Author: hyattcarter

There was a time, not so long ago, when it was almost universally believed that the myriad species of the animal and vegetable kingdoms were created in the beginning and were thereafter permanently fixed once and for all. Today it is commonplace that even the prototypical individuals of the mineral kingdom enjoyed some measure of… Continue reading The Subject Is a Verb!

James Joyce’s masterwork Ulysses has been called a book of many happy returns and I’ve been returning to happily savor its pages for more than fifty years. My appreciation of the works of the great Irish writer was enhanced by the good fortune of attending the University of Tulsa, a center for Joyce studies. While… Continue reading Laughing Out Loud with James Joyce and Tom Staley

　Curves of Thought It seems natural, and valid, to assume that there are twice as many whole numbers as even numbers. But, as the following table clearly shows, there is a unique one-to-one correspondence between the two sets of numbers. Ergo . . . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 .… Continue reading Laughing Out Loud with Mathematics

Over his long and productive life of 103 years, Charles Hartshorne wrote more than twenty masterful books and . . . published a new book in his hundredth year! How can you possibly top that? One way would be to publish a new book posthumously, and Hartshorne (with a little help) has done just that… Continue reading Laughing Out Loud With Hartshorne

In 1939 William Sutherland, a practicing Doctor of Osteopathy, announced his discovery that the structures of the central nervous system, like the heart or like the way we breathe, expand and contract in rhythmic motion. He called it “primary respiration” and claimed that the proper functioning of this pulsation was essential to life and health.… Continue reading The Deepest Rhythms in Your Body

Evolutionary theology, a new post-Darwinian way of thinking about God, proposes two ideas: first, God does not create all at once, or once and for all. God creates through a process that meanders over vast stretches of time: by evolution. And, second, rather than creating directly by divine fiat, God co-creates through persuasion or evocation—by… Continue reading God Makes Makers

Did you ever stop and wonder why you have two nostrils instead of one? Science has long been aware of a nasal “dominance” that alternates back and forth between the right and the left nostrils. An increase, for example, of blood circulation to the right nostril causes a tumescence, or swelling, of internal structures in… Continue reading It’s Open and Close, Right Under Your Nose

Process thought talks about “the presence of the past” and scientist Rupert Sheldrake has written a book with that title. In William Faulkner’s novel, Requiem for a Nun, Gavin Stevens says: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In light of this, imagine my wonder at a word that, out of the blue, fluttered… Continue reading Jetzterday

One day in the summer of 1965 I was having coffee with three friends at the Three Cities of Spain restaurant on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. The conversation turned to art, and then to the artist Georgia O’Keeffe who, we knew, lived up near Abiquiu on Ghost Ranch. One of us, I don’t remember… Continue reading My Visit with Georgia O’Keeffe

In David Griffin’s book, God Exists but Gawd Does Not, the seventh chapter is called “Mathematics.” It’s the longest chapter in the book, and over its 40 pages Griffin presents his case that the reality and efficacy of mathematics provide a strong argument for the existence of God. He begins by defending Platonic realism that… Continue reading Can Mathematics Prove the Existence of God?