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Tag Archives: ontological mystery
The Cosmic Gun Smokes
Imagine positing a theory about the origin of the cosmos, then predicting something odd and otherwise implausible that one would find if the theory were true. Then imagine finding it. That’s what happened. This is via USA TODAY and The … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy, atheism, Big Bang, God, ontological mystery, science
14 Comments
John Lloyd’s TED Talk, “Inventory of the Invisible”
__________ Here are four things that I take from this brief TED talk: The empire of the visible is dwarfed by the greater empire of the invisible. There are things that don’t exist, though we imagine them to exist. We hide … Continue reading
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Tagged beauty, invisible, life, mystery, ontological mystery, science, sublime, wonder
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Mental Health Break: ELO’s Strange Magic
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Tagged ELO, gabriel marcel, life, mental health break, music, ontological mystery, poetry, psychology
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Daniel Dennett v. David Chalmers on consciousness (with Terence McKenna putting in his two cents)
Daniel Dennett deflates consciousness here: __________ David Chalmers inflates it here: __________ And Terence McKenna takes some DMT to break the tie, struggling to share in words, to the uninitiated, the qualia that accompanies ingestion of the chemical.
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Tagged consciousness, Daniel Dennett, david chalmers, dmt, ontological mystery, philosophy, psychology, qualia, terence mckenna, the brain
6 Comments
Kepler Telescope Detects an Earth-Size Planet Orbiting a Star Like Our Own
The New York Times today: Scientists working with NASA’s Kepler satellite reported Thursday that they might have spotted a planet just 1.5 times the diameter of Earth around a Sun-like star. And, not to be outdone, the Europeans announced an … Continue reading
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Tagged astronomy, biology, earth-like planets, Genesis, kepler, kepler telescope, life, louis armstrong, ontological mystery, planets, stars
1 Comment
Evolution v. Creation Watch: The Cambrian Explosion (545 Million Years Ago), the Cambridge Explosion (1869), and Natural Selection Replaced by the Eschaton?
Here is a depiction of the HMS Cambridge firing a torpedo (Illustrated London News, 1869): And here’s a fossil from the Cambrian explosion (image source: Wikipedia). . And here’s my question: does the Cambrian explosion (the relatively sudden appearance of … Continue reading
Why I’m an Agnostic, But Not an Atheist
What is it, really, that separates the atheist from the agnostic? I would argue that the ultimate dividing line between the atheist and the agnostic is over the issue of mystery. For the atheist, the ontological mystery—the mystery of being—is merely an … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, life, meaning, Oedipus, ontological mystery, percy shelley, philosophy, poetry, psychology, sphinx
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“There Was an Awful Rainbow Once in Heaven”: A Double Rainbow Triggers a Man’s Confrontation with the Ontological Mystery, and Recalls for Me Some Lines from John Keats
The man’s response to the double rainbow recalls for me some lines from John Keats. In “Lamia” are these cautioning lines (231-238) against a too-eager reductionism: There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, edgar allan poe, God, John Keats, Noah, ontological mystery, peak experiences, philosophy, poetry, psychology, Richard Dawkins, science
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Qualia and the Ontological Mystery for Beginners
The difference between a problem and the experience of a mystery:
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Tagged being, earth, elementals, fire, life, love, ontological mystery, qualia, sky, wind
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Hugh Hewitt v. Richard Dawkins: What’s North of the North Pole?
Right-wing radio host and Evangelical, Hugh Hewitt, interviewed atheist Richard Dawkins on Tuesday. I thought this part of the exchange was telling: HH: I’m talking about the whole cosmos. Where did that come from, 13 billion years ago? RD: It … Continue reading
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Tagged Daniel Dennett, deepities, evolution, Hugh Hewitt, north pole, ontological mystery, philosophy, poetry, Richard Dawkins, science, the big bang
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James Jeans and John Updike: A Scientist’s Postulation and a Literary Figure’s Reply
In 1930, physicist, mathematician, and astronomer James Jeans, wrote, in his book The Mysterious Universe, this: Standing on our microscopic fragment of a grain of sand, we attempt to discover the nature and purpose of the universe which surrounds our home … Continue reading
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Tagged Albert Camus, existentialism, gnosticism, james jeans, john updike, life, ontological mystery, philosophy, religion, science, space, the universe
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The Virtue of Doubt. An Agnostic’s Call For Intellectual Humility and Openness to the Ontological Mystery
Being an agnostic, I am very far from wishing to defend theism, but if I were to attempt to do so I think I would start with love. I know that sounds corn-ball, and like you, I can come up … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, Buddhism, Camus, doubt, freedom, occult, ontological mystery, philosophy, science, skepticism
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