Huge Pathetic Force
Sun - March 11, 2007Huge Pathetic Force, Edition IIAfter being quiescent for some time, HPF is
reborn in a new format.
Posted at 02:17 PM Read More | Fri - March 24, 2006Once a believer, always a believer?A fascinating report on the current "apostasy" blow-up in
Afghanistan
from the Asia Times: Posted at 07:08 PM Read More | Thu - December 8, 2005Is atheism a religion or isn't it?A religious studies professor is attacked (both
physically and verbally) for being an atheist.
Posted at 04:21 PM Read More | Sat - October 15, 2005"Conservatives have ideas -- liberals don't"Now that Bush & Co. are being jumped on by
the media and the establishment types who until the other day quaked in fear of
them, we hear the retort: "Yes, but at least they had ideas for running the
country. The Democrats don't have a single idea to present to the
public."
Posted at 01:09 PM Read More | Sun - October 2, 2005orthogonal opponentsFrom the New York Times: Celeste Biever, a reporter for
NewScientist, is reporting from the Dover, PA trial pitting the local school
board against parents who object to "intelligent design" being recognized as
scientific by their public schools. She finds that
When you put intelligent design up against evolution ... "It's not a head-on collision between two scientific arguments; it's orthogonal," with the opponents coming at each other from right angles. Posted at 06:13 PM Read More | Sun - September 25, 2005Newtonian BuddhismOne fundamental difference between Buddhist and
Western (Christian, etc.) views of the universe is that the latter assume that
the cause and effect chain from the present backwards must stop somewhere, like
a row of dominoes on end. If there is no First Cause to push the first domino,
why are dominoes falling now?
Posted at 06:19 PM Read More | "helpful advice" to the social change movementRather oddly, one still hears the argument that
left demonstrations should concentrate on specific messages (e.g., for the March
on Washington yesterday, "stop the war") and (somehow or other) prevent
participation by kooky "identity" types, who just want to flaunt their
non-conformity -- usually, these days, non-conformity to heterosexual norms. The
argument for this position is that the "identity protesters" turn off the
"Peoria" folks whose support is needed for the anti-war campaign to
succeed.
Posted at 06:13 PM Read More | Tue - September 20, 2005bed-of-nails religionMany proponents of "design" these days
emphasize that the purposes which the designer of the universe had in mind are
not necessarily very understandable to us humans. In fact, such an enormously
intelligent designer might be expected to have purposes that we couldn't
possibly fathom, with our weak minds. They despise simple-minded concepts of the
god (let us be bold enough to use the word*) who created the world; they are
proponents of what I would call "bed-of-nails religion." They prefer a religion
that really hurts to lie down on. But I would have thought that one of the main
reasons most religious people have for being religious is that it comforts them
in the rough patches of life: death, illness, loneliness, discouragement, and
depression. But how could such an incomprehensible designer comfort anyone?
Posted at 12:03 AM Read More | Sat - August 20, 2005Tue - August 16, 2005Why religious people can be in politicsThere is a lot of discussion these days about
whether people who identify themselves as religious have a right to engage in
politics. Obviously they do, just as non-religious people do, but most of the
discussion one hears is not very cogent.
Posted at 12:25 AM Read More | Sun - August 14, 2005ChastityIt might seem odd to put a post on this subject
in the category of "politics," but these days it does seem, like many other
subjects, to be taking on a considerable political tone. And hey -- the personal
is political, right?
Posted at 12:58 PM Read More | How do science and christianity conflict?Part of the answer to this quite complex
question may be derived from the current brouhaha over
evolution.
Posted at 12:44 PM Read More | Wed - August 10, 2005Thu - August 4, 2005the politics of evolutionMatt Yglesias argues (two or three screens down), under the
headline "Intelligent Design: Who Cares?", that the whole fight against
intelligent design is not worth political-minded folks' putting their energy
into. Issues like women's reproductive rights and gay rights are what we should
be worried about. Interestingly, this is reminiscent of the recent idea, popular
in some areas of the left blogosphere, that other issues were more important
than abortion rights.
Posted at 04:12 PM Read More | Wed - August 3, 2005some basic buddhist psychology: false enlightenmentsBuddhist psychology begins with an analysis
that has some features that we Westerners will find familiar, but also some that
challenge our customary assumptions. Based on this analysis, we can understand
quite a few things that might at first seem peculiar about the Buddhist view of
things; in this post, I want to concentrate on how it can help us understand
some common misconceptions about enlightenment, and some things about how the
Buddhist view of the mind differs from the way the philosophies and religions of
the West see it.
Posted at 08:20 PM Read More | |
SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
(while I bone up on html and css) Forth then with huge pathetic force
Straight to the utmost crown of night he flew. The nothingness was a nakedness, a point Beyond which thought could not progress as thought. He had to choose. But it was not a choice Between excluding things. It was not a choice Between, but of. He chose to include the things That in each other are included, the whole, The complicate, the amassing harmony. - Wallace Stevens (Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction) Categories
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Published On: Mar 11, 2007 02:19 PM |
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