“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust
This morning I recalled the taste of a bit of madeleine dunked in a linden-flower tea which my aunt used to give me (although I did not yet know why this memory made me so happy). What [...]
Tags:archival·Daniel Engber·data·evolutionary religious studies·history·Marcel·memory·originality·Proust·publication·rediscovery·repetition·research·science·synthesis
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s piece on America’s ancient cave art has prompted some thinking — always the sign of good writing. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. Here are some of the things that have me cogitating:
Simek the Scientist v. Reilly the Symbolist
This is not a lawsuit — it is the tension Sullivan establishes [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·art·ASC·birds·caves·complex societies·dark zone·data·emic·etic·F. Kent Reilly·Jan Simek·John Jeremiah Sullivan·meaning·Mircea Eliade·Mississippian cultures·Mound Builders·Piers Vitebsky·Plains Indians·pre-state societies·shamans·soul flights·Southeastern Ceremonial Complex·Southern Death Cult·survivals·symbols·unknown caves
Over at Slate, Ron Rosenbaum has penned a manifesto for the “new agnosticism,” which he sees as an alternative to credulous theism on the the one hand and strident atheism on the other. Rosenbaum’s position deserves considerable merit and has some appeal, but I am not sure I can agree with him on this definition:
Agnosticism [...]
Tags:agnostic·agnosticism·atheism·certainty·Christopher Hitchens·data·evidence·logic·methodology·nihilism·positivism·reason·Richard Dawkins·Ron Rosenbaum·Sam Harris·skepticism·supernatural agents·supernatural forces·theism·Thomas Henry Huxley·truth
