Earlier I read an article from a skeptic who, distraught that 80% of Britons believe in Heaven, discussed the history of the concept of Heaven in order to disprove it, showing Heaven as at best a comforting bedtime story and at worst as cause for endless wars. While the same could be said of technology, [...]
“What was unreal is real, what was real is unreal.” -Jung, from the Red Book Prior to the fantastic experiences he would later illuminate as the Red Book, Carl Jung considered himself a wholly rational man, a trained scientist and critic of Christianity and other forms of religiosity. Yet through his visionary adventures he was [...]
My roster of classes this spring semester contains Lectures in Literature (focus on Adaptation), Readings in Contemporary Fiction (focus on post-Boom Latin American literature), Bible as Literature, and Popular Culture. Though not typically themes I look at, it was interesting to notice that almost immediately each class’s texts (though not yet pop culture, though with [...]
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Satanic Verses gives an apocryphal retelling of the founding of the Islamic religion, in which the angel Gibreel (who spoke to the prophet) is actually the fever dream of a 21st century Indian movie star, all of which may have been a ploy of the Adversary, who narrates the novel. Told in Rushdie’s oceanic [...]
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
APA Philosophy Referee Hand Sginals (above)Rumors that first Dark Matter Particle has been discoveredUS finally to settle Native American Trust LawsuitWhat Philosophers BelieveHow the iPhone could Reboot Education (which I’ve already seen with my own eyes at Pitt)Tom Waits may be up for a role in the HobbitDavid Bowie and the OccultThe Fortsas BibliohoaxThe Milky [...]
Filed in Uncategorized
|
Also tagged art, Beckett, belief, Lakota, literature, magic, monsters, movies, music, news, philosophy, politics, school, sci-fi, science, Tolkien
|
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Taking a break from working on a philosophy paper about free will to comment on this research presented in New Scientist showing that people ascribe their own beliefs to God: God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial [...]
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, listening to M.Pyres, dancing up and down over my copy of Jung’s “Red Book” [on his theories of interpretation] finally arriving, though won’t have time to dive into it for a couple weeks due to the increasing school work load. But soon. For the time being here’s some links that have been building up [...]
Filed in Uncategorized
|
Also tagged anarchy, art, atheism, drugs, Jung, literature, magic, modernity, music, news, poetry, politics, science, sex, space
|
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I haven’t written much yet publicly on the new perspective or belief system I have been attempting to formulate over this past year, a perspective that I call Ultimate Realism, which is perhaps best summed up by the quote from Patchen’s Memoirs of a Shy Pornogrpaher: “Everything which man can imagine, dream, or conceivably want [...]
Filed in Uncategorized
|
Also tagged apocalyptica, atheism, belief, Clothey, critical theory, culture, fantastic, history, imagination, literature, manifestoes, modernity, Patchen, personal narrative, philosophy, space, techniques, Ultimate Realism
|
This is an interesting look from evolutionist Erin Johnson at the adaptive role fictions play in helping humans survive (from an article on Atheism as a Stealth Religion), not just in religions’ use of gods, but in any thought or belief, that is expression as mythology: This leads to a crucial distinction between what I [...]
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
In light of the Church of Scientology being convicted of Fraud in France, the Onion offers this brilliant mock competing religion, Fictionology [via mutate!]: Fictionology’s central belief, that any imaginary construct can be incorporated into the church’s ever-growing set of official doctrines, continues to gain popularity. Believers in Santa Claus, his elves, or the Tooth [...]
