I had the following question (Paraphrased, the person asking this question took a hatchet to the English language when they asked it) posed to me today.

“How can the TEA Party supporters, most of whom claim to be Christian, be so full of hatred and uncharitable towards others?  What happened to “Love thy neighbor”?

This led to the inevitable discussion of whether or not Jesus would have supported the welfare state.  I won’t bore you with a long dissertation here, I will ask but a simple question.

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Tags: politics & government, religion & philosophy by Mike McGowan
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Recently I linked, as I frequently do, to something Bill Vallicella posted on his Maverick Philosopher blog. Vallicella quoted the philosopher Thomas Nagel as saying that “I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”

I went on to comment that this suggested that Nagel entertained “a very primitive notion of God.”

I have since regretted that turn of phrase, not only because it is an insult to primitives everywhere, but also because it is simply wrong. Nagel’s notion of God is in fact all-too-civilized. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Frank Wilson has an intriguing piece on prayer and belief in God. Check it out. After reading it I devised a little parable for believers and non-believers to chew on.

There were two Catholic school boys in New England. One hated studying theology, not only because it was boring, but because he saw no evidence of God. The other boy was skeptical too, but he made a decision to respect theology. The cynical boy took his test and failed. After finding out his grade he cursed God. The boy with faith prayed for an A and received one.

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Tags: creative writing, religion & philosophy by Robert O'Hara
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A few weeks ago, I wrote a column arguing that the only truth worth acknowledging was the truth that one arrived at on one’s own.

Michael Cade, a fellow contributor to WFTC , posted a comment in which he said, among other things, that “even though I’m a crusty-atheistic-material plane-kind of guy, I recognize that prayer, for example, has quantifiable benefits. And I’ve started to wonder about the ‘placebo effect’ of prayer, and ‘placebo theism’ and if I could access all of that without actually submitting to religion, or God.”

I waited a bit before posting a reply, quite simply because I found Michael’s comments did not admit of a quick and easy response. In fact, I have continued to think about what he said because I was far from entirely satisfied with my reply. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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I’ve always said that I’d trust fifty names randomly drawn from the pages of my phone book to run the country more effectively and efficiently than the idiots we typically send to DC as elected representatives. It seems as though Christine O’Donnell is giving me a chance to stand by that statement.

But more importantly, she is illustrating the hypocrisy of the left these days.

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Tags: politics & government, religion & philosophy by Mike McGowan
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This reason.tv video, about the charming old guy who owns Anchor Brewing Company and the recent increase in craft breweries in the US, kind of indirectly got me thinking about an issue upon which I break off from many members of libertarian-of-center ideological communities.

The charming old guy in question, Fritz Maytag, proclaims at one point that he is an exceptionalist: he views the American story as particularly amazing, inspiring, and beautiful. He’s a hardcore patriot. This attitude is quite widespread in this country (especially in rural areas, but just about everywhere, really), and perhaps even abroad as well, but I’m going to argue that it’s not an attitude that a libertarian ought to have. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, religion & philosophy by Calvin Pollak
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Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blowup constitutes the extent of my acquaintance with the work of the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. But recently I posted on my blog this quote from Cortázar: “And do you accept the idea that there is no explanation?” [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Maverick Philosopher Bill Vallicella concludes a blog post titled “On Hitchens and Death”,  by suggesting that “if materialism is true, then I think Nietzsche is right: truth is not a value; life-enhancing illusions are to be preferred. If truth is out of all relation to human flourishing, why should we value it?” [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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What are we to make of the media’s latest blithering crapfest, the ongoing Punch and Judy show that is the ‘debate’ over the Ground Zero Mosque-that-is-not-actually-a-mosque AKA Cordoba House AKA Park 51 or whatever the hell the thing is called this week?

With so many heated claims and counter claims, including the now traditional yelps of “bigotry” from what Robert Gibbs describes as the “Professional Left”, and conversely,  paranoid accusations of “taqiyya” and all round Islamic evilness from the self-declared Right… well sometimes a man just wants to tell them all to shut up — or indeed, fuck off. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, terror & war by Daniel Kalder
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Many years ago, when I was a senior at what was then St. Joseph’s College, the college drama club mounted a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

I have no acting ability. I can only play myself (which means, I suppose, that I am — at least potentially — a star). But the members of the club were a part of the set I hung out with, and I spent a lot of time backstage. In fact, I had a modest role in that production of Much Ado: I was the prompter, standing every night in the little box at the center-front of the stage, reading along as the actors spoke their lines, ready to help them out if their memories faltered.

I don’t recall ever having to prompt anyone, so I ended up just reading the script every night. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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I know I am not the only person who, upon being intrigued by an idea encountered in a book or during a conversation, finds himself subsequently running into said idea over and over again.

Earlier this year, in Josef Pieper’s The Silence of St. Thomas, I came upon this: “the reality and character of things consist in their being creatively thought by the Creator.” This prompted me to begin thinking of myself as “being creatively thought by the Creator.” Lo and behold, I began running into like notions in the days and weeks that followed.

