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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: February 2010
“Everybody who came to our wedding is dead!”
Both of my wife’s parents are alive and in their late 70s, and here’s what her mother said in response to the idea of having a big 50th wedding anniversary party: Everybody who came to our wedding is dead! My wife’s … Continue reading
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Tagged aging, carpe diem, death, food for worms, life, marriage, psychology, silence, weddings, whispers
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Mental Health Break
And lyrics: On a morning from a Bogart movie In a country where they turn back time You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre Contemplating a crime She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running … Continue reading
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Tagged 1970s, happiness, life, love, mental health break, music, poetry
3 Comments
David Aaronovich on the Growing Skeptics’ Movement
In a Salon interview, David Aaronovich, the author of a new book that historically contextualizes and debunks conspiracy theories, praises the post-9-11 growing skeptics’ movement in the United States and Britain: Maybe I’m a false optimist, but I think we have a … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, conspiracy theories, critical thinking, david aaronovich, history, reason, Richard Dawkins, skeptic, skepticism
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Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things,” Chapter 3, page 37
Something that jumped out at me early on in chapter 3 of the college critical thinking text, Schick and Vaughn’s How to Think about Weird Things (5th edition, 2008), is the distinction that was made between argument and persuasion. To win support for … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, argumentation, atheism, evidence, Michael Shermer, paranormal, reason, rhetoric, Richard Dawkins, weird things, writing
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Seeing American Life from the Vantage of Death
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Tagged Allen Ginsberg, American, death, hippies, life, reason, sanity, science, skeletons, the Beatles, the human race
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Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things,” Chapter 2
Every other year or so I find myself returning to Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn’s critical thinking text, How to Think about Weird Things, and rereading the whole darn thing through again. Schick and Vaughn’s book is a rather popular college text, and it’s in its sixth edition. … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, critical thinking, g.k. chesterton, Michael Shermer, philosophy, schick and vaughn, skepticism, weird things, writing
1 Comment
Mental Health Break
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Tagged astrology, astronomy, life, mental health break, mysticism, psychology
4 Comments
Freud’s Oceanic Feeling Associated with Brain Damage!
During meditation or prayer, have you ever had what Freud called (picking up the term from Romain Rolland) an “oceanic feeling“? In other words, have you felt your “little self” (the shrew of your ego) submerging harmoniously into the “Big Self”—the Atman—or the universe? Well, … Continue reading
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Tagged Bhagavad Gita, elton john, Freud, harmony, meditation, mind, ocean, reductionism, science, spirtuality, yoga, Zen
13 Comments
Rick Schlosser and Lawrence Swaim on Sherry Marquez’s Inane Demonization of All Muslims
The true nature of Islam is on display in the murder trial of a Muslim man in New York who beheaded his wife? That’s the essentialist conclusion of an elected Republican official in Southern California: Lancaster councilwoman Sherry Marquez. Here’s how … Continue reading
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Tagged Antelope Valley Press, bigotry, California, Cat Stevens, Christianity, fundamentalism, God, Islam, James Dobson, Jesus, Muslims, sherry marquez
50 Comments
John Cage on Cactus and Feather
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Tagged art, Buddhism, john cage, life, meditation, music, nonconceptual art, yoga
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My Daughter Won a Certificate of Merit from Her School for—Generosity!
My oldest daughter is six years old, and from her school today she received a certificate of merit, not for attendance or academic achievement, but just for being a generous person! Her teacher praised her for being a good friend to her … Continue reading
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Tagged Allen Ginsberg, Buddha, character, family, friendship, generosity, kids, kindness, life, love, meditation, yoga
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Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Circles” (1841): The Creative Vitalist Lost in Space?
Below are a few excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Circles” (1841). In this essay he likens the creative artist’s framing imagination to something like the growing layers of an onion building themselves over the dark inner depths of the ontological mystery. Emerson’s thesis is in his … Continue reading
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Tagged art, circles, creativity, Emerson, genius, literature, lost in space, Nietzsche, nihilism, poetry, poets, Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Take 2,000 IU of Vitamin D?
Vitamin D seems to be a genuinely potent nutrient that a lot of doctors are recommending, including my family practitioner. The vitamin appears to be associated with lower rates of cancer and diabetes (to name just two large benefits). And the amount … Continue reading
Should Liberals Have a Scientistic or Poetic Vision for Society?
This is a question that Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty used to ask, and he put it another way as well: is it the scientist or the poet who is (or should be) the liberal’s hero? Or to put it yet another way: Is a human … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, God, literature, Michael Shermer, philosophy, poetry, Richard Dawkins, richard rorty, science, skeptic, the Bible
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Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things”
Every other year or so I find myself returning to Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn’s critical thinking text, How to Think about Weird Things, and rereading the whole darn thing through again. Schick and Vaughn’s book is a rather popular college text, and it’s in its sixth edition. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, atheism, bertrand russell, critical thinking, epistemology, knowledge, philosophy, reason, religion, stephen gould, weird things
2 Comments
Matthew Arnold, in 1883, on the Bible’s Hold upon the Public Imagination
In what sounds as if it could have been written yesterday, here is the 19th century literary critic and poet, Matthew Arnold, from the preface of his book Literature and Dogma, on the cultural state of play of Bible-based religion in … Continue reading
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Tagged atheist, evolution, God, James Dobson, Jesus, John Macarthur, literature, matthew arnold, religion, science, the Bible, theology
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G.K. Chesterton’s Answer to the Question, “What Can Evolution Teach Us about Religion?”
It works (even as naturalism flounders for justification and adherents): The point of Darwinism was that the bird with the longer beak could reach worms (let us say) at the bottom of a deeper hole; that the birds who could … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, Catholicism, Christianity, determinism, evolution, free will, g.k. chesterton, God, Jesus, religion
7 Comments
