I have a hypothesis that our spiritual sense is as much a part of the human experience as the six regular senses. “Six senses?”, you might wonder. “Is this guy counting ESP as one of the senses?” No, what I am counting is kinesthesia, which most scientists now recognize as the sixth sense. Kinesthesia is our sense of self-movement and body perception. There is an easy way for you to see for yourself how this sense works. Stretch your arms…
To finish up my series of posts about Burke’s ’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), here are a few other assorted profound and interesting passages from Reflections. In this first passage (p. 14), Burke writes about being true to your proper character: Those who quit their proper character, to assume what does not belong to them, are, for thei greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave, and of the character they assume. In this passage (pp….
Note: This is a re-post of a post originally from July 25, 2017. I am reposting because it is more relevant than ever. I will be posting more on this subject. In my first post on this blog I said that Religion is an inescapable part of human nature—it has been a part of all human cultures everywhere and at all times. Religion serves important functions by providing, among other things: 1) a way to make parts of our lives…
Note: This is a re-post of a post originally from June 20, 2016. I am reposting because it is more relevant than ever. I will be posting more on this subject. Summary: Religiosity is an inescapable part of human nature. Secularization won’t—can’t—overcome it. Instead, the growing trend of secularization has just led those professing no religion to express their innate religious natures in sub-optimal, ill-thought-out, ad hoc ways. My book, The Triple Path, offers a better alternative that integrates our…
Last post we talked about problems with our politicians, but most voters aren’t any better. In fact, they’re often worse. Most politicians at least know something about the major issues of the day; most voters don’t. Economists say that voters’ ignorance is rational: because each persons’ vote has such a small marginal impact on an election result, it doesn’t make sense to spend much time learning about the candidates or issues. What makes sense for each voter to do on…
Many of us feel like something is going wrong. We feel a deep and growing unease we are moving in the wrong direction, that we’re becoming strangers in our own country. This series of blog posts is an extended essay that explains what is going wrong in the United States and what we can do about it. But first you must realize that the solution won’t come from going back to the way things were. The past is behind us….
Summary: Religiosity is an inescapable part of human nature. Secularization won’t—can’t—overcome it. Instead, the growing trend of secularization has just led those professing no religion to express their innate religious natures in sub-optimal, ill-thought-out, ad hoc ways. My book, The Triple Path, offers a better alternative that integrates our modern scientific understanding of the world with the wisdom of the world’s great religions. I just finished reading Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions by Catherine Bell. It is an academic work surveying…
Two cities, each very distant from the other, sat on the same side of a great river. The river was wide and deep, with a powerful and fast current. Crossing the river was dangerous and difficult, but those few who crossed returned with stories of an unknown country full of mysterious wonders. The first city was named Hammon, and the second was called Sophrete. In Hammon, few citizens had ever crossed the river. Everyone generally agreed that reaching the other…
I’ve written a book summarizing my thoughts on life, truth, morality, and religion. About one-quarter of the book contains material from this blog (revised, re-written, and greatly improved), while the rest is new material never released before. The book is called The Triple Path. You can download it here (currently available in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats (MOBI and AZW3)).
During the Christmas season, I’ve been reading the Illustrated Classics version of A Christmas Carol with my young preschool-aged son. We’ve both been enjoying it (he likes that it’s a bit spooky because it has ghosts in the story), I very much like the message of charity and love of the story. But something has hit me this time around that I dislike with the story that I’ve never noticed before. On the surface, the book is supposed to be…