What happens when someone loses a body part or use of and feeling in that body part? How completely can a human being adapt to a prosthetic device? In a recent article, Human Brain Treats Prosthetic Devices as Part of the Body, we can read: People with spinal cord injuries show strong association of wheelchairs … [Read more…]
I’ve claimed that we can see the world, at least after Jesus Christ’s ascension to His Father, as being the story of the growth and development of the Body of Christ, including the evolution and development of the organs of that Body. We can read the main purposes of God as Creator out of this … [Read more…]
E.O. Wilson is often a fount of common-sense bordering on wisdom; I don’t have to fully agree with a thinker to consider him sane and insightful. Wilson is a bit of a biological Calvinist but Jean Calvin and Jonathon Edwards were certainly sane if, in my opinion, quite wrong about some important matters. Oddly enough, … [Read more…]
A Little Background I haven’t been posting much over recent weeks because of a mild cold or sinus infection followed by a volunteer project at my parish. I’ve returned to serious reading and have started to write again, beginning with this brief introduction to what will be a series of essays describing my Christian understanding … [Read more…]
While making plans for my more serious reading over the next month or two, I happened to read the opening pages of a book I’ll be perusing before long — Sociobiology, The Abridged Edition by Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard professor who learned a lot about social insects and found that he could apply some … [Read more…]
One of the problems with a good understanding of some domain is that we adopt such understandings as rigid habits of thought even when they deal with empirical matters and should be rethought as we learn more or as new possibilities emerge as a result of human activities. We forget we’re mortal creatures in a … [Read more…]
I’ve written about evidence that we like to live and work with those similar to ourselves, though there is still some substantial uncertainty about the mixture of culture and genes in the understanding of “similar to ourselves.” I’ve also written of my strong belief that this world, our universe seen in light of God’s purposes, … [Read more…]
I’m trying to deal with a problem I feel to be at the foundation of a body of thought which I generally admire — libertarianism of the Old Right and Rothbardian sort. On the whole, my attitude is similar to my attitude towards Jamesian pragmatism. For a discussion of that attitude, see my earlier articles … [Read more…]
As I prepare to finish a half-written book on the human mind, I’m reviewing some of my earlier writings from my two blogs. I’m posting links to four essays which seem to me to be fundamental to my explanations of how to understand of that strange entity, the human mind. 1. The modern world as … [Read more…]
I don’t think it matters much that there is reason to believe Human Brains Unlikely to Evolve Into a ‘Supermind’ as Price to Pay Would Be Too High. The brains of individuals might not evolve much while still allowing a substantial amount of advancement in the minds which form and also draw upon a human … [Read more…]