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Piers Morgan is a character. In his own estimation, he is “probably the best-known journalist in the world.” And who would argue with him on that? The Sunday Times reports:
“If you look at news show numbers generally around the world, they’d all probably die for these [figures reflecting his viewership],” says Morgan. “Look at CNN, where I used to work. Sometimes we’re getting two, three, four million views for a debate on Israel or Gaza or whatever. And they’re getting 300,000 at CNN in prime time.”
Like Denyse O’Leary, I was delighted to see our colleague and her co-author, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, talking about near-death experiences, the immortality of the soul, and more on Piers Morgan Uncensored. It was a debate with Michael Shermer, one of the more amiable skeptics-verging-on-atheists out there. The occasion was the publication of Egnor’s excellent new book, with O’Leary, The Immortal Mind. Some thoughts:
Unexpectedly Grateful
The YouTube video dropped on July 4 for which, with the holiday in mind, I found myself unexpectedly grateful. The Seattle suburb where I live passed a permanent fireworks ban that went into effect this year, and I was startled by the oppressiveness of the dead silence in the neighborhood. Normally there would have been cheerful pops, hisses, and small booms from morning to night. The muzzled quiet was depressing — Americans voluntarily giving up their own freedom to light fireworks (because “safety first!”) and celebrate Independence Day, of all days. Watching Dr. Egnor in this very civil and friendly conversation was uplifting.
To be honest, not all of Piers Morgan’s debates are quite so civilized, especially when the subject is Israel or Gaza. He has a tendency to talk over the people he interviews (“Hang on, hang on!”) when he disagrees with them. As one of the commenters on this video with Egnor noted with gratitude on the YouTube page, that was not the case at all here.
I like Michael Shermer, too, but a lot of his responses to the medical and other evidence for an immortal mind, as presented by Dr. Egnor, seemed to come down to something like, “Well, we can’t really know that. There could be other explanations.” But most of his other explanations don’t seem all that persuasive.
Objective Scientific Evidence
Morgan, who is Catholic, says he already believed in life after death from faith and Scripture. What he wanted, he said, was objective scientific evidence for it. Egnor provides that. But a stronger opponent for him would test his thesis better, as it did in another recent online debate. That one was with neuroscientist Christof Koch. You should check it out, too. Small world: that conversation was ably hosted by Michael Shermer.
Image source: Discovery Institute.What is really at stake in these discussions? Oddly, one answer was suggested to me by the persistent interruptions from YouTube ads. These seem to be getting more frequent and more distasteful. I’m thinking, for example, of the physician with the raspy, vaguely insinuating voice wanting to talk at great length about bathroom problems; also the other physician, ubiquitous on the Internet, who has a really serious grudge against blueberries. I noticed all the ads as I was driving and trying to listen to Egnor versus Koch and Egnor versus Shermer.
Like banning fireworks on the 4th of July, these are just little things that nevertheless feel like signs of a steadily demoralizing culture. If more people believed the soul is immortal (Egnor and O’Leary), or if fewer did (Koch and Shermer), which alternative do think would have the better chance of slowing the decay just a little?