TASC

“All I have to do is dre-e-e-eam, dream dream dream…” This song by the Everly Brothers in 1958 is probably the foundation of how modern society considers the phenomenon of dreams. Rodgers and Hammerstein popularized the concept of dreams coming true in their movie South Pacific, asking, “If you don’t have a dream, then how do you expect to have a dream to come true?” Disney movies constantly push the concept of wishes and dreams coming true if you believe hard enough. Dreams in the sense of these examples are basically a desire as to how things would come to be in reality. They are based on desires of the heart or mind. Visions while sleeping is another form of dreams that can affect our reality in ways we may or may not notice.

For centuries great thinkers have wrestled to understand the relationship between the physical human brain and the nonphysical mind—specifically how consciousness, thoughts, and feelings interact with the material of the brain itself. This paper is a review of a new framework known as informational realism (IR) that brings together ideas from information technology to help explain how we are as humans: our minds and our very understanding of reality as created by an omniscient god. This framework of IR is presented in the final chapter written by Dr. William Dembski in a recent book, Minding the Brain.

Exactly one hundred years ago last month was the date of the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial.” To this date the public impression is that Bible-believing Christians, in general, and creationists, in particular, were shown to be unscientific, foolish buffoons at the trial. This interpretation of the trial was indubitably impressed on the public with the intentionally biased movie Inherit the Wind released some thirty-five years later in 1960 that was based on a fictional play by the same title written in 1955.

What is the human mind? What is its relationship to the brain?

These fundamental questions have captivated human thought for millennia. In the chapter “Neuroscience and Dualism” by Michael Egnor, part of the recently published book Minding the Brain (edited by Angus Menuge, Brian Krouse, and Robert J. Marks), Egnor offers a detailed exploration of these enduring philosophical and scientific issues through the lens of his extensive career in neurosurgery and neuroscience.

The Bible teaches that the Earth and its climate were designed by God for our benefit. There are several remarkable things about our planet that make it habitable for human beings including the Earth’s mass, distance from sun, axial tilt, atmosphere, magnetic field, rotational speed, orbital shape, and the presence of a large moon. Our solar system possesses a unique and special star and has a gas giant like Jupiter with a larger orbit. Even the location of our solar system in the Milky Way galaxy is special. Many of the aforementioned properties of the Earth and solar system make Earth’s climate suitable for us. The habitability of the Earth requires that liquid water be present because all biochemistry requires water.