Introduction This could have been a diary, but I didn’t write daily, or record the dates. I just made occasional notes on the pandemic, as they came to mind, and kept going until now. It’s a long and loose ramble! It hopefully contains some interesting observations. It’s probably best read in short passages over several... Continue Reading →
When earthlings begin high school, it would be great if a credible, straightforward master narrative of our species were available for parents and teachers to tell in launching and guiding the children on their way toward mature adulthood and enlightened citizenship. There are, I know, innumerable stories available for this general purpose in world literature. Then, too,... Continue Reading →
In an earlier blog essay, Religion and the Credibility of Science, I argued that religion and science are fundamentally opposed to each other. In the book Abdication: God Steps Down for Good, I make the same claim, but with a twist, namely that the two, while antagonistic, are also allies of one another! How can that... Continue Reading →
So, what’s in your wallet? What’s on your fridge door? Images of geologic time, I hope, and the evolutionary tree of life. Good for you. Good for us. That’s our true planetary address and our true social standing as a life form. We are life becoming conscious of itself. Life has evolved into consciousness. We are the heart, eyes, brain, mind, and thoughts of the universe. We are the inheritors of time. We are the gardeners. We are the guides. We are the hope of posterity.
Joel Achenbach downplayed the most obvious culprit in his otherwise superb account of “Why Science is so Hard to Believe” (Washington Post, National Geographic) in accounting for skeptical views toward vaccination, fluoridation, and genetically modified foods. He de-emphasized religion’s influence. Religion is arguably science’s oldest, most powerful, and persistent foe. The fates of Socrates, Giordano... Continue Reading →
What should scientists do when the majority of parents and children are in the thrall of a wrong idea? That was the problem Copernicus had with the church when the earth was thought to be the center of the universe. Copernicus was wary and withheld the publication of his book, On the Revolutions of the... Continue Reading →
I was brought up a Christian, in the American Baptist tradition, baptized by my father, the minister of the churches I attended until I left the church for good after high school. I had mentally absconded well before that, however, starting around the age of six, because—I secretly told myself—these parishioners weren’t hearing what my... Continue Reading →
profunditiesandabsurdities 