Back in 2014, musing on Emma Restall Orr’s excellent Wakeful World, I presented a paradox at the center of the mind / body dualism that’s usually assumed by both western science and religion. The crux of the paradox is: why are we conscious, but other things aren’t? Most people consider humanity conscious, but all other…
My Anima II: Gender Identity and the Self
What is gender identity? Is it part of our deepest self? Or is it something created by social expectations? How would we know? How does it work?
The Chapel for the Vigil
The chapel for the vigil is in
A wild forest, a wild stony river, bugs and birds.
Heat, but the breezes are cool.
The sound of water everywhere.
Dogma Bites Man: the Role of Reason in Religion
The road to enlightenment can be, and has been, walked by people contemplating the Bible’s oddly phrased, simplistic, and disjointed attestations, precisely because they are odd, simplistic, and disjointed.
The Face of Justice
The hooded eyes
Open to let just enough light in, each photon carrying the universe within it —
The rest of the face utterly relaxed, at rest.
Things Fall Apart: Why We Think Everything’s Getting Worse
Most Americans, year after year, continue to think that the country is on the wrong track. The older you are (i.e, the more experienced you are, and the more of history you’ve seen), the more likely you are to think everything is falling apart. And it’s not just in America: worldwide, people tend to think…
Meditation: Animist Consecration
Last night my awesome wife Ali and I joined in a set of consecration ceremonies at our Unitarian Universalist church. Along with the Reverend’s UU blessing and our friend Chris’s Wiccan consecration, we demonstrated a Druid / Animist method of connecting with an object. I say “connecting with” an object instead of “consecrating” because in…
Powers of Darkness
The children have collectively created a mythology that is rich, colorful, and choked with fear and desperation.
The Mind of a Rock: Musings on Orr’s ‘Wakeful World’
For thousands of years, Western civilization has been living with a striking paradox. On the one hand, we are clearly physical beings living in a physical universe. And yet, we have these thoughts, feelings, dreams, and perceptions… They seem related to the physical universe, yet fundamentally different in character. We have an ‘inner’ life, which…
Big Data Will Blind You
Not all of us are scientists, but all of us today are consumers of science. And I mean science, not technology. When we want to lose weight, or make more money, or find that perfect someone, we don’t go to gurus, and we don’t go with our guts. We look at the latest studies. It’s…
