There has been much chatter over the past few weeks about what appears to be a general lack of religious knowledge among Americans. Although I have not seen any surveys or studies from outside the United States, I think it safe to say this ignorance is not limited to America — it most likely is [...]
Tags:brain-mind·Breaking the Spell·curriculum·Daniel Dennett·Diane Winston·hunter-gatherers·metaphysics·neolithic·Paleolithic·Purpose Driven Life·religious ignorance·religious knowledge·religious naturalism·Rick Warren·shamanisms·social construction·supernaturalism·truth·truth correspondence
Our correspondent at The Economist dismisses Stephen Hawking’s most recent dispensation with characteristic British aplomb. Strongly suggesting that Hawking should keep the meta out of his physics, the reviewer takes direct aim at Hawking’s lack of philosophical sophistication:
The authors rather fancy themselves as philosophers, though they would presumably balk at the description, since they confidently [...]
Tags:book review·metaphysics·philosophy·physics·Stephen Hawking·The Economist·The Grand Design·The Stone
There are many who believe that near death experiences (“NDE”) provide evidence of the existence of a spirit-soul and that those who have these close encounters with death have glimpsed another realm. Over at Brain Blogger, Jennifer Gibson discusses some recent studies of NDEs in a post titled “Light at the End of the Tunnel [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·American Indians·Asian Indians·Brain Blogger·Buddhist·carbon dioxide·Christian·consciousness·cultural imprinting·cultural patterning·Glenn Roberts·hallucinations·heaven·Hindu·Jennifer Gibson·Jesus·John Owen·Krishna·metaphysical realm·metaphysics·Muslim·NDE·near death experience·pan-human neurology·Siddhartha·soul·spirit·supernatural·The Near Death Experience·Vishnu·Wakan Tanka·Yamdoots·Yamraj
Today, while examining the key word searches that have led people to this blog, I noticed this interesting query: “Are tea partiers psychotic?” This Google search must have pulled up my post “Tea Parties and Monkey Gods,” in which I observed that Tea Partiers seem to be animated by a toxic combination of anger and [...]
Tags:anger·angst·autonomy·dependence·faith·fantasy·fear·fiction·free markets·fundamentalists·Hegel·identity·imaginary·individualism·J.M. Bernstein·libertarians·metaphysical·metaphysics·paranoia·Pierre Bourdieu·psychotic·rage·religious right·structuralism·sturm und drang·Tea Party·The Stone
In yesterday’s post, I asked “What is Spirituality?“ Naturally, today’s post asks “What is the Spirit?” It is a related and timely question, especially given Eric Simpson’s recent post over at HuffPo Religion, “The Tyranny of the Body in the Quest for Spiritual Life.” In keeping with the Western metaphysical tradition, Simpson simply assumes there [...]
Tags:Aquinas·Augustine·Cartesian dualism·chimera·Christianity·commonsense dualism·dualism·Eric Simpson·folk psychology of souls·Immanuel Kant·Jesse Bering·metaphysics·mind-body·Paul Bloom·Plato·pre-Socratic·Rene Descartes·soul·spirit·Western metaphysical tradition
