I read somewhere, in a far distant spacetime, that Medieval theologians had a one-line joke: Heaven and Hell are the same place. An inch-millisecond ago by cosmological standards, circa 1900, Albert Jay Nock left the Episcopal priesthood and later said it was partly because he couldn’t see that many human beings had much in the … [Read more…]
Freedom as we idealize it is not at all an instrument or an agent to achieve our desires, good or bad. The lesser freedom of the tiger or the grazing deer can do that for us. Freedom as we idealize it is an aspect of the state of personhood, a state in which we are … [Read more…]
In Cosmology: A First Course, Marc Lachieze-Rey writes: The best definition of the cosmos is possibly the ensemble of relations between the constituent parts of the cosmos. First of all, I’ll point out that the larger context, the entirety of the introductory chapter, makes it clear that the cosmos is the parts as well as … [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…]
The Death of Plato The town was on edge that fateful day when stepped from the train a frightening sight. Qualities had arrived without a man for they were traveling fast and light. Intelligent and diligent, steadfast and true, successful and loyal, honest and brave, they were every good how but not quite a who. … [Read more…]
We’re born with certain physical characteristics, some good and some bad, some allowing us to excel and some limiting our possible accomplishments. Modern psychologists have shown that the physician Galen was largely right in his general principles which he taught nearly 2,000 years ago. We are born with relatively well-defined temperaments and with other relatively … [Read more…]
The blog at The Independent Institute has been running short essays by John C. Goodman, the author of a recent book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. The latest essay is Can Entrepreneurship Be Copied? where we can read Dr. Goodman’s claim: In mathematics, Gödel’s Theorem says that no complex, axiomatic system can be both consistent … [Read more…]
I’ve been delayed in my reading program, but I’m getting slowly back to work on Hans Reichenbach’s The Direction of Time. I’ve also gotten behind on my writing though I’ve already posted on some preliminary issues after reading Hilary Putnam’s preface for this the reprinting by the University of California Press: Why Does Time Move … [Read more…]
Here’s an article about hunting for your ancestry by way of genetic analysis: Ancestry testing goes for pinpoint accuracy . The article warns that interpreting the results of genetic tests can be difficult. Apparently, some of the testing companies have not only advanced equipment and well-trained technicians but also reputable academic researchers as advisers. That … [Read more…]
Lust is a deformed version of the virtue of love, the binding force in a number of human relationships including those involving God. Moreover, the passions and more quiet feelings we know as love are those which evolved amongst social mammals. It’s quite a plausible speculation that our ancient four-legged ancestors first began to melt … [Read more…]