religion

  • Adrift in the Ether with AI: Reasoning is Relating

    Our relation to AI may be less about aligning its outputs to “human values” and more about guarding our own capacity for critical examination. This involves relational reflections that forestall premature closure for instrumental certainty. But more fundamentally, prolonged interaction… Continue reading

    Adrift in the Ether with AI: Reasoning is Relating
  • Responsive to skillful attention

    The concept of discernment is vital for cultivating awareness, as it involves skillfully distinguishing experiences without over-determining or under-determining. This harmonizes extremes to avoid the fall into nihilism and eternalism. Simultaneously, it reawakens the empty yet interconnected nature of all… Continue reading

    Responsive to skillful attention
  • Decluttering Awareness: Nagarjuna and Emptiness

    Nāgārjuna’s thinkering dives into emptiness to abandon how we cling to rigid views, which just messes with our understanding of reality. He shows that everything arises through dependence and encourages us to let go of fixed beliefs, which can lead… Continue reading

    Decluttering Awareness: Nagarjuna and Emptiness
  • Whispering New Directions

    The text explores the concept of the practical spirit, emphasizing three modes: contemplative, scientific, and operative. It critiques the dominance of operationalism in modern society, linking it to systemic dehumanization. I advocatesfor “transistance” to navigate beyond established orientations and connect… Continue reading

    Whispering New Directions
  • The Limits of Jaspersian Patience

    Philosophical faith and dialogue might seem hopelessly inadequate. “Playing the long game” can also feel inadequate when people are being threatened, disappeared, or killed.  Here I attempt to outline why Jaspers was no fool about this. Continue reading

    The Limits of Jaspersian Patience
  • Heresy in the Guise of Tradition: A Queer Prodigal Son Reflects on MAGA Traditionalism

    Pope Leo XIV’s election signifies a pivotal moment in the Church, yet reactionary American Catholics criticize him as insufficiently traditional. They embody a heresy that distorts Gospel values, prioritizing power over compassion. This discourse urges a return to true Catholic… Continue reading

    Heresy in the Guise of Tradition: A Queer Prodigal Son Reflects on MAGA Traditionalism
  • What Would Malcolm X Say About Gaza and Black Resistance in the US Today? | Truthout

    Sawyer discusses how Malcolm X’s political theory helps us understand the connection between Gazans and African Americans. Continue reading

    What Would Malcolm X Say About Gaza and Black Resistance in the US Today? | Truthout
  • AnarchoCynic Praxis, Faith and Sacred Tradition

    What makes our praxis specifically AnarchoCynic  concerns how we take on none of the authority to be gained from established hierarchies, seek to take no privileged position for ourselves, and specifically engage folks about the customs that hold most currency in our… Continue reading

  • Ultimate Concern

    For our Thursday class, we began by everyone sitting in a circle on the floor. We stretched out our legs so that our feet touched each other completing the circle. Then we went around the circle and each named a… Continue reading

    Ultimate Concern
  • Explanations of religion

    Below my lecture from 13 July 2016. Before I addressed the students, we had more discussion on what we take for granted in the everyday world, and then we shared a few things we take for granted about religion. Our questions… Continue reading

    Explanations of religion
  • Taking things for granted

    Lecture from Sacred Living Traditions. Following a class exercise asking “What is a chair?”,  we had small group discussions on “What is religion?” The basic work was to think through what we take for granted, how we do not ask… Continue reading

    Taking things for granted
  • Your Own Historical Jesus

    Who was the historical Jesus of Nazareth? What did he actually say and do, as contrasted with what early Christians (e.g., Paul and the Gospel writers) believed that he said and did? What did the man Jesus actually think of… Continue reading

    Your Own Historical Jesus
  • Man Bites Dogma – A RAW Conversation

    He’s been called a cult figure to various lunatic fringe groups, Tom Robbins calls him “a dazzling barker hawking tickets to the most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway of higher consciousness,” he calls himself an iconoclastic comedian,… Continue reading

  • Callicott to receive life-time achievement award

    Wonderful news concerning my teacher, colleague, and friend J. Baird Callicott. I am very proud to report that the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture announced that they are awarding J. Baird Callicott their first Lifetime… Continue reading

    Callicott to receive life-time achievement award
  • Saint Stephen The Ironist « The Dish

    Some good points from Sullivan on Colbert as an example of what happens when one is capable of intelligence and irony while being a person of faith. If I were to sum up the various forms of popular culture that… Continue reading

    Saint Stephen The Ironist « The Dish
  • Interview with Pope Francis I

    I am not going to go back into the flock of the Catholic Church anytime soon. I know that. However, Pope Francis does continue to intrigue me. Who Is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?I am a sinner. This is the most accurate… Continue reading

    Interview with Pope Francis I
  • Daodejing 71

    #71* To know your ignorance is most upright. [1] Not knowing but pretending to know is illness. [2] Just consider shortcomings only as shortcomings: thus, no shortcomings. The Sage has no shortcomings because he considers shortcomings as shortcomings: hence, no shortcomings. *Translation… Continue reading

    Daodejing 71
  • Fox News Host Never Asked Baptist College Professor Why He Wrote Book About Islam

    Following up on the earlier post where Lauren Green at Fox made a thorough fool of herself… While host Lauren Green, the main religion correspondent for Fox News, spent the interview asking Aslan about his Muslim faith, Green never asked… Continue reading

    Fox News Host Never Asked Baptist College Professor Why He Wrote Book About Islam