In this sixth monthly blogpost on the pandemic, Russian Interference, theology, the behavior of lemmings, President's Trump's take on American History, SCOTUS, the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, the election, and the global surge of COVID-19 cases are among the topics discussed. Read slow!
Pandemic Scramble
This is the third in a series on the pandemic, featuring three intersecting foci: the spread of COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter confrontation with racism, and the presidential campaign leading up to a decision on election day, the third of November, 2020. Their explosive intersection has turned crazy!
Pandemic Ramble
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 →
Aspiring To God
While a creator god lacks a past, could an aspirational deity have a future? If we succeed over time in actualizing our finest attributes, would a god fashioned on our late example be worthy of its divinity? Would it be so terrible if human perfection someday attains the distinction of divinity in the minds of successor life forms when we go extinct?
Antonin Scalia’s War on Secularists
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a January 2nd speech at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, told the audience that the constitution does not require government to be neutral between religion and non-religion. The separation clause of the First Amendment prevents government from favoring a particular faith, that is true, but it is... Continue Reading →
Atheism: Its Existential Problem
After reading the description of my recently published book, Abdication: God Steps Down for Good, people occasionally inquire whether I’m an atheist. I tell them that I’m basically agnostic and a hopeful theist. It would be wonderful, to my way of thinking, if a convivial, non-dictatorial God existed. It’s a lonely world out there in... Continue Reading →
Prompts to Planetary Consciousness
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.
Science and Creationism: A Self-Directed Learning Experiment
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 →
Divining Nature
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 →