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US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive‘ Trump actions
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ category. Plus, the ‘gay wool’ taking over a New York catwalk
Business listings: New businesses last week include a new doctor and food service
See a list of filings in Onondaga, Madison and Cayuga counties.
Miami’s mayoral runoff gives Democrats hope of breaking a nearly 30-year streak of GOP control
The race to become Miami’s next mayor may technically be nonpartisan, but the politics surrounding the contest aren’t.
High school sports results for Monday, December 8, 2025; Tuesday's schedule
MONDAY’S RESULTS Boys Basketball NON-SECTION Bentworth 45, Beth-Center 43 Beth-Center 12 12 9 10 — 43 Bentworth 15 7 11 12 — 45 High...
US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive‘ Trump actions
Civicus, a non-profit that monitors global civic freedoms, moved the US from the ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ category
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge weekly calendar of events and programs: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
Non-Banks Are Now a Big Banking Business
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it's us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it's contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting.
Opinion | Josh Hawley’s non-solution on health care
A proposed tax deduction won’t bring down prices.
Reclassifying professional jobs as non-professional is bad business for Idaho
What this plan will most likely do is decrease the already short supply of nurses, teachers, therapists, and other much needed workers, writes Rebecca Tallent.
“The Matilda Effect”: How Pioneering Women Scientists Have Been Written Out of Science History
Photo via Wikimedia Commons The history of science, like most every history we learn, comes to us as a procession of great, almost exclusively white, men, unbroken but for the occasional token woman—well-deserving of her honors but seemingly anomalous nonetheless. “If you believe the history books,” notes the Timeline series The Matilda Effect, “science is a guy thing.
China’s trade surplus hits $1tn for first time despite Trump’s tariffs
Trade data shows China’s exports topped forecasts in November, driven by a surge in shipments to non-US markets
Findings may move science closer to growing organs in other species
Failure of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to survive when grown with the PSCs of distantly related species occurs because of an innate immune reaction in the nonhuman cells, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggests.
PS5 reigns supreme over Black Friday, accounting for a staggering 62% of all console sales
The European Top 20 didn't welcome any new entries last week, but Black Friday week saw a boost in sales nonetheless th…
These 5 free apps make any smart TV way more useful (and none are streaming)
Unlock the full potential of your smart TV with these five game-changing free apps.
Sydney Sweeney Issues Direct Response to American Eagle Jeans Ad Backlash
The ‘Euphoria’ star is making her stance a little more clear after months of non-answers.
Rogers: Students should be taught to apply critical thinking to politics
Glenn Rogers: The political arena now thrives on low information, non-thinking voters. I propose a lesson plan for local schools to teach students about how...
Elon Musk, Trump admin go scorched Earth on EU after X hit with $140M fine
Elon Musk and the Trump administration slammed the European Union after X was hit with a $140 million fine for Digital Services Act "non-compliance."
West Virginia, Wake Forest look to make early statement
Off to a solid start, West Virginia has been looking for more consistency, particularly against the top nonconference opponents on its schedule.
High School Sports Rally: Chanhassen meets Blaine in nonconference girls basketball battle
‘Choosing Pennsylvania’: Officials offer details on plan for agri-business in Muncy
New Jersey-based agri-business manufacturer has purchased a Muncy facility and anticipates 69 new full-time jobs with possible expansion of its staff to eventually create hundreds of jobs once the plant begins operation in a year. Officials with Farmplast LLC of Parsippany, Wednesday joined state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, Brent Vernon, senior Project, and Account Management […]
Sydney Sweeney Issues Direct Response to American Eagle Jeans Ad Backlash
The ‘Euphoria’ star is making her stance a little more clear after months of non-answers.
'The Chair Company' Is A Show About How Fun It Is To Use The Computer
Throughout the first season of The Chair Company, the protagonist Ron Trosper (Tim Robinson) goes to many places that he should not. He chases unsettling men and curious leads through parking lots, dingy apartment buildings, hoarder houses, government records offices, strip-mall eateries, precarious dive bars, and derelict business parks. But none of that compares to…
Eagles-Chargers Preview
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) The Los Angeles Chargers had to adjust on the fly after Justin Herbert broke a bone in his non-throwing hand last Sunday.
Grand jury rejects new mortgage fraud indictment against N.Y. AG Letitia James
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Gavin Newsom wants Democrats to be more ‘culturally normal.’ Huh?
OPINION: Gov. Gavin Newsom often brags about California’s diversity. But his latest remarks sound like a slap at the proudly non-normal state he’s led for seven years, Joe Garofoli writes.
Amplitude CEO says Sam Altman is the 'best salesperson of this generation, bar none'
Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates praised Sam Altman's ability to get people to rally behind a "very ambitious vision" — and invest billions.
KC nonprofit is committed to strengthening Black-owned businesses, CEO says
“To promote and support Black businesses means that you look for them and you put forth an effort to do that.” Kim Davis, Black chamber CEO.
Global Fishing Watch and Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory launch Deep-Sea Mining Watch
The new global transparency tool will empower governments, researchers and civil society to monitor vessels involved in deep-sea mineral explorationWashington, D.C., United States, Dec. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization advancing ocean governance through transparency of human activity at sea, and the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have unveiled an upgraded open-access portal designed to br
Middleby to Sell 51% Stake in Residential Kitchen Business to 26North in Transaction Valuing the Business at $885 Million
ELGIN, Ill., December 04, 2025--The Middleby Corporation ("Middleby") (NASDAQ: MIDD) today announced entry into a definitive agreement under which it will sell a 51% stake in its Residential Kitchen business to affiliates of 26North Partners LP ("26North") in a transaction valuing Residential Kitchen at $885 million. Following this transaction, Middleby will own a 49% non-controlling interest in a new standalone joint venture holding the Residential Kitchen business, while receiving upfront cash
Reform UK’s deputy leader says racism claims about Nigel Farage from fellow pupils are ‘made-up twaddle’
Richard Tice claims that allegations against Farage are ‘nonsense’ from people with ‘a political axe to grind’
Arsenal's 'beautiful' line-up change
Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy says Arsenal's squad depth is "remarkable" after Brentford struggled to contain the right side of their attack in the 2-0 win on Wednesday: "It's becoming remarkable now how good their squad is because [Jurrien} Timber and [Bukayo] Saka play on the right hand side normally, which is arguably one of the best combinations down the right side in Europe. "Then they bring in [Ben] White and [Noni] Madueke, who looked like they have played together for seasons. It was a beautiful combination.
Onondaga County legislators clash over Republican lame-duck appointments
The Onondaga County Legislature approved a new batch of appointments on Tuesday.
Scientific American’s Best Fiction and Nonfiction Picks for Science-Minded Readers
Scientific American unveils its first-ever best fiction and nonfiction books of the year, spotlighting stories that blend science, imagination and unforgettable voices.
Boom Fantasy Promo Code FOXSPORTS Unlocks $100 No Sweat Bet Plus Pick and Spin Promotion
Boom Fantasy Promo Code FOXSPORTS Unlocks $100 No Sweat Bet Plus Pick and Spin Promotion.
Politics of Presence: Native and Nonnative Natures
The idea of a fixed “native range” is, at best, a human snapshot, one moment in a much longer story of flux.
Dave Coulier reveals he has tongue cancer, his 2nd diagnosis in a year, after beating non-Hodgkin lymphoma
The "Full House" star also shared that he created AwearMarket, a digital marketplace that sells toxin-free products.
New Nonprofit Addresses National Health Crisis Empowering People Nationwide to Heal from Trauma and Build Resilience
A new national nonprofit is taking a grassroots approach to one of America's most urgent health challenges: Trauma. Remarkably Resilient, Inc., founded by sisters Kathleen Harnish McKune and Karen Dickson, today announces the official national launch of its Remarkably Resilient Together (RRT) campaign – a neuroscience-informed movement that comprises accessible, easy-to-use tools to help vulnerable individuals, families and professionals heal from trauma, manage stress and build resilience.
Anonymous $50 million donation helps cover the next 50 years of tuition for medical lab science students at University of Washington
“I’m really shocked,” said Jasmine Wertz, eyes filling with tears. “Overwhelmed. Extremely grateful.”
Business listings: See 27 new businesses in Central NY
See a list of filings in Onondaga, Madison and Cayuga counties.
Research finds nontraditional benefits may help retain young public health workers
New research from Columbia University suggests that nontraditional benefits, including flexible schedules and access to child care, may help keep public health workers under 35 on the job.
Supreme Court to review New Jersey’s subpoena of faith-based pregnancy centers
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday about a subpoena served on a faith-based nonprofit in New Jersey that runs “crisis pregnancy centers,” an appeal that has put both civil rights advocates and some of the nation’s best-known conservative groups on the same side.
Developer plans to bring daytime business to St. Mary’s Strip in San Antonio
A developer plans to renovate some aging homes amid the bars that make the St. Mary’s Strip synonymous with San Antonio nightlife to bring some different bustle to the area.
How a Wilmington high schooler is providing math and science help internationally
Once a Discord chat group, a nonprofit tutoring website led by a Wilmington high schooler now has over 1,600 participants, according to its founder.
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge calendar for the week ahead: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park, Belpre * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
UW: Anonymous $50M gift will cover tuition for med lab science students
The anonymous gift is estimated to bring $50 million over the next 50 years to UW's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.
AI becomes a political wedge issue, creating odd bedfellows across parties
MAGA media personality Steve Bannon described the fight on the right as one between populists and "broligarchs" in the tech industry.
Portland Business Journal Selects Relay Resources President and CEO for 2026 Executive of the Year Award
PORTLAND, Ore., December 01, 2025--Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke, president and CEO of Relay Resources — the Pacific Northwest’s leading social enterprise nonprofit advancing disability inclusion in the workplace — has been named a 2026 Executive of the Year by the Portland Business Journal.
Bar, commercial and industrial: See 21 latest business, apartment, land sales ($2K to $1.2M)
See a list of property sales in Onondaga County other than residential homes.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
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