I have uploaded another small sampler of essays from my weblog writings. This small collection deals with the subject of the human mind. The new sampler can be downloaded at The Human Mind. I have also made some minor changes to the first sampler: Making Peace With Empirical Reality and consequently uploaded a new file.
This article hardly surprises me: Belief in Hell, According to International Data, Is Associated With Reduced Crime. The findings summarized in the article also don’t make me happy. I would advise against any major effort to scare sinners away from Hell because that doesn’t mean they will necessarily go to Heaven. If they do go … [Read more…]
Just yesterday, I finished reading a history of the Middle Ages. The book ended with these wise words: In the last century of the medieval era, the peoples of Europe had to cope with an unprecedented combination of plague, war, schism, and economic decline, all occurring simultaneously and all interacting with one another. In the … [Read more…]
One of the problems with a good understanding of some domain is that we adopt such understandings as rigid habits of thought even when they deal with empirical matters and should be rethought as we learn more or as new possibilities emerge as a result of human activities. We forget we’re mortal creatures in a … [Read more…]
A few weeks back, Michael S. Greve published a discussion of one of our fundamental problems in these troubled times, as opposed to the secondary problems discussed by the better technical experts in financing, investment, etc. Greve’s essay, in three parts, can be found at: The Constitution of Affluence, Part I, The Constitution of Affluence, … [Read more…]
While examining samples of moon-dust, scientists discovered the stuff is a bit unusual, even by the standards of those who study ethereal stuff and relationships on a regular basis. Moon-dust, seemingly macroscopic stuff, shows quantum properties of the sort usually found only in such entities as individual atoms or subatomic particles. It seems that some … [Read more…]
Call it traditionalism or conservatism if you wish — though I refer to an attitude and a body of thought far from the comic-book views of the mass-media commentators and the ideologues they serve. What is it? One of my favorite, perhaps overused, quotations is from the historian Carroll Quigley: The truth unfolds in time … [Read more…]
Here’s an article about hunting for your ancestry by way of genetic analysis: Ancestry testing goes for pinpoint accuracy . The article warns that interpreting the results of genetic tests can be difficult. Apparently, some of the testing companies have not only advanced equipment and well-trained technicians but also reputable academic researchers as advisers. That … [Read more…]
Since 2006, I’ve been writing books and essays, nearly all of which are available for free downloading on the Internet. My main theme is simply the need to see our world as being the universe in light of God’s purposes for this concrete realm of Creation, which includes the need to see the entirety of … [Read more…]
The economist William Baumol warned us about one of the problems which human beings create under conditions of prosperity, Baumol’s cost disease: Baumol’s cost disease (also known as the Baumol Effect) is a phenomenon described by William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen in the 1960s. It involves a rise of salaries in jobs that … [Read more…]