Today is the first day of autumn. For those who love autumn as I do, it was wonderful to experience three perfect early autumn days at the end of last week even though it was still summer. But there is an underlying truth to autumn that many find disturbing. While spring promises new beginnings—as they say, hope “springs” eternal (couldn’t help myself)—autumn is about things winding down and ending. Aristotle tells us that “generation and corruption” is the defining process... Read more
The first reading assignment in my General Ethics class this semester was Kate Jennings’ 2002 novel Moral Hazard. I have used it several times in class over the years because it throws the reader headlong into a multitude of moral quandaries and difficulties ranging from sacrificing one’s moral values in order to make money to euthanasia. Cath, the narrator of the novel (and clearly autobiographical in many regards) is happily married to Bailey, a man twenty years her senior who,... Read more
One of my greatest joys as a philosophy professor is that I get to be bad on a regular basis. There were a number of people about whom I was told little growing up, other than that they are dangerous and to be avoided like the plague. I work out my rebellion against these restrictions now by ensuring that these thinkers make as many appearances on my syllabi as professional integrity will allow. So I teach Darwin with gusto in... Read more
I asked my Facebook friends at the beginning of the summer to list three or four books that changed their lives. Not necessarily books that belong in the Great Books curriculum, but books that came just at the right time and spoke to them in a particular and memorable way. I’ve written about two of mine over the past couple of months–here’s another one. A year from now, I will be on sabbatical for the Fall 2023 semester (the fourth,... Read more
An evangelical Christian and an atheist got into an argument recently on this blog’s Facebook page that, before long, was about as civil and intelligent as your typical argument between a Trump-loving conservative and a progressive liberal. I appreciated that at least they directed their ire at each other instead of at me. I have been a person of faith, sometimes reluctantly, for my whole life—the very existence of this blog is due to my continuing commitment to grappling with... Read more
Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-one years ago today when they heard the news. I was in my college’s main cafeteria getting coffee and noticed something weird happening on the Today Show broadcast on a television hanging from the ceiling in the corner. At that point all they knew was that one of the Twin Towers was on fire, apparently because an airplane had crashed into it. I had scheduled office hours that... Read more
In an interview with CNN a few years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said something that sounded familiar to me. “True believers are among the meanest people I’ve ever met,” she says, stretching out her legs in a cozy living room filled with books on poetry, religious icons and a photo of her posing with Oprah. “I cannot think of anybody of another faith who has wounded me like Christians,” she says. “Judged, condemned to hell, cast out of the body... Read more
There are a couple of sayings attributed to Jesus that Christians often use when attempting to show that following Jesus and a commitment to capitalism are compatible with each other–I’ve encountered each of them recently. In a Facebook thread, a person noted that since Jesus said that “God helps those who helps themselves,” clearly he would endorse the capitalist work ethic of competition and self-promotion. Then on Twitter someone quoted Jesus as saying that “If you don’t work, you don’t... Read more
Guess what? I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. Bruce Dickