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Ski Mountaineering’s Olympic debut: Beautiful races, beautiful place and a sport that belongs
Ski Mountaineering made its Olympic debut on Thursday. For fans and competitors alike, it was a day to remember.
Candidate for Miss Connecticut shares her mental health and addiction struggles
At a glance, one may get a misguided perception of Christa Steiner. She’s a musician and candidate for Miss Connecticut. While the sash and crown are beautiful parts of Steiner, it’s her struggle that illustrates her story. She recognized the ugly pieces of addiction while living with an undiagnosed bipolar disorder. “When you have an untreated mental illness, self-medication is a big…
Wyoming Wants To Make Its Five-Year Federal Rural Health Funding Last ‘Forever’
State officials believe they’ve found a way to extend the life of federal Rural Health Transformation Program money Wyoming is receiving as part of last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — by investing most of it.
Democrats aim to roll back business tax breaks to fund new per-child benefit for lower-income Colorado families
Many of the business tax breaks targeted under the plan were created or expanded by Republicans in Congress through their One Big Beautiful Bill Act
How a Trump Tax Break Rescued Horse Racing
Owners spent nearly $1.5 billion last year on racehorses, a big increase over 2024. A new tax provision allows them to immediately deduct the full cost of the purchase.
A ghost rises in Madison Opera’s splendid ‘Everlasting Faint’
Running again Sunday in Capitol Theater, Scott Gendel and Sandra Flores-Strand’s opera revives a notorious murder with beautiful staging and music.
LA County faces sales tax increase over 'Big Beautiful Bill' cuts
Here's everything to know about the proposal, and what it'll cost residents.
One Big Beautiful Bill Delivers More Than Payments, It May Force Farmers to Rethink Farm Business Structures
The One Big Beautiful Bill brings higher farm payments and better crop insurance, but Paul Neiffer says its most overlooked impact could be how farmers structure their operations.
GameShare just took me from interested in Switch 2's beautiful co-op space opera Orbitals, to overwhelmingly excited
Tell me I can play something that looks this good with a partner, across two Switches, for the entry price of just the one game, and I'm sold.
Key tax takeaways for business owners
Grand Forks tax professional breaks down new, extended provisions in One Big Beautiful Bill
How Colorado’s immigrant communities — and their health care providers — are bracing for impact under Trump’s budget bill
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as H.R. 1, will block refugees and asylees from Medicare and Medicaid, among other restrictions
Theatre LILA and Barrio Dance team up for ‘A Love Letter’
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the dance/ theater collab “A Love Letter” runs at Art House 360 from Feb. 5-15. It’s made to be “beautiful, funny and light.”
It’s 2026 and You’re Uninsured. Now What?
Many Americans are expected to lose ACA or Medicaid coverage in coming months and years as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the expiration of enhanced pandemic-era subsidies that helped people afford Obamacare plans. Doctors and researchers say there are still ways to find affordable care.
I’ve covered Melania Trump for more than a decade. Here’s what I learned from her new documentary
“Melania” the documentary is a big, beautiful coffee table book of a film, filled with glossy images, high fashion and a captivating soundtrack.
Cairn review – obsession, suffering and awe in a climbing game that hits exhausting new heights
A punishing, beautiful survival game that turns mountaineering into an intimate test of endurance, fixation and emotional resolve – you’ll be in tears by the end
Rise to the Occasion with Mega Evolution—Ascended Heroes in Pokémon TCG Live
Look forward to newly discovered Mega Evolution Pokémon, beautiful new artwork for fan-favorite cards, and more.
How Americans could get a $1,000 boost this tax season
The filing season for 2025 tax returns is officially open and American taxpayers are expected to see larger tax refunds after filing due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Gavin Newsom is a ‘beautiful shapeshifter’ in politics: Caroline Downey
'The Bottom Line' panelists Caroline Downey and Brianna Lyman criticize California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s trip to Davos and sound the alarm on a Democratic governor’s ‘bait and switch’ on ‘The Bottom Line.’
Cornyn says ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ reshapes El Paso’s economy. Here's how
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn stopped in El Paso to discuss tax cuts for families as part of the federal legislation.
The Must-See Reality Show You've Never Heard of
One of my favorite reality shows of 2024 was the Netflix series, 'The Boyfriend.' Now, the beautiful and honest show about a group of gay and bisexual men living in a house is back for season two. Here's why it's must-watch TV.
100% Bonus Depreciation Is Back—Here’s What Businesses Need To Know
The IRS has issued new guidance on bonus depreciation, which was made permanent under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Here’s what to know about what property qualifies and when you can benefit.
Republicans and Democrats argue over which party is improving affordability
Republicans on Tuesday cited tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while Democrats praised a recent vote to extend health care subsidies
Republicans and Democrats argue over which party is improving affordability
Republicans on Tuesday cited tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while Democrats praised a recent vote to extend health care subsidies
Funding “Rural Health Care Transformation” Without Shoring Up Failing Hospitals
The unusual policy symmetry involved in the Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid cuts and new rural health innovation initiative may not bode well for rural health care quality and outcomes.
Colorado’s getting $1 billion to ‘transform’ rural health care. But hospitals aren’t thrilled with the state’s plan.
Last year’s H.R. 1 — also known as the “big beautiful bill” — allocated $50 billion for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program over five years.
What Medicaid changes in Trump's 'big beautiful bill' mean for family caregivers’ health coverage
New Medicaid changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will require community engagement from beneficiaries ages 19 to 64. But family caregivers are exempt.
Feds award Michigan $173M to boost rural health amid Medicaid cuts
The award for Michigan is part of a $50 billion rural health fund created as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Republicans last year.
Duke Wins On the Road, 91-87
Not a beautiful game by any means, but the Blue Devils are now 13-1.
Rural Colorado hospitals, health centers expected to see $1B in federal investments over next 5 years
The money, which is far more than what state officials had been anticipating to get, will come from congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act complicates state health care affordability efforts
This article first appeared on KFF Health News. As Congress debates whether to extend the temporary federal subsidies that have helped millions of Americans buy health coverage, a crucial underlying reality is sometimes overlooked: Those subsidies are merely a band-aid covering the often unaffordable cost of health care. California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and five other states […]
Montana Set to Receive $233 Million Through Federal Rural Healthcare Program
A federal healthcare program from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing states with $50 billion spread out over the next five years to improve access and quality in rural healthcare. Passed inside of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) will distribute 50% of its funds […]
How is Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill changing US taxes and healthcare in 2026?
Big changes are coming in the new year as healthcare subsidies expire and requirements for food assistance take effect.
Colorado gets $200 million from the feds in rural health care “Hunger Games”
Colorado will receive $200 million in 2026 from the feds to improve rural health care, part of a fund created by the "big, beautiful" bill.
Trump administration launches rollout of $50B Rural Health Fund
The Trump administration on Monday announced the formal launch of its $50 billion rural health fund created through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Beginning next year, states will receive money fr…
Tax changes loom large for US economy in 2026
Economists see the tax cuts in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill as a principal driver of the U.S. economy in 2026, both for individuals and businesses. Here's some detail about what's in store.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act complicates state health care affordability efforts
As Congress debates whether to extend the temporary federal subsidies that have helped millions of Americans buy health coverage, a crucial underlying reality is sometimes overlooked: Those subsidies are merely a band-aid covering the often unaffordable cost of health care.
The Most Beautiful Science of the Year
The Most Beautiful Science of the Year: Insights from Nautilus in 2025
2 culinary legends explain how to improve your baking — and your mental health
During a recent event at WBUR's CitySpace, renowned chefs Joanne Chang and Dorie Greenspan convinced me that even I could whip up beautiful holiday treats. And more surprising still, they said it might be good for me to do so.
The women’s sports moments of 2025 – as chosen by The Athletic’s writers
It feels impossible to sum up another beautifully chaotic year in women’s sports in a series of moments, but that challenge didn’t stop us.
Idaho’s senior senator has doubled down on brutal cuts to health care in 'big, beautiful' tax plan
On Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, Idaho’s senior senator doubled down on the brutal cuts to health care contained in the 2025 tax plan, introducing another plan that goes farther in fracturing health care in Idaho. Instead of finding his better angel, he has assumed the role of Ebeneezer Scrooge. And just in time for Christmas! […]
Medicaid Health Plans Step Up Outreach Efforts Ahead of GOP Changes
Even as President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers say the One Big Beautiful Bill Act targets waste, fraud, and abuse, Medicaid health plans are hosting events across the U.S. to prevent low-income families from losing health insurance and food benefits next year.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act Complicates State Health Care Affordability Efforts
The federal budget bill President Donald Trump signed into law in July is creating uncertainty for states trying to rein in health care spending. In California, a lawsuit by the hospital industry challenging state spending caps cites the law, which will slash Medicaid spending, as one of many financial pressures.
Science in a French City, Which I Shall Not Name
It has a beautiful historic center with typical old European streets and an impressive number of museums. It is a delightful area of narrow cobbled streets, small charming squares, and beautiful old buildings. It is a very old city—more than 2,000 years old. It is a green city with many parks. There are 14 churches and cathedrals in this city, although over the years it has become less Christian and more Muslim. [Alex Gordon]
Everything announced and all the winners at The Game Awards 2025
This year at The Game Awards, if your game wasn’t melodramatic, mechanically innovative, beautifully presented and aggressively French, it really didn’t stand a chance.
IRS releases health savings account expansion details under Trump's 'big beautiful bill'
IRS releases health savings account expansion details under President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill." What it means for ACA health plan enrollees.
A billion-dollar plan to bolster rural health in CT
DSS requested the funds for its 5-year plan from the Rural Health Transformation Program, which is part of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Neat Techniques To Make Interactive Light Sculptures
[Voria Labs] has created a whole bunch of artworks referred to as Lumanoi Interactive Light Sculptures. A new video explains the hardware behind these beautiful glowing pieces, as well as the magic…
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.
Launching hundreds of thousands of satellites will threaten space research, scientists warn
We've all come to appreciate the beautiful images space telescopes provide us of galaxies, nebulas and more, but they also provide astronomers with important scientific information about our universe. That science may be under threat in the next decade if the proposed 560,000 satellites are launched.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a technical marvel and game design nightmare
After a decade of development, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a beautiful but befuddling game full of misguided design decisions and annoying sidekicks.
Super Bowl 2026: Pregame performers include Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile
Charlie Puth will sing the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will perform “America the Beautiful,” and Coco Jones will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
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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