essay
I cannot understand how our minds, which have been formed by responses to the emergencies of a small corner of space and time, could possibly comprehend a revelation of the total universe, even if it were granted them. I can understand that we might be given a mystical intuition of the nature of the universe,…
And now, something different. Last week I wrote three articles as songs. Here’s the first, an ironic song that parallels an article I wrote a few months ago called Realincarnation. You’ll find me singing and playing seven-string bass solo on it with a virtual band at www.mindreadersdictionary.com/imsuregonnamissme.mp3 I’m sure gonna miss me when I’m gone.Jeremy…
Not recognizing the difference between intelligibility faith and religious faith leads to statements like: “Whereas religions normally make a clear statement on their articles of faith, science introduces its assumptions more surreptitiously.” Contrary to what is implied here, science does not try to sneak into anybody’s territory surreptitiously. It just marches on, with its triumphs…
Global warming? Academics are to blame! At least that’s what Mark Pedelty wants us to consider, at least insofar as we academics travel a lot. Some evidence: Ian Roberts and Fiona Godlee published an editorial in the British Medical Journal on the “carbon footprint of medical conferences.” They determined that flights destined for the annual…
Some of the latest movies on war exhibit this dehumanizing process. In them violence has no face, suffering has no purpose and ethical considerations have no place. Homer’s Iliad they are not. Efficiency and effectiveness is the name of the game in those movies; nothing less than a prescription for insanity. In his book Orthodoxy,…
That’s just what you won’t get with Eric G. Wilson’s essay, “In Praise of Melancholy,” published in a recent edition of The Chronicle Review. This essay is adapted from Wilson’s new book, Against Happiness, which, for his sake, I suppose I hope does not sell. Unfortunately–for him, I guess–I think it might do fairly well,…
Just as it is simplistic to say that there is no faith component in science, it is not quite true that there is no doubt-component in the religious context. Many deeply religious people experience skeptic’s doubt when they encounter a religious system other than their own. Indeed the rejection of the doctrines of a different…
Recent years have witnessed a change in tone within what is still a developing field of continental philosophy of religion. The tone of the first theological encounters with postmodern theory and deconstructive philosophies was primarily critical toward traditional forms of religiosity. Representative of this primarily critical tone was Mark C. Taylor’s assertion from Erring (1984)…
Doubt is a state of mind, some would say an affliction of the mind. It refers to a condition in which one is unable or unwilling to accept, on the face of it, a given statement as true. When we say we are in doubt, what we mean is that we are not altogether certain…
Doctor: Bob, bad news. You’ve got cancer. Bob: Well, I’m going to want a second opinion. Doctor: All right, you’re ugly too. Joe: X is true. Sue: No it’s not. Joe: You just don’t want to admit it’s true because you’re stubborn. Sue: That’s not true. Joe: Yes it is. Sue: Don’t tell me what…