A Curious Time of Faith
This holiday season I had some very interesting encounters. As I offered a Merappiful Chrismukkwansoltivusuleday to people that I’d meet, I found …
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Finding Secular and Non-secular Truth
Since I was a teenager, I’ve been on a search trying to understand faith. After much reading, listening, debating, contemplation, and so forth, I had an epiphany. Suddenly the niggling confusions became non-confusions. The core of just about everything came together.
Read more...A New Marriage Proposition
I was talking to my brother about how the Black and Latino communities in California scuttled the gay marriage issue with Proposition 8. While we were discussing the you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-stab-yours aspects of this dirty business, he proposed this: remove marriage from being a government consideration for everyone.
Read more...Faith and the Search For Morality
People who have a strong faith—you know, religious God-fearing people—confound me. They talk a good game, but when life comes around they …
Read more...Prophesies, Attendance, and Religious Zeal
I’ve been amazed how religious people have been such a large part of my life as I’ve always walked to the beat …
Read more...Amulets, Talismans, and Symbols
I’ve been thinking recently of what seems to be a very human trait: the use of amulets, talismans, and symbols. I’m sure there must be a few examples out in the animal kingdom that also use these, but for the most part it seems to be one of the few quirks that separates humans from all the other living beings. They are ubiquitous. Except perhaps for the most primitive small groups, you don’t have to look hard to find these facets in all of human existence.
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Time Machine to…Temple of Artemis
I think if I had only one time machine trip to the extended hellenic period, one of the top choices would be to see what has been described by many as the greatest of the seven wonders of the ancient world–the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
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