Ten years ago or more, I read the Inferno, the first volume of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. It didn’t make too much of an impression on me, seeming to be at least in part a matter of Dante taking shots at some of his enemies, a lot of people he didn’t admire (often, for good … [Read more…]
A large number of Americans, leading good lives in most ways, believe the United States is and always was a champion of justice and charity towards all nations when we really believe that the only good life is one ordered to the individualistic tendencies so attractive to those descended from the residents of northwestern Europeans. … [Read more…]
Reality often messes up our formal models or our less rigid schemes of how reality should work. A good thinker takes such glitches not as a sign that we can’t use models in a particular situation but rather as an invitation to think their way to a better model or perhaps to develop a more … [Read more…]
I’ve uploaded an update to the collection of my weblog writings: Acts of Being: Selected Weblog Writings From 2006 to 2014. Here is the text from the Preface for this new edition: I’ve added nearly 50 chapters to this Fifth Edition. All but this chapter are reformatted essays from my writings during 2014 which were … [Read more…]
Some young men who think to solve problems with machine-guns killed some men, of ages unknown to me, who think to advance human enlightenment by sneering at all things of which they don’t approve. They don’t approve of God or those who claim, falsely or truly, to serve God. The intellectual and moral midgets at … [Read more…]
See the article, Notable: Bigger groups make less social time for red colobus, at John Hawk’s website. [I had a problem linking properly to this article but it can be found under “Stories” if it doesn’t come up on the front page. I will adjust my link when possible.] Professor Hawks discusses an article summarizing … [Read more…]
Happy New Year. May the Good Lord bless you and yours. It’s now 2015. Where Am I In My Mission? Clearly, I’m not writing a blog which simply responds to cultural or political or intellectual events or states. I’m not part of an established institutional effort, not part of a mission as the term would … [Read more…]