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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Lama Surya Das says that the Buddha represents “the fullest actualized potential of human beings.” My six-year-old daughter’s response: “This is wrong!”
In an essay at the Huffington Post today, Buddhist author Lama Surya Das characterizes in this way what the meditating stone Buddha in your spring garden symbolizes: The Buddha is actually an archetype representing enlightenment, an icon symbolizing inner wisdom, a pointer … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddha, Buddhism, exercise, existentialism, health, lama surya das, life, meaning, meditation, yoga
8 Comments
The New York Times on psilocybin
Seriously. There is an enormously important science article, posted just yesterday at the New York Times, about the state of contemporary clinical research in the United States on psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms). The article is here and deserves to be read in full, but here’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anxiety, cancer, death, depression, mushrooms, obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD, psilocybin, psychedelic mushrooms, psychology, rush limbaugh, science
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People should look at the Shroud of Turin “with their hearts, not their minds,” says the archbishop of Turin—and Nina Burleigh agrees
Has the Shroud of Turin, by scientific forensics, been shown to be a fraud? No problem. Don’t look at it with your mind and all shall be well. Now that the Shroud of Turin, after an eight-year hiatus, is on public display again, … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, critical thinking, democracy, faith, priests, reason, science, the shroud of turin, witch doctors
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Karl Giberson and the firing of Dr. Bruce Waltke: “Those of us who teach at Christian colleges write with the knowledge that our books may get us fired”
Given Dr. Bruce Waltke’s recent firing from Reform Theological Seminary in Orlando for saying that evolution is true, what Karl Giberson wrote in Christianity Today back in September of 2008 seems tragically prophetic: Two centuries after evidence began to mount up … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged biblical inerrancy, bruce waltke, Charles Darwin, evolution, Genesis, Jesus, Karl Giberson, religion, Richard Dawkins, science
2 Comments
“We cannot allow Christianity to become a cult”: BioLogos on the censorship of Dr. Bruce Waltke’s statements concerning evolution
BioLogos recently posted this response to Reform Theological Seminary’s insistence that Bruce Waltke, one of its professors, take down a video on the BioLogos website in which he says that he accepts the scientific theory of evolution. It should be noted that even though … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, biologos, biology, Charles Darwin, Christianity, Christianity Today, evolution, jerry coyne, Jesus, science, the Bible
2 Comments
The Vatican’s Watergate: Stephen Kiesle is a Registered Sex Offender in California
And Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) spent years stalling his removal from the priesthood. Here’s the BBC today: AP says the 1985 correspondence, written in Latin, shows the cardinal saying that Kiesle’s removal would need careful review. Cardinal Ratzinger urged … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, Catholic Church, Catholicism, child abuse, God, Jesus, pedophilia, pope benedict, religion, Richard Dawkins, stephen kiesle
1 Comment
In the firing of Bruce Waltke, Michael Milton endorses intellectual hiding and self-censorship
In the firing of Bruce Waltke for stating the obvious—that evolution is true—the president of Reformed Theological Seminary, Michael Milton, defends the seminary’s decision by endorsing intellectual hiding and self-censorship. This today at Inside Higher Ed: Asked if this limits … Continue reading
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Tagged academic freedom, apologetics, atheism, censorship, evolution, freedom, God, Jesus, michael milton, reformed theological seminary, science
10 Comments
Evolution is true: Hebrew Bible scholar, Bruce Waltke, speaks truth to power—and is fired for it
A prominent scholar of the Hebrew Bible, and an Evangelical, Bruce Waltke recently stated the obvious—that evolution is true—and lost his teaching position at Reformed Theological Seminary for it. Here’s Inside Higher Ed today: When it comes to incriminating videos these days, the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, bruce waltke, evangelicals, evolution, fundamentalism, reformed theological seminary, richard colling, science, the Bible
35 Comments
Ravi Shankar turned 90 years old yesterday
George Harrison once called Ravi Shankar the godfather of world music. And here is Ravi Shankar in interview with George Harrison: And yes, he’s still playing. Here is Shankar in 2009: . And here’s Shankar on Dick Cavett’s show:
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Tagged 1960s, 1970s, a passage to india, george harrison, Hinduism, India, meditation, music, ravi shankar, sitar, world music, yoga
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Not down Alice’s rabbit hole, but down Nikodem Poplawski’s wormhole?
Indiana University Monday: IU theoretical physicist Nikodem Poplawski in research published in “Physics Letters B” uses Euclidean-based mathematical modeling to suggest that all black holes may have wormholes inside which exist universes created at the same time as the black holes. And Nikodem Poplawski’s mathematical … Continue reading
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Tagged alice in wonderland, atheism, black holes, creation, dream, God, life, nikodem poplawski, physics, the universe, wormholes
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Physicist Richard Feynman was a member of the doubting community, not the faith community
And he ended up in hell for it. Just kidding.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Christianity, doubt, evidence, faith, God, hell, Islam, physics, reason, richard feynman, science, the doubting community
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Did Sarah Palin write this Amazon review?
I thought that the below Amazon review of Michael Hyde’s The Life-Giving Gift of Acknowledgment (Purdue 2005), in its unironic anti-intellectuality and impatience with anything not conventionally “normal,” inadvertently channelled Sarah Palin. It was as if the person had accidentally walked into the … Continue reading
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Tagged book reviews, books, college, intellectuals, michael hyde, middle brow, populism, Sarah Palin, tea partiers
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Question for a Sunday
Some people, indeed a lot of people, believe that not just humans, but animals, possess souls, and so should not be eaten. Is it thus religiously insensitive for public secular institutions, like college cafeterias, to serve hamburgers? And should professors … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Christianity, free speech, Islam, Judaism, Muslims, offense, philosophy, social psychology, vegetarianism
8 Comments
