I’ve started a series of Lenten meditations on my other blog at To See a World in a Grain of Sand. Those mediations will be used to display some of the spiritual aspects of my worldview, my way of looking at the world in the light of my Catholic Christian faith. Come journey along the … [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…]
The Bible makes it clear: we must be poor in spirit. Poverty of this sort, the true poverty which can be found in the lives of some who are poor and also in some who are prosperous, doesn’t dictate some sort of extreme asceticism, voluntary or forced upon us. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived in … [Read more…]