Creatively Advancing into Novelty
“An old monk on Mount Athos in Greece once told me that people rejoice in the thought of hell to the precise degree that they harbor hell within themselves. By which he meant, I believe, that heaven and hell alike are both within us all, in varying degrees, and that, for some, the idea of…
“Not all propositions, religions, or sciences are equally true. But any of them that may be communicating something, not nothing, we need to hear. Any, therefore, may enrich the fabulous multiplicity of the creation itself. If our truths, even truths about “the creation,” matter now—then they may materialize carefully, not from nothing but from the…
“What is the moral question regarding abortion? Some people say that the fetus is alive and that, therefore, killing it is wrong. Since mosquitoes, bacteria, apes and whales are also alive, the argument is less than clear. Even plants are alive. I am not impressed by the rebuttal, “But plants, mosquitoes, bacteria and whales are…
David: [EXHALES SHARPLY] I read that story collection. The one in your book. At first, I was confused, you know ‘Why is she carrying around this sordid tale of sex clubs and drug addicts and’ And then I read this: “Junkies and masochists and hookers, and those who have squandered everything are the ring of…
“Despite the proliferation of interest in the subjects of secrecy and esotericism throughout popular culture, media and entertainment, these phenomena have only recently begun to be treated seriously by historians of religions. In this essay, I suggest a new way of looking at esotericism by engaging in a comparative, cross-cultural analysis, and by looking in…
“Part of the problem is the dualistic way that we have conceptualized human beings through most of Christian history. Simply, this holds that human beings are made up of two (dichotomy) or three (trichotomy) distinct parts, one physical (body) and one spiritual (soul, spirit, mind). In either di- or tri- models, death is the breaking…
“During an evening walk with a close colleague of Bohr’s, Einstein once asked: “Do you really believe the Moon is not there if nobody looks?” From Barad’s perspective, it isn’t that the Moon isn’t there when we aren’t looking, it’s that when we do look, a new Moon, and a new me, emerge in the…
“What’s happened now is that spiritual experiences since the 1970’s have been re-branded as things that are good for your health; this started with meditation. Meditation is now practiced by many millions of people, about 18 million Americans now meditate. And most meditation was traditionally carried out in order to connect with the realm of…
““Rich countries aren’t developing poor countries; poor countries are effectively developing rich countries — and they have been since the late 15th century,” argues Hickel…In the book it is laid bare for all to see that underdevelopment in the Global South is not a natural condition, but a consequence of the way Western powers have…
“Any system worth resisting is at its core religious, but any effective means of resistance must be religious as well. “Religion” need not mean what we’re normally told it means, a limited definition focusing on beliefs and rituals. All sorts of things are religions: capitalism is a religion; fascism is a worse one, democracy a…