Einstein gave a great gift to rational thinkers, Christian and non-Christian. He gave us a universe, that is, a coherent definition of a universe. And the definition is proving to be quite a bit different from the traditional metaphysical definitions. In fact, the simplest way to think of Einsteinian Universes as a class is to … [Read more…]
So, what is man? He’s intentional in his moral nature. He’s born to acquire certain moral behaviors towards mother and father and brethren but mostly towards his mother because of the special bond. He’ll recognize her very smell and her body is changing in certain ways to adapt itself to the care of a baby … [Read more…]
The answer would seem to be, “Yes”. We’ve lost our ability to say that Christ was man and God in one divine Person just because we use the word ‘person’ to refer to each instantiation of a human being. One of these two possibilities is true: Jesus of Nazareth was born a human person. If … [Read more…]
I don’t know where consciousness begins in the animal kingdom though most animals we pay attention to are certainly conscious in the intuitive sense of being aware of their immediate environment and not just responding to simple chemical cues. So far as I know, only human beings are self-aware in a deep sense so that … [Read more…]
So far as I can tell, the concept of “original sin” arose because St. Augustine of Hippo and some other important Fathers of the early Church were trained as lawyers. Moreover, the Hebrew Bible was the sacred works of a people who organized their lives by strict legal codes. Consequently, God was depicted as a … [Read more…]
“BrainWork”is a free newsletter distributed by The Dana Foundation run by some of the most prominent neuroscientists, geneticists, and other biologists in the United States and — I believe — Canada. In the July-August, 2006 issue, there’s an interesting article, Out-of-body but in the Brain”. The article tells us: At every moment, the brain effortlessly … [Read more…]
What is a man? Not “What is man?” but rather “What is a man?”. That’s a big topic and one not to be addressed in a consistent and coherent manner at this time just because we have no good words and concepts to allow a rational anthropology. Our first task is the more humble one … [Read more…]
Is any existing human language a general purpose tool that can deal with all raw materials and produce all possible objects of utility and beauty? Can any existing human language deal with reality as we discover more about the world around us and even more about what lies inside of us? Is there any possible … [Read more…]
There was no one Cosmos common to all thinkers prior to Einstein but there were some general beliefs held by all, or nearly all, thinkers prior to Einstein — including most early modern scientists. This is not to say that there were none who suspected the Cosmos to be a distortion of reality. But those … [Read more…]
Mathematics, no matter how abstract and symbolic it can be, is founded upon numbers, the number line for those who have taken a geometry or algebra course. Even with the abstractions of group theory and projective geometries, our understanding of mathematics follows our understanding of numbers. About 15 years ago, Gregory Chaitin of IBM proved … [Read more…]