My last three columns have had to do with looking at the world minus the labels we attach to its contents. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Patterns are not categories. This thought occurred to me not long after I finished my last column. I was walking along Lombard Street past a parking lot surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. I looked down and noticed that next to the fence some flowers were growing and that there was a shallow pile of yellow leaves around the bottom of each and that the wind had formed each pile into a similar pattern.

My last column had much to do with categories, arrived at by classifying a group of individuals in terms of the features that they share (and ignoring all the ones they don’t share). Categories, it seemed to me, were purely mental constructs, useful to a degree, but also misleading. A pattern, on the other hand, is a real phenomenon. One discerns a pattern. One does not construct it. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Lost is dead. Long live Lost. And so it ends, in much the same way it began: with a close-up of Jack’s eye, staring straight up past the tall stalks of bamboo that circled the sky above. This time however, that eye would close, and with it, our six-season journey that took us right back to where we started — with questions about a mysterious show that seemed to parallel the mysteries of life. For some, the journey was far more compelling than the destination. For others, it was the perfect resolution and they can walk away feeling fulfilled. Whatever you thought about the conclusion, the one thing most viewers can agree on is that the show challenged us to think in ways we might not have otherwise. In short, Lost was a real trip. And what a long, strange trip it’s been.

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Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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I began this column on May 12, the same date on which in 1895 J. Krishnamurti was born. I had chosen a quote from him for the “Thought for the Day” feature on my blog: “A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.”

I thought I might take that as my point of departure for the column I was planning for last Tuesday. But then I started looking at some other things Krishnamurti had said. I came upon a talk he gave in Bombay in 1948 in which he said that “ideas create only further ideas.” Later in that same talk, he says, “When do you have creative moments, a sense of joy and beauty? Only when the thinker is absent, when the thought process comes to an end. Then, in the interval between two thoughts, is creative joy.”

In other words, you can’t think your way to truth. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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A 27-year-old woman pregnant with her fifth child walks into a Catholic hospital on the verge of death. At 11 weeks into her pregnancy she is told that the baby must be aborted or they will both surely die. The hospital administrator, a nun, is forced to make a fast and life-changing decision. She allows the abortion to take place in order to save the mother’s life. When Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted caught wind of what had happened, he declared that she was instantly excommunicated, claiming “you can’t do evil, to bring about good.”

I’m having a hard time focusing on which part of this story bothers me the most. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that at 27, this woman is pregnant with her fifth child, or that the nun who OK’d the medical procedure to save the woman’s life was excommunicated from the church — instantly — while it is a known fact that not a single priest credibly accused of molesting children has ever been excommunicated. Her actions saved a woman’s life — a mother of four. While the accused Priests’ actions have destroyed thousands.

Tags: family & parenting, going parental, religion & philosophy by Jaclyn Roth
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In the penultimate episode of Lost, “What They Died For,” Jacob tells the surviving Losties why he chose them as candidates: “I chose you because you were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.” This explanation really resonated with me, on one hand because it provided a mythologically sound answer to the main question I’ve always had about Lost: why do all these characters have major issues? And having that answer provided the other reason I really liked the explanation: I immediately understood that while Jacob was addressing the remaining candidates, he was really speaking to us. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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In “Across the Sea,” Lost finally gives us the origins story for Jacob and the Man In Black. The episode was pure, 100% mythology. Those who watched the episode based on the surface story alone were probably disappointed. Let’s face it, taken literally, myths are silly: talking snakes, little boys defeating giants, jealous gods, immaculate conceptions, mortals with superpowers, a sword stuck in a stone, the Force, Never Never Land, Wonderland, Oz, the Matrix, the Island. On the surface, all myths seem like children’s stories. It’s only when we dig deeper that we find the truth worthy of a wise old soul — a soul that knows where it really came from. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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Every day, on my blog, I post a “thought for the day.” Usually, it is something said by someone born on that date. On April 26, for instance, the quote was from Ludwig Wittgenstein, born on April 26, 1889: “For a truly religious man nothing is tragic.”

I’ve thought about this a good deal since I posted it, and have come to the provisional conclusion that it demonstrates considerable insight into the nature of the truly religious man but noticeably less into the nature of tragedy. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Wanna know why the Man In Black is really trapped on the island? It’s not because he’s malevolence, evil, or darkness, and it’s not because Jacob wouldn’t let him leave. It’s because he hasn’t overcome his issues. And what are his issues? Up to now, all we know is that he seems to be terribly frightened of adolescent boys. Hopefully, we’ll get a better answer next week, but as ridiculous as this might sound, I actually think there may be something to it. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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So someone left a car bomb in Times Square. The immediate questions that come to mind are who, why, what was its capability, how can such things be prevented from happening again?

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Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government, race & culture, religion & philosophy, technology, television, terror & war by David Alfreds
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