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Monthly Archives: June 2010
Ron Rosenbaum separates the sheep from the asses with one question: why is there something rather than nothing?
In a recent Slate article, Ron Rosenbaum affirms his agnosticism against both theists and atheists, and offers atheists in particular a “show me the money” question: Rosenbaum wants atheists to write and tell him how it is that something came from nothing: … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, gabriel marcel, God, New Atheists, philosophy, Richard Dawkins, the ontological mystery
6 Comments
The Tortoise Shell, the Umbrella, and Hindu Meditation
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna (Barbara Miller’s translation, pt. 2 stanzas 55-58): When he [the yogi] gives up desires in his mind, is content with the self within himself, then he is said to be a man whose insight … Continue reading
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Tagged Arjuna, aversion, Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, desire, freedom, happiness, Hinduism, krishna, meditation, vipassana, yoga
1 Comment
Mental Health Break
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Tagged America, dustin hoffman, hypocrisy, Jesus, mental health break, psychology, religion, sales
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Rod Serling is the Devil!
Not literally, of course. But it occurred to me this morning that Rod Serling’s appeal as a guide to his Twilight Zone episodes is this: he functions as a sublimated devil, the camara darting him into visual consciousness out of nowhere. Serling is a Virgil, but not … Continue reading
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Tagged creative writing, fantasy, imagination, life, rod serling, Satan, science fiction, the devil, the twilight zone, vain imaginings, writing
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Entering the Twilight Zone via Solitude and Day Dreaming, and Maybe Meeting the Devil (or Rod Serling)
Last week, I wrote a meditative piece on the role that solitude plays in the life of the mind, and how I felt it to be akin to entering Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone (see here). I suggested that if you expose … Continue reading
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Tagged apostle Paul, creative writing, creativity, imagination, rod serling, Satan, solitude, St. Paul, the devil, the twilight zone, thoreau, walden
3 Comments
What is the Enlightenment’s Distinctive Feature? And What Contemporary Movement is the Enlightenment’s Most Representative Heir?
Zeev Sternhell, in his recent book, The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale 2009), offers reason as the Anglo-French Enlightenment’s distinctive feature, and the ingredient that made for its historic break with the past (41): Criticism of the existing political order, but also criticism … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Daniel Dennett, hume, New Atheists, philosophy, reason, Richard Dawkins, science, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
11 Comments
Zeev Sternhell on The Enlightenment and Its Enemies
One of the books that I’ve been dropping in and out of this past month is Zeev Sternhell’s The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale 2009). Sternhell’s book is about 450 pages long, and I’m only 150 pages in, but I can already say that it is … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, burke, humanism, multiculturalism, provincialism, reason, the anti-enlightenment, the Enlightenment, universalism, vico, zeev sternhell
2 Comments
Truth, Socratic Dialogue, Internet Threads, and Giambattista Vico
Giambattista Vico was, from 1699-1741, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Naples, and I love the open way that he ended his speech, “On the Study Methods of Our Time” (1709). It represents well the spirit of Italian humanism that … Continue reading
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Tagged blogging, dialogue, Giambattista Vico, humanism, openness, reason, rhetoric, socratic dialogue, speech, truth, vulnerability
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Why neither intelligent design nor young earth creationism can ever function as part of the sciences
I’ve always liked this cartoon:
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Tagged apologetics, biologos, Charles Darwin, creation, evolution, Genesis, God, intelligent design, miracles, philosophy, science, the Bible
1 Comment
In praise of Chateauneuf (Voltaire’s godfather and tutor)
Below are some rather impious lines from La Moisade, a 17th century French satirical poem (author unknown). It opens with this sass of Mosaic legislation: A teaching so irrelevant Shall not my doubts destroy? With empty sophism thou shalt not My reason … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Catholicism, child rearing, critical thinking, God, humanism, Jesus, Moses, skepticism, teaching, the Bible, Voltaire
4 Comments
Does Megan Fox Foreshadow Our Posthuman and Atheist Future?
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses (in Book X), Pygmalion carves a female figure out of ivory and falls in love with it: And I couldn’t help but notice, in this Interview magazine cover promotion, the ivory-skinned Megan Fox making of herself a Pygmalion aesthetic object: Ernest … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, genetic engineering, God, humanism, Jesus, megan fox, ovid, philosophy, posthuman, pygmalion, the singularity
6 Comments
Why I am not a young earth creationist
When it comes right down to it, the tensions between science and biblical literalism boil down to epistemology: how do we go about knowing things, and when is it reasonable to say, “I know something”? In this, the scientist, in his or … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Biblical literalism, creation, epistemology, evolution, evolution v. creation, Genesis, God, Jesus, John Macarthur, Richard Dawkins, the Bible
11 Comments
Red State
A nervy image. And Andrew Sullivan explains: This is a map of global temperature anomalies for last month. Pretty uneventful until you get to the Arctic, where the feedback loops of warming, loss of ice-reflection, more warming and so on … Continue reading
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Tagged climate change, ecology, environment, global warming, life, Red State, rush limbaugh, science
2 Comments
Are Patriotism and Religion the Last Refuges of Scoundrels?
In 1775, in the year just prior to the American Revolution, Samuel Johnson famously quipped that: Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. And this morning, thinking about this truism, I asked myself this question: What is it about patriotism that … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, Christianity, glenn beck, God, Jesus, patriotism, reason, religion, Richard Dawkins, the Enlightenment, Voltaire
20 Comments
Biologist Darrel Falk: Torn Between Two Lovers (Biblical Literalists and Science-Oriented Atheists)
At a recent posting on the BioLogos website, the president of the BioLogos Foundation, Darrel Falk—who is both a Christian and a biologist—explains why he is not a young earth creationist: [To be a young earth creationist] is to reject the richness of the … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, biologos, creationism, darrel falk, evolution, grace to you, Hamlet, jerry coyne, John Macarthur, Richard Dawkins, science, young earth creationism
3 Comments
The Goddess Fortuna: Thinking about Darwinian Contingency Metaphorically
I really think that Fortuna should be the matron goddess of all who have tried to absorb the full import of evolutionary contingency. Below, for example, is a painting of Fortuna by Henri Gascar, circa 1670. In this painting, Fortuna … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, change, creationism, evolution, fortuna, fortune, God, meditation, philosophy, psychology, shiva, yoga
6 Comments
A Moses for the 21st Century: Ed Moses
Ed Moses of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California may be leading the world—through nuclear fusion—into a real Promised Land—the Promised Land of an abundant energy future. If you are not already up to speed on what Ed Moses and his team of scientists … Continue reading
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Tagged 21st century, America, California, ed moses, energy, fusion, humanity, Moses, physics, Prometheus, promised land
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Are Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity Religious Phonies?
. Some people think that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity are sincere believers in God, and they take them at their word when they call themselves Christians. I don’t. I think that all three of them, in their religious … Continue reading
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Tagged Christianity, conservatism, far right, Fox News, fox noise, glenn beck, Jesus, religious right, right wing, rush limbaugh, Sean Hannity
8 Comments
Sandra Foster, a Female Thoreau: A Little House of Her Own
Virginia Woolf once wrote of the great human need, for intellectual and emotional flourishing, of having a room of one’s own. And the New York Times today has a profile of a 40-something woman, Sandra Foster, who has built her own … Continue reading
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Tagged a room of one's own, homes, life, retreat, solitude, thoreau, victorian, virginia woolf
4 Comments
Prometheus Unbound 