J.P. Moreland - Are There Things Not Material?

Is the natural, material, physical world all there is? Or is there something more—a supernatural, nonmaterial, nonphysical existence? Can everything can be explained in terms of fundamental fields, forces and particles? If fundamental forces can’t account for everything, what other explanation is there?

James Porter Moreland is an American philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, California.

Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[CriticalThinker]

Robert is such a good listener. I find I have to constantly pause & rewind to actually grasp what’s being said during many of these discussions.

[jackrigsby]

Brave man, I was actually shocked when he said he believed in God the way he started the video. Cheers to you!

[stevefaure]

I think the only incorrect answer to this question is when you answer it like you actually know the answer, even if you acknowledge that your answer is necessarily your own belief rather than something that can be proved. This guy gives me the willies a little bit.

[anxious_robot]

how the heck does he think angels and demons are real, but unicorns aren't!?

[ItsEverythingElse]

"Considerable evidence" for angels and demons. So sick of people making statements like that and never backing them up. I tend to believe in them too, for various personal and normal "wanting to believe" reasons. Do I have evidence for them? Of course I don't, and neither does he or anyone else.

Belief is not evidence.

[kalewintermute]

Was with the guy all the way up to the 'angels and demons exist' bit...

[sanjivgupta]

Beauty of argument for the sake of argument is that you need not to submit a proof.

[abduazirhi]

Is it just me who wanted this talk to go forever?...Looking forward to another talk/video with Prof Moreland.

[PaulBeney]

Imagination is a wonderful thing - as long as you remember it's imagination.

[brendangreeves]

What we call nature is essentially a manifestation of purely abstract relations. It is about process and energy transfer ( higher frequency to lower frequency and vice versa), or interactions and not material things.
The interaction is the reality. An event is essentially a multiplicity of energy transfers.
What seems to be overlooked is that, for fundamental reasons, the absolute is impossible.This is crucial.
The context of the relational determines the "reality". E.g. particle or wave.
What is a number? Fundamentally it concerns relative magnitude.

[MrStevos]

Robert has FAILED US ! After J. P. saying "God, Angels & Demons, & the immortal souls, exist & can have a real effect on reality" How about even one single question ? Perhaps: " What leads you to believe this is true ?"

[bierdlll]

What do you exactly mean by the word "material"? What exactly is "matter"? Physicists don't even know what matter is at a fundamental level.

The correct question to ask is - Are there really things that are "material", that fit our unquestioned ideas of what "material" and "physical" mean?

[RichardLaurence]

Interesting until exactly the same time that I suspect a lot of other people stopped watching…

[mesanto]

Great interview. Looks like many materialists on this thread. Can you hold your thoughts? Can you see your thoughts? Fact is thoughts exist. There you have it.

[TurinTuramber]

Just imagine how many important questions I could answer if all I had to do is babble unsupported nonsense. Easiest job in the world.

[gavaniacono]

Wow ... i think the host walked into the wrong building!

[scotchhollow]

I think the question should be, “is our conscious experience a representation of base reality”. Which our scientific knowledge is contained within.

[reaganwiles_art]

Chomsky, every time he talks, observes that there has not been a theory of matter for several hundred years. When he talks about the mind-body problem, Chomsky says the mind was never eradicated but the body was. He says there is no mind-body problem because there is no theory of body. He says the mechanical theory was abolished by Newton and with it any theory of body.

[Monkeybrain]

He was making it up as he was being questioned!

[znariznotsj]

Non-material angels - really? Consciousness is the product of metabolism, which is exactly the reason every conscious being is obsessed by the hunt for energy. No metabolism, no mind.