Monthly Archives: July 2010

Steven Novella, the Ambivalent Blasphemer

At SkepticBlog this past week, Steven Novella endorses blasphemy as social protest (sort of):  There are those, for example, who champion blasphemy as a form of social protest. PZ, Penn and Teller, Christopher Hitchens and others argue that nothing should … Continue reading

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A Poem for the Fourth of July

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Pity the Nation”:

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Henry James’ “The Last of the Valerii”: Breaking the Spell of Religion?

Henry James has an intriguing, but not widely known, tale of a person coming under the spell of a religious mania. James titled it: The Last of the Valerii The short story is set in Rome, and the narrator is the godfather of an … Continue reading

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Mental Health Break

A near perfect video (and with great lyrics): From the lyrics: But in time a thought comes tugging on the sleavage of our minds: perhaps no perfect way exists at all, just many different kinds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            . O but if it’s … Continue reading

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Is Life’s Meaning to Be Found in the Myth of Sisyphus, Bunyan’s Pilgrim, Voltaire’s Candide, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Shakespeare’s Stage—or Something Else?

Albert Camus famously said that the first question of philosophy is suicide: is life’s game worth the candle? Camus thought that it was. Yes, the universe appears to be absurd (without meaning, unity, or purpose), and yes, Sisyphus was Camus’s chosen symbol for the … Continue reading

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