Doubting Naturalism – Dr. Michael Egnor’s story

Dr. Michael Egnor spent decades trusting science to answer life’s deepest questions. As a neurosurgeon and professor, he believed the brain held the key to understanding everything — including who we are. But over time, he encountered things science couldn’t explain: children thriving with missing brain structures, moral truths that couldn’t be reduced to biology, and a growing sense that materialism had serious gaps.

Dr. Egnor shares how philosophical honesty, scientific curiosity, and a surprising moment of divine encounter opened him to a new possibility that God not only exists, but that the Christian story offers the best explanation for the human mind, moral law, and the universe itself.

Guest Bio:

Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.  He received his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and is an award-winning brain surgeon. His new book, The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, explores the scientific and philosophical evidence for the soul, arguing that the human mind possesses faculties such as consciousness, free will, rational thought, and self-awareness that cannot be reduced to physical brain activity alone. 

Resources Mentioned:

Check out our Sponsor: America’s Christian Credit Union (ACCU): https://americaschristiancu.com/jana/

• Blog: https://www.discovery.org/p/egnor/
• Book: The Immortal Mind: A neurosurgeon’s case for the existence of the soul (2025) 
• “Mystery of the Mind” by Wilder Penfield
• “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers
• Works by Ed Feser on Thomistic philosophy
• St. Thomas Aquinas’ Five Ways
• Augustine’s argument from universal concepts
• The Principle of Sufficient Reason (Leibniz)
• Immanuel Kant’s argument from moral law

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Episode Transcript