Rabbi Levi Yitzchak (1740-1810) told the town’s proud, self-proclaimed atheist: “You know, the God you don’t believe in, I don’t believe in him either.”1 It seems to me that an atheist is a person who accepts other’s definitions of God, then disbelieves that. There are many different views of who/what/how God is. Many different people …
Dear Atheists, Please don’t let others define God for you… Read More »
The Genesis 2-3 story* of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is often interpreted as a fall from grace into original sin because they ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This can also be seen as the first act of free will. The fact that …
Some folks may accuse me of being “politically correct,” and yet, I insist that how we discuss issues reveals and shapes how we perceive these issues. Case in point today: Lactose “intolerance” I’m guessing that some European-descent person came up with this label. On a Google Image Search for “lactose intolerance,” I received some diagrams …
I start a CPE Residency tomorrow. Upon reviewing my “Theology of Pastoral Care” paper from my 2015 CPE Internship, I wanted to share this passage that echos some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s view of “No Mud, No Lotus.” In one tradition from which I draw much, Buddhist psychology views the aspects of human character and …
I now understand why many people have religious experiences during a total solar eclipse. My almost-five son and I trekked up to the Tennessee/North Carolina border, camped in the Tellico River area. Plan “A” was to watch in a wonderful spot known as Whigg Meadow. After seeing the enormous crowds and multitudes of cars parked …
We never truly win without love within. A victory achieved with might or hate is a short-lived, shallow victory. Love is a vital element of our future, and seems to be in short supply in our current divisiveness. Love is not just something that happens when you are attracted to someone. When we come from a …
What does it mean to be an American? We used to think that to be an easy question, back when a more narrow group of people were defining what is means: Apple Pie, baseball and Chevrolet (all of which can trace their roots to pre-America). Our country was never just a single monolithic plain white …
William H. Foege says: “Seek serendipity. We often think of serendipity as a random good fortune, but the origin involves three princes and Serendip, the Persian name for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. A professor at Emory, Marion Creekmore was once ambassador to Sri Lanka or Serendip and the original story tells about a lost camel …
I do not exactly know what the title of this post means, but this thought occurred to me while I was studying the ideas of Spinoza tonight. Spinoza wrote of essences and modes and more complications that probably lose much in translation and post-modern framing of such issues. Spinoza was on the right track, but went wrong when he decided that there is nothing in creation worthy of awe. Anyway…
More gun control is opposed by many conservatives – the same people who often espouse market-driven solutions to problems. I say “fine.” Let’s implement a market solution to the gun problem here in the United States. . . .