Tag Archives: ontological mystery

The Cosmic Gun Smokes

Posted on March 18, 2014 by

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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John Lloyd’s TED Talk, “Inventory of the Invisible”

Posted on October 12, 2012 by

__________ 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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Mental Health Break: ELO’s Strange Magic

Posted on September 4, 2010 by
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Daniel Dennett v. David Chalmers on consciousness (with Terence McKenna putting in his two cents)

Posted on August 31, 2010 by

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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Kepler Telescope Detects an Earth-Size Planet Orbiting a Star Like Our Own

Posted on August 26, 2010 by

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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Evolution v. Creation Watch: The Cambrian Explosion (545 Million Years Ago), the Cambridge Explosion (1869), and Natural Selection Replaced by the Eschaton?

Posted on August 7, 2010 by

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 →

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Why I’m an Agnostic, But Not an Atheist

Posted on July 8, 2010 by

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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“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

Posted on July 8, 2010 by

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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Qualia and the Ontological Mystery for Beginners

Posted on December 7, 2009 by

The difference between a problem and the experience of a mystery:

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Hugh Hewitt v. Richard Dawkins: What’s North of the North Pole?

Posted on October 23, 2009 by

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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James Jeans and John Updike: A Scientist’s Postulation and a Literary Figure’s Reply

Posted on October 22, 2009 by

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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The Virtue of Doubt. An Agnostic’s Call For Intellectual Humility and Openness to the Ontological Mystery

Posted on January 9, 2009 by

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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