Human being is complex, as is true of most interesting entities. Even God’s simplicity, touted rightly by ancient and Medieval theologians and their not-so-worthy successors in modern times, is only a way of speaking against very specific types of errors. Mostly, they were concerned in ages which saw change lead eventually to decay that God … [Read more…]
Good news from genetic research. At least it’s good news for those of us who believe in the value, and truth, of moral purposefulness. A recent article, Be Happy: Your Genes May Thank You for It, tells us: People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being—the kind of happiness that comes … [Read more…]
Let me recount some of the ways in which we modern Christians are confused: We are still trying to apply categorical reasoning to creatures and relationships in a world of evolutionary and developmental processes. We have no way, even in principle, of saying which of our ancestors was the first creature to fall into the … [Read more…]
A recent article, Female Minorities Are More Affected by Racism Than Sexism, Research Suggests, speaks of a study showing that Oriental women who are members of immigrant communities in the United States are upset in a deep and emotional way by racial prejudice but are dispassionate about prejudice against them as women, taking that as … [Read more…]
In a recent article, Freedom and Structure in Human Life — When Do We Become Persons?, I quoted a summary of a view of man developed by the theologian Metropolitan John Zizioulas of the Greek Orthodox Church. I see much good in that view as stated in the summary and didn’t go into a detailed … [Read more…]
While thinking of the suffering endured by patients in the modern medical quest for miracles, I grew depressed and sought to cheer myself up by thoughts of hospices which allow human beings a bit of dignity as they approach death. And so it was that I turned to Flannery O’Connor’s insightful and Thomistically funny introduction … [Read more…]
This entry is a supplement to Not Monism and Not Dualism but Unity of Creation. One form of dualism, strongly supported by Aristotle, is particularly attractive at first contact: the idea that things come into being when form is impressed upon substance. What’s wrong about this, and perhaps the real error underlying all dualisms, is … [Read more…]
I really don’t know much about neural networks which are organized in space and certainly can’t make much comment upon the discovery that they can be organized through “multiple timescales” as well, yet, I’m hardly surprised. See this article, Robots Show That Brain Activity Is Linked To Time As Well As Space, for a summary … [Read more…]
In an earlier entry, Engaging the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: Broadening Horizons of Reason, I quoted the entirety of a Vatican Information Service news article. I’ll quote a stretch of that article about Pope Benedict’s speech to a symposium of philosophers: “Modernity is not simply a historically-datable cultural phenomenon; in reality it requires a … [Read more…]
John Hawks is an evolutionary thinker who seems to think clear and to speak honestly. I’d recommend his weblog, John Hawks Weblog for anyone wanting an intelligent take on evolutionary biology from the viewpoint of an anthropologist who has done highly regarded work on the genetics aspects of his field. In a recent entry about … [Read more…]