to see if we can get them to come on the Knight and Rose Show to tell us about all of this scientific research. I hope that will help our listeners to be able to have good evidence-based conversations about this fascinating area of disagreement between theists and atheists.

I do like to keep an eye on how secular left countries are treating Christians, especially European countries and Canada. It’s important to keep an eye on things so I can stay ahead of any threats. Well, Canada has been making continuous attacks on free speech and religious liberty since they elected Justin Trudeau, who leads the far-left Liberal Party of Canada. Let’s take a look.

Here’s the latest story from Christian Post:

The mayor of a small town in Ontario, Canada, is facing a bank levy from his personal account following a legal battle with a pride group who compared their legal victory to sexual intercourse.

Mayor Harold McQuaker of Emo, Ontario, had funds garnished from his personal bank account following his refusal to comply with a Human Rights Tribunal order after the governing body found that the town of Emo — with a population of just 1,400 — violated the Ontario Human Rights Code by not recognizing LGBT pride month.

The decision stems from a legal case initiated by Borderland Pride, a local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy organization, which accused the township of discrimination for voting against an official pride month proclamation in 2020.

The tribunal’s ruling, delivered on Nov. 20, penalized McQuaker personally with a CA$5,000 fine (about $3533) and required him to undergo Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training. Additionally, the township itself was fined CA$10,000 (about $7066), and the two other town councilors who voted against the proclamation were also mandated to complete the same training.

[…]Borderland Pride took to social media to announce that they had successfully garnished the mayor’s bank account.

“Sure, sex is great, but have you ever garnished your mayor’s bank account after he publicly refused to comply with a Tribunal’s order to pay damages?” the group asked in a post on Facebook.

You might remember that these Human Rights Commissions and Human Rights Tribunals are staffed by secular left activists, and they are able to punish people who disagree with secular left dogma. Canada does not have any authoritative statement of rights and freedoms like we do. They have something on paper, but that doesn’t apply when they want to go after Christians and conservatives. As I’ve blogged on before, if you disagree with the government, you’re likely to face gag orders, bank account freezes, and even being violently ridden down by a policeman on a horse. And in Canada, the judges and LGBT activists can trans your kid in a split second, and throw you in prison if you so much as voice dissent.

Here’s another one from True North, which is my favorite source of news about Canada:

A Canadian billboard company cancelled a contract with a Manitoba pro-life group, saying that the requested image “creates too much controversy” and that the company received “a lot of backlash” for similar designs in the past.

[…]The image featured a pregnant woman cradling her belly. The caption read, “Celebrate the gift of life!” and included Life Culture’s website address. Penner told True North in an interview that the billboard was meant to remind people, in a time of widely accessible euthanasia and abortions, that “life and pregnancy is a gift.”

[…]“Our government creates fear by pitting life and women’s rights against each other. Businesses fear the legal and economic consequences if there’s any indication they support life. Churches fear losing a charitable probation status…Individuals fear losing friends or acceptance,” Penner said.

Now, you might think that Penner would be able to log a human rights complaint, but like I said, Christians and conservatives never, ever win those cases in Canada.

And here’s an article from New York Post about the epidemic of church arsons in Canada:

According to Olivia Torrone of the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) who runs the Church Attacks Database, there have been at least 40 church arsons since the wave began in June 2021, and this is just Catholic churches.

Non-Catholic churches are burning as well; in total nearly 120 churches in Canada have been vandalized, set ablaze, or burned to the ground, with a married couple living above one of them dying as a result. Yet, as of January 2024, only 12 people had been charged in relation to these — and just one person had been convicted.

[…]Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given Canadians mixed messages on the fires, calling them “unacceptable and wrong” on the one hand, while on the other calling the motive for the attacks “real and fully understandable.”

Church arson in Canada is “fully understandable” according to the Prime Minister of Canada. It’s something Hitler might have said about Jewish synagogues, but that’s just how Canada is now.

Right after clicking “Publish” a friend of the blog, David H. left a comment on Facebook with this story from the New York Post:

Controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson has fled Canada as liberals push to pass legislation that he says will suppress free speech and turn the country into a “totalitarian hellhole.”

Speaking in a recent episode of his daughter’s show, “The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast,” Peterson said he opted to move to the US over the contentious bill, C-63, and ongoing feud with the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

“The issue with the College of Psychologists is very annoying, to say the least, and the new legislation that the liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, we’d all be living in a totalitarian hellhole if it passes,” Peterson said.

Christians in America need to be vigilant about the secular left. They have a long history of using threats, coercion, and violence against their enemies. You can see it in the history of communist regimes, like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, etc. And today in North Korea. Atheists have no rational foundation for behaving morally in his or her worldview. Anything is permissible.

Most atheists in America act better than their worldview allows, because we are still living in Christian culture. But once that Christian influence is dead, the real atheism will emerge, and we are already seeing the start of it in Canada.

I’m busy today rushing around doing holiday errands, and then feeding the outdoor birds, and getting groceries. We have warm weather in my super red state, so it was a good time to go outside. But I saw this article a few days ago and wanted to say something about it. It seems like the kind of article I should add to my blog, because it will be useful to bring up in a debate.

Here is the article from The Federalist, and note that the article is by a conservative LGBT person.

In 2024 there were no reported murders of a trans-identifying person due to anti-trans bias in the United States. This might be a surprise, based on the routine headlines declaring that violence against transgender Americans is only getting worse. The Human Rights Campaign, one of the more prominent LGBT advocacy organizations, provides a list each year of reported murders of trans-identifying people.

The HRC – a secular left hate group – wants people to think that these murders are all being committed by white Presbyterian married couples who attend church weekly. And they are doing it because they are filled with hate. But I know enough about debating this issue to know that most of these murders are going to be 1) drug or prostitution murders that are caused by the victim putting themselves in very very risky situations, for example drug use and / or prostitution, or 2) intimate partner violence.

And the author leads with an example of that:

Discussing the death of Quanesha Shantel, Human Rights Campaign Director of Community Engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative Tori Cooper argued, “It’s time for communities across this country to reckon with the fact that their silence makes them complicit. Hateful stereotypes, rhetoric and legislation fuels violence against transgender people.” This despite Shantel, whose legal name was Juquan Hamilton, being allegedly murdered by his former romantic partner, Jeremy Reynolds, who reportedly was furious over their recent breakup.

You might remember from our podcast episode on same-sex marriage that LGBT relationships, expecilally lesbian and trans relationships, then to have much higher rates of intimate partner violence. In fact, many famous murders that are labeled “hate crimes” by the secualr left are intimate partner violence. Consider the case of Matthew Sheppard, trying to claim that it was an anti-LGBT hate crime. Actually, according to LGBT activist publication The Advocate, “the perpetrator and victim not only knew each other but also had sex together, bought drugs from one another, and partied together”.

But let’s stay with The Federalist article, and see the details on these murders:

Looking at each of 29 such reported cases in 2024, the three most common categories are domestic violence (6), altercations (6), and accidents (4). Of all cases, four did not have sufficient information reported by authorities to make a determination on what kind of violence occurred. The deaths also included a suicide, the highly publicized death of Dagny (Nex) Benedict, a victim of a mass shooting, and a random act of violence.

Kita Bee and Honee Daniels were both killed in what HRC calls “hit-and-run” accidents — they involved negligent behavior and both drivers have been arrested. Jazlynn Johnson, 18, was allegedly accidentally shot and killed by his friend, 17-year-old Cesar Sandoval, while showing off a new gun, according to reports.

Finally, Santonio Coleman, who identified as a gay man who sometimes dressed as a woman, was found dead on a park trail, but he may have fallen, and no suspects have been identified. The headline reporting Coleman’s death states, “Family shocked after loved one brutally killed while walking on popular trail in Athens,” despite no current indications from police investigating the incident that Coleman was attacked.

The “altercation” category of reports indicates a fight occurred in which a trans-identifying person was killed. A transgender man, Righteous TK Hill, was allegedly shot by his cousin, Jaylen Hill, in an argument. Robert Clark Jr., named as Yella Clark, was killed in a prison fight. Clark was serving life in prison for the murder of another inmate while he was serving a 75-year sentence for armed robbery.

A 20-year-old named Dylan Gurley was reportedly stabbed to death in a dispute over money while staying in an abandoned house with a fellow homeless person, Michael Tooley. Another trans-identifying person listed, known only as Redd or Barbie, was killed by an unknown assailant in a mass shooting on a street corner while talking with several other people. Another homeless person, Andrea Doria Dos Passos, was attacked while sleeping by another homeless person in what appears to be a random assault; police have not reported a motive. The suspect has been charged.

And the HRC also misleads about race. They talk about the race of the victims, but they don’t mention the race of the attackers, because they want you to think that this is white on black crime.

Despite 82 percent of known suspects in the deaths of black trans-identifying individuals being black themselves, based on an evaluation of the reported cases, the HRC demands, “Young trans women of color — particularly Black trans women, continue to be disproportionately affected.”

Year after year, these reports end up the same. Domestic violence, interpersonal fights, random violence, and, more frequently, complete accidents, make up the majority of reported deaths of trans-identified people. Hate crimes do occur — they are simply very rare, upon review of reported cases.

Unfortunately, the constant repetition of this false narrative, always using alarming language and insisting on placing the blame politically, creates an environment of fear and hatred in the LGBT community. It sends a message that transgender identity is a privileged status that demands special protections from the government and the public. When every reported violent death of a trans-identifying person is elevated as a social failure requiring national mourning and outrage, the impact of real hate crimes is diminished.

This same deception that Black Lives Matter advocates do, when complaining about the handful of unarmed blacks who are killed by white police officers every year. BLM leaders don’t talk about the numbers for black-on-black crime, which are far, far greater. We did a whole episode of Knight and Rose Show on those numbers.

By the way, you might have noticed that there seems to be a higher rate of violence being committed BY the transgender community, like the attack on Congresswoman Nancy Mace from a few days ago. But you never hear the Biden-Harris regime talking about that.