This question presents an ambiguity that reveals at least two questions, at one and the same time. The least interesting has to do with Nietzsche’s assertion that “God is dead,”1 a bold claim that summarily denies God any future—period! Far more interesting are the entwined questions of whether God is, in an important sense, temporal… Continue reading Does God Have a Future?
Author: hyattcarter
The Greatest Inventor of All Time
West西Don’t just sit there—do something! East東Don’t just do something—sit there! Buddhism can lay claim to what may well be the longest ongoing experiment in the history of humanity. I refer to the practice developed by Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. And what was that practice? Zazen, or seated meditation.坐禪 After trying, without success, everything… Continue reading The Greatest Inventor of All Time
A Joker in Nature’s Deck of Cards?
Einstein once remarked, famously, that God does not play dice with the universe. He said this in reaction to Quantum theory which, based fundamentally on probability, robustly affirms that God does play dice with the universe and, to mix metaphors, that there might even be a Joker in nature’s deck of cards. Is the universe… Continue reading A Joker in Nature’s Deck of Cards?
Stop and Wonder
“No thinker thinks twice.”Alfred North Whitehead Here’s the quote in context: The ancient doctrine that “no one crosses the same river twice” is extended. No thinker thinks twice; and, to put the matter more generally, no subject experiences twice. Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, p. 29. If you’re still wondering about this, hold that… Continue reading Stop and Wonder
An Odyssey in Space and Time
In 1911, the French physicist Paul Langevin proposed the following thought experiment: Imagine two people: a chronologer, or timekeeper on earth, and a space traveler who departs from earth on a space craft that zips away at just under the speed of light. The space craft travels for one year and then reverses direction and… Continue reading An Odyssey in Space and Time
The Most Beautiful Formula in Mathematics
“And it was Euler1 who discovered the most beautiful formula in all mathematics: eiπ + 1 = 0 a mysterious and ineffable expression connecting the five most important numbers in the universe.”2 This formula is a special case of Euler’s famous equation: eix = cos x + i sin x To derive the special case,… Continue reading The Most Beautiful Formula in Mathematics
Zen Category Introduction
Gassho合掌 The Japanese word gassho means “to bring the palms together.” It is a form of greeting in Zen, or an expression of gratitude, with the hands joined, palm to palm, fingers pointing upward, as in prayer, and sometimes made with a bow. The Titles in this Zen Category will directly point you to essays and… Continue reading Zen Category Introduction
Goethe’s Way of Seeing: The Poetics of Perception
Norwood Russell Hanson, a philosopher of science, offers for our consideration this tantalizing thought: “There is more to seeing than meets the eye.” The truth of this was vividly brought home to me when I discovered that Goethe, the great German writer, developed a way of seeing that can be a powerful addition to everyone’s… Continue reading Goethe’s Way of Seeing: The Poetics of Perception
Chiasmus: An Introduction
“Ask not what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country.” That sentence, spoken by President John Kennedy in a famous speech, is a good example of chiasmus, a rhetorical figure that reverses the terms of the two clauses that make up a sentence, or a part of a sentence.… Continue reading Chiasmus: An Introduction