Blog Stats
- 2,651,765 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- Michael Rehkop on Fraudulant Attribution: Gilgamesh, Moses, the Apostle Matthew—and Ancient Authorship
- Terry on Fraudulant Attribution: Gilgamesh, Moses, the Apostle Matthew—and Ancient Authorship
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Yes She Was on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Bret Stephens and Andrew Sullivan: A Not-So-Dynamic Duo ~ Full Magazine on Andrew Sullivan Apologizes for Comparing Larry Summers to a Christ Killing Jewish Moneylender in a Hieronymus Bosch Painting
- Aaron Siering on God Shadowed By Emptiness: Thomas Aquinas vs. The Buddhist Nagarjuna
- Aaron Siering on God Shadowed By Emptiness: Thomas Aquinas vs. The Buddhist Nagarjuna
- Anonymous on Did You Know That Sartre, in the Name of World Revolution, Would Not Have Prevented the Burning of the Mona Lisa? Neither Did I!
- Ethelred Hardrede on When Experts Collide: Jerry Coyne verses James Shapiro
- James Handelin on Adam Smith and Capitalism for Beginners
- Anonymous on How Crazy is Dr. David Jeremiah?
- Analysis of the Primeval History in Genesis – Infinite Ocean on “Male and Female Created He Them!”: Was Adam a Hermaphrodite? And Does That Explain How Eve Could Be Taken from Adam’s Body?
- HarlowGold on This Hans Holbein Painting of Christ after Crucifixion Sparked Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Imagination
- Anonymous on Michael Jackson Pedophile Reality Check: Is It Mean to Suspect that Michael Jackson Might Have Been a Pedophile?
Top Posts
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Matthew 27:51-53: The Bible's "Night of the Living Dead" Passage
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- How Crazy is Dr. David Jeremiah?
- This Hans Holbein Painting of Christ after Crucifixion Sparked Fyodor Dostoevsky's Imagination
- "Good Friday": A Poem by Christina Rossetti (Published in 1896)
- In 1935, Were Cary Grant and Randolf Scott Sex Partners? No, But These Images Look Rather Camp
- Adam Smith and Capitalism for Beginners
- What is a Human, Really? Thinking about Definition via Aristotle
- Follow the Entropy: A Pretty Good Argument for God's Existence
-
Recent Posts
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.10: Emerson’s “Circles”
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.9: Imitation And Emulation With An Eye On Competition
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.8: Selection And Editing
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.7: Audience And Rhetorical Strategy
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.6: Moving From First Sentence To Thesis
Recent Haiku Tweets
- AOC says it well. twitter.com/CNN/status/108… 3 months ago
- nytimes.com/interactive/20… 8 months ago
- RT @mrchan: So much has changed in America, and yet so much hasn't https://t.co/x2mthUr4Kc 10 months ago
- Perfect. twitter.com/newsundayheral… 2 years ago
- RT @goldenglobes: At tonight's #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. https://t.… 2 years ago
Tag Archives: William Blake
Who Is William Blake, Really?
William Blake is a poet, not a metaphysician. When someone writes with aphorism, irony, and wild and flamboyant system building (as Blake and Nietzsche did), they are mocking essentialism; they’re showing that language is infinite; that there are a gazillion … Continue reading
The Tao of Emily, the Calm of Lao Tzu, and Trouble from Blake
Below are two couplets of flower power yin-yang from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,” written in 1850 when she was aged nineteen. Insofar as anybody knows, it’s the first poem she’d ever written … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Buddha, Buddhism, Emily Dickinson, Lao Tzu, literature, poetry, Tao, William Blake
Leave a comment
Wrestling with God’s Existence on a Sunday
From the third chapter of William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (plate 60, lines 52-64): O Lord & Savior, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee? Or hast thou been pierced in the House of thy Friends? Art … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, God, Jesus, jim morrison, life, Sunday, William Blake
Leave a comment
The Moon’s Origin (And Why Genesis Cannot Be Right About It)
Concerning the moon’s origin, the Los Angeles Times today tells the basic scientific story with admirable clarity: The Earth and moon formed after the proto-Earth collided with another huge planetary body, sometimes referred to as Theia. […] Two planets, one Earth-sized … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, Genesis, religion, science, the moon, William Blake
8 Comments
What the Lightning Said: My Definition of Art
Art, by my definition, is a report of what the lightning said. It’s bound up with the ontological mystery (the mystery of being itself); an artist’s attempt to represent to others an experience of that mystery (what it feels like … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, creative writing, definition, giorgione, God, lightning, mark twain, meaning, religion, stephen greenblatt, the ontological mystery, William Blake, writing
Leave a comment
The Theist’s Hell vs. The Atheist’s Hell: Which is Worse for Children to Learn About?
Startling the mind of a child (or a vulnerable adult) with threats of hell is manipulative and, yes, even abusive. I see no sense in denying it. But there is a premise that underlies the condemnation of hell preaching that deserves scrutiny: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, child abuse, existentialism, heaven or hell, hell, innocence to experience, Jesus, Nietzsche, the devil, William Blake
27 Comments
Thinking about Symmetry via Stuart Kauffman, William Blake, AR Ammons, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Robert Frost—and My Wife
Biologist Stuart Kauffman blogs for the National Public Radio (NPR) website, and recently wrote a post reflecting on the universe’s symmetry breaking: To begin at the beginning, . . . The universe started extremely hot, dense, and essentially uniform, or isotropic. Perhaps all four … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged ar ammons, Big Bang, origins, philosophy, physics, Robert Frost, science, stuart kauffman, symmetry, the universe, William Blake
1 Comment
3-D for Real: Do We Live in a Holographic Universe?
Earlier this week, there was a mind-bending New York Times article on gravity that also touched on the possibility that we live in a holographic universe. Here is one of the key passages from the New York Times article explaining the so-called … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 3-D, existentialism, Garrett Lisi, holographic principle, holographic universe, love, philosophy, physics, poetry, quantum entanglement, science, William Blake
15 Comments
The Is-Ought Distinction: What Would Nietzsche Say to Sam Harris?
Sam Harris has of late generated a lot of public discussion by reopening this can of worms: In the realm of values, is Hume right that no “is” should be governing our “oughts”? Put another way: Can science ever really arbitrate a human moral question? If science, for … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheist, Charles Darwin, david hume, ethics, evolution, God, Nietzsche, philosophy, Sam Harris, science, William Blake
12 Comments
A great Henry David Thoreau quote
No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged college, education, Henry David Thoreau, life, literature, philosophy, poetry, psychology, vision, walden, William Blake
Leave a comment
Innocence to experience—to emotional blackmale
After the gorilla’s existentialist period of Camus-like despair, I suppose that the next episode will be devoted to his religious conversion: a trainer comforts the gorilla by convincing him that he doesn’t really die—but nevertheless might go to hell if he … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Albert Camus, death, eternal life, existentialism, gorillas, life, life after death, philosophy, psychology, the sinner's prayer, William Blake
Leave a comment
To See a World in a Grain of Sand
And an instrument in a Jeep:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, cars, creativity, drumming, harmony, life, music, thinking out of the box, trucks, William Blake
Leave a comment
Judy Garland Singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
And with heartbreaking power:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Christmas, death, experience, hope, innocence, joy, judy garland, life, longing, love, peace, William Blake
2 Comments
“The Road”: Cormac McCarthy’s Version of Helen Reddy’s “You and Me Against the World”?
Slate recently reviewed the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and reported that watching it is—how shall I put this politiely?—emotionally problematic: The Boy and Man on the road, nameless in the long-dead world. Their cart and tarp and tins … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cormac mccarthy, existentialism, fathers and sons, film, helen reddy, innocence to experience, life, love, movies, philosophy, the road, William Blake
1 Comment
Atheism is Dead?
There will always be atheists in the world—so I’m not talking about a demographic trend. I don’t know where atheism is heading with the masses. For all I know, it may be growing faster than any other idea in the world. Go team! … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, Christianity, cults, death, hippies, religon, terence mckenna, urizen, William Blake
11 Comments
Urizen the Bearer of Circumfrences
A biographer of William Blake discusses Blake’s take on materialist reduction and the nature of mind:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, atheism, life, materialism, mind, poetry, urizen, William Blake
Leave a comment
Something to Think About
An image of the Andromeda Galaxy from a book published in 1899: The Andromeda Galaxy is still there. The person who made its image is long gone. What traces of your actions will still be in this world a hundred years from … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1899, 19th century, andromeda galaxy, astronomy, Blake, poetry, space, telescope, William Blake
Leave a comment
As Non-Empirical Languages, Do Philosophical Systems Have Greater Epistemic Validity Than Theological Systems?
I would say no. When we are dealing with non-empirical (that is, non-scientific) languages, I don’t think that you can give substantially greater epistemic weight to the conclusions of philosophers over those of theologians. When I think of some of the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Alvin Plantinga, apologetics, atheism, empiricism, philosophy, positivism, postmodernism, richard rorty, science, theology, William Blake
10 Comments
“I am deluded by the turning mills”: How William Blake Might Have Responded to Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion”
From the third chapter of William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (plate 60, lines 52-64): O Lord & Savior, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee? Or hast thou been pierced in the House of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, Christianity, philosophy, poems, poetry, religion, Richard Dawkins, skepticism, William Blake
Leave a comment
