Nov 12, 2026 · 1h 57m
Consciousness pushes Alex O’Connor beyond New Atheism
Why Atheists Keep Finding God (in everything) - Alex O’Connor - #1175
The conversation tests whether subjective experience exposes limits in materialism and reopens serious questions about idealism, panpsychism, and God.
- 1Consciousness may be foundational rather than something matter eventually produces, challenging materialism’s explanatory ambitions.
- 2Mystical experience, meditation, and psychedelics can unsettle ordinary assumptions about perception without settling metaphysical questions.
- 3Prayer, genetic enhancement, pornography, and lust become tests of how abstract beliefs shape practical moral responsibility.
Don't miss
Alex argues that consciousness is not merely another object for science to explain, because it is the medium through which every explanation becomes available.
The brief
Alex O’Connor describes moving beyond combative New Atheism, arguing that confidence and forceful advocacy are poor evidence for truth in religion, consciousness, and ethics.
The central problem is consciousness: science can map brain activity and describe physical behavior, but Alex questions whether those accounts explain why subjective experience exists at all.
Kant, Schopenhauer, idealism, and panpsychism frame a possible alternative: reality may be fundamentally experiential, with individual minds expressing a larger mental substance.
Meditation and psychedelics enter as evidence of how conceptual filters shape perception, especially when subject-object boundaries dissolve and ordinary experience feels constructed.
The metaphysical discussion turns practical as Alex presents prayer as alignment of the will and treats sexual discipline, enhancement, and responsibility as habits rather than abstractions.
What was said on this episode
36 statements · 13 positive · 14 negative · 2 mixed · 7 neutral
Alex’s confidence does not reliably indicate closeness to truth on foundational philosophical questions.
“it would be foolish to think that my confidence should approximate anything like a closeness to truth”
Listen at 1:13
Many people hold beliefs for reasons that are not robust.
“a lot of people believe for reasons that are not robust”
Listen at 4:46
The existence of evil may reduce, but does not logically eliminate, God’s existence.
“evil isn't logically incompatible with God's existence, but it might make it less likely”
Listen at 9:27
Arguments about God have not produced a settled philosophical resolution.
“there's a reason why we haven't, so to speak, worked it out”
Listen at 9:49
Religious traditions have primarily expressed God through experience and mysticism.
“God exists, it's something which is, for the majority of religious history, its most profound and confident expressions have been in the form of experience and mysticism”
Listen at 11:37
Christianity makes substantive historical and supernatural claims about the world.
“Christianity makes... substantive truth claims about the world”
Listen at 16:25
Human societies typically display a universal religious impulse.
“we typically observe some kind of religious impulse as a universal”
Listen at 20:32
A religious impulse is somewhat intrinsic to human beings.
“it's clear that there's like a religious impulse that's somewhat intrinsic to human beings”
Listen at 21:35
Consciousness is a major unresolved problem for nearly every worldview.
“It's one of the biggest holes. in I think basically every worldview.”
Listen at 28:03
Consciousness is philosophy’s foundational question.
“the foundational question of philosophy, I think, is consciousness”
Listen at 29:06
Science describes regularities well but is often assigned excessive explanatory scope.
“science is extremely good at doing what it does, but people are over-optimistic about its possible extent”
Listen at 34:04
Science can explain brain activity extremely well.
“you can explain brain activity extremely well”
Listen at 38:52
Subjective experience cannot be fully expressed mathematically or linguistically.
“That's something which can never be written down. It can't be turned into a mathematical syllogism.”
Listen at 40:30
Consciousness makes materialism harder to defend.
“I think it's made materialism harder to defend”
Listen at 43:54
Materialism is very difficult to defend as a complete theory of the world.
“materialism, which often goes alongside atheism, is I think pretty impossible to defend as a theory of the world”
Listen at 44:21
Science cannot reveal the foundational substance of reality.
“science will not tell you what the foundational nature, the substance of reality is”
Listen at 46:27
No method can fully explain its own presuppositions.
“No method can be self-explaining in that respect.”
Listen at 48:14
Science cannot prove that other minds exist.
“You can't scientifically prove that other minds exist.”
Listen at 48:28
Science cannot prove that the external world exists.
“You can't scientifically prove that the external world exists.”
Listen at 48:30
Conscious experience is the one thing humans directly experience.
“the answer is conscious experience. That's the one thing you directly experience.”
Listen at 50:08
Idealists and panpsychists view everything as a manifestation of consciousness.
“they typically think of everything that exists in the world as like a manifestation of consciousness”
Listen at 52:31
Meditators and psychedelic users may apprehend a kind of truth.
“they're probably apprehending a kind of truth”
Listen at 55:09
Human perception presents the world from a perspective rather than as it is.
“I am not experiencing the world as it is. I'm experiencing it from a perspective”
Listen at 56:35
Understanding the world depends on interactions among the senses.
“our understanding of the world is just the way that our different senses interact with each other”
Listen at 1:02:33
Consciousness is fundamentally simple rather than requiring complexity.
“Consciousness is not complex in my view. It's one of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that consciousness requires complexity.”
Listen at 1:09:54
Consciousness may exist in rudimentary form at reality’s foundations.
“maybe there's some rudimentary amount or level of consciousness at the foundations of reality”
Listen at 1:15:52
Alex favors idealism’s view of one encompassing mind over traditional theism.
“I prefer the view that, if anything, this view points to the view that there is kind of one great big mind”
Listen at 1:24:36
Idealism posits a mental substance of which individual minds are expressions.
“there's kind of a great big mental substance and we are all like expressions of it”
Listen at 1:25:28
Prayer primarily aligns the believer’s will with God’s will.
“prayer is an opportunity to align yourself with the will of God”
Listen at 1:28:50
Grace before meals functions as gratitude and can be practiced secularly.
“It's just gratitude. That's why I'm a big fan of a secular grace.”
Listen at 1:30:47
Technologies enabling parental buyer’s remorse should be resisted.
“Any technology or philosophy which leads to even the possibility of me looking at my own children and thinking of the two words buyer's remorse is something that I will resist”
Listen at 1:38:04
Committed partners should suppress thoughts of attraction toward others.
“people who are good at marriage will essentially just shut down that thought”
Listen at 1:43:40
People in committed relationships should avoid pornography and indulging lustful thoughts.
“You shouldn't be watching pornography. You shouldn't be... indulging in that kind of stuff”
Listen at 1:46:05
Regular pornography use is associated with greater objectification of women.
“People who regularly watch pornography are much more likely to objectify women.”
Listen at 1:49:09
Greater indulgence of pornography and lust is associated with more catcalling and harmful sexual behavior.
“the evidence all suggests that it means that you're going to be more, you know, a world in which people are doing that more is a world in which there's more catcalling”
Listen at 1:51:43
People can use personal rules as safeguards against sexual temptation.
“you can put safety measures in your mental space”
Listen at 1:52:31
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
Weekly email
State of the Pod, every Monday
The week's most-discussed names and stories from podcasts, with the moments behind them. Free, five minutes, unsubscribe in one click.