Welcome to episode 64 of the Knight and Rose podcast! In this episode, Wintery Knight and Desert Rose welcome Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary to discuss the scientific evidence for “The Immortal Mind“. If you like this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We would appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

NOTE: You can pre-order the book here, and get the pre-order goodies, for example, a free digital copy of “Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science”.

Podcast description:

Christian apologists Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss apologetics, policy, culture, relationships, and more. Each episode equips you with evidence you can use to boldly engage anyone, anywhere. We train our listeners to become Christian secret agents. Action and adventure guaranteed. 30-45 minutes per episode. New episode every week.

Episode summary:

Wintery Knight and Desert Rose interview Dr. Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary about their new book “The Immortal Mind“. They discuss how scientific evidence such as split-brain surgeries, veridical near-death experiences, and terminal lucidity challenges materialist views of the mind. Egnor and O’Leary argue that an immaterial, immortal soul is the best explanation for human consciousness, free will, and abstract thought.

Outline and transcript

Here is a transcript of the show provided by TurboScribe AI. TurboScribe AI allows you to translate the transcript into many, many different languages. You can also export the transcript into many different formats, with optional timestamps.

Episode 64:

Speaker biographies

Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and is an award-winning brain surgeon. 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. His research on hydrocephalus has been published in journals including Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Research. 

Denyse O’Leary is a freelance journalist based in Victoria, Canada. Specializing in faith and science issues, she is co-author, with neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of “The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul”, and author of “By Design or by Chance?: The Growing Controversy on the Origins of Life in the Universe”. Her newest book, co-authored with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, is the forthcoming “The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul”. She received her degree in honors English language and literature. 

Wintery Knight is a black legal immigrant. He is a senior software engineer by day, and an amateur Christian apologist by night. He has been blogging at winteryknight.com since January of 2009, covering news, policy and Christian worldview issues.

Desert Rose did her undergraduate degree in public policy, and then worked for a conservative Washington lobbyist organization. She also has a graduate degree from a prestigious evangelical seminary. She is active in Christian apologetics as a speaker, author, and teacher.

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Music attribution:

Strength Of The Titans by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5744-strength-of-the-titans
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

I try to never miss an episode of Matt Walsh, and Desert Rose is the same. It’s my favorite podcast, other than the Knight and Rose Show of course. In the post below, I’m going to list out a few recent segments that I think will convince you. And best of all, it’s free! I really think this postcast is especially good for men, and for women who like good men.

OK, so here is a very mean and funny segment from Thursday’s show. Here is the description “In their desperate quest to appeal to men, the Democrats have called in an expert: a self-professed plus sized, disabled, queer Latina feminist. Who could possibly understand men better than her?”

This one was my favorite this week – buckle yourself in before watching this masterpiece. The description is “We have another super viral entry in the ever-expanding genre of online videos where wives complain about their husbands.”:

I’ve seen the bad wife that he is talking about before, on the Emily King podcast, which I really like.

And then lastly, this one about the South Africa refugees situation.

I know a lot of people watch shows like Joe Rogan, but I can’t stand shows like this. I like shows where we are really going to tell the truth, and really take on moral evils. Matt does a great job. In fact, I wish that we could replace all the Christian feminists and feminized pastors with clones of Matt Walsh. I know that a LOT of pastors sound exactly like him, but I want more. I want all the pastors to sound exactly like him. Men should be so bold about truth and morality, that they make the “don’t judge” Christian feminists cringe. That’s good masculinity! That’s what we want.

Can atheists rationally ground objective morality? A lot of Americans who were raised in Christian homes give up the faith, and they like to tell Christians “I’m a good person. I believe in human rights. I believe in objective morality. Getting rid of God doesn’t change anything about me”. But, what really happens in cities like Seattle, where the majority of people vote for secular leftism?

Here’s an article from Daily Wire, written by Matt Walsh (archived).

It says:

The pro-life group Mayday USA held an event in the park as part of their “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” campaign. This was a lawful gathering, by all accounts. They had all the required permits. And at this event, people held signs and sang songs that affirmed the sanctity of life, the reality of human biology, the importance of the nuclear family, and so on. It was basically a Christian concert. People of all ages, including young children, were present.

Matt then links to this video, showing that the Christians are having fun singing hymns and getting along with each other. I do think that waving arms during singing is a bit weird, but it’s just regular first amendment stuff, and they even have a permit from the city to assemble and wave their arms around weirdly.

But then things got violent in secular leftist Seattle:

But as the event went on, Left-wing activists decided to shut down the event. They began violently assaulting police officers and stormed the stage.

And he has a video of the attack, too.

Well, maybe the Christians provoked this fascistic response somehow.

But Matt says:

As far as contrasts go, this one is about as stark as you can get. And by the way, the Christians were minding their own business. They weren’t trying to disrupt any other event, or hassle anyone else. They reserved the park, using all of the appropriate legal channels. But the demons decided to charge in, and use violence to silence the Christians. And eventually they got what they wanted. The police arrested 22 adults and one juvenile — all of them on the side of the Left-wing activists — and shut down the event early.

The videos of the attack show black-clad violent extremists, some in tactical gear, surrounding, confronting and shouting at the rally attendees, including a woman holding a baby. I guess that’s secular left Seattle for you. Woooo! Awesome objective morality!

It’s actually surprising that the police did arrest anti-Christian violent extremists, because Seattle is well-known as a city populated by people who cannot rationally ground human rights, free will, or objective morality.

Look:

[I]n every relevant respect, the government of Seattle has taken the side of the LGBT activists who attacked the Christians.

First of all, everyone who was arrested was released without any bond whatsoever, and no charges were announced. There’s one exception — someone who was accused of attacking an officer and throwing an explosive device — who received a whopping $20,000 bail. But otherwise, none of these people have suffered any real consequences, and of course they never will. And there’s zero chance that any of them will be prosecuted in Seattle. We all know that.

Secondly, the mayor of Seattle — a wormy little man named Bruce Harrell… released a statement over the weekend that blames the Christians for being attacked. This is one of the most extraordinary statements ever released by a public official.

The major of Seattle called the Christian gathering a “far-right rally” – blaming the Christians and their blasted song-singing and baby-holding for the violence that actually was caused by the anti-Christian violent extremists.

Is this surprising? You might remember that the voters in Seattle previously voted for a mayor who resigned because of multiple allegations of child sex abuse. In red states, that would be bad, but in secular left Seattle, it’s actually good! They’re proud of it! They’ll tell you that this is GREAT objective morality. So much “reason”!

And Matt notes that none of this fascism is surprising, in Seattle:

At the same time, even if the mayor’s office is hauled before a federal court, the truth is that there’s a much deeper problem here. The mayor, after all, was elected by the people of Seattle. And unsurprisingly, in this case, most of Seattle, including the media, agrees with the mayor.

Now, you might remember that I blogged about Harmeet K. Dhillon a while back. She is the replacement for Kristen Clarke, the Biden official who persecuted pro-lifers for peaceful demonstrations. And she said this, on X:

So Harmeet, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, getting involved. But the Alliance Defending Freedom is also considering it.

And Daily Signal is reporting that there will be an FBI probe:

The FBI is investigating possible “targeted violence against religious groups” in Seattle after leftists crashed two Christian events over the past week and dozens of people were arrested, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday.

[…]“We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert,” Bongino said in a Tuesday X post. “Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.”

Anti-Christian violent extremists can’t seem to stop themselves from attacking Christians using violence and coercion, can they? At least now we have some real law enforcement to look into to the people who actually DO use violence to advance their beliefs.

By the way, I am having a bit of fun in this post at the expense of atheists who want to be taken seriously as “moral”, but for a serious refutation of atheist morality, check out this post. I have others, but it’s my bedtime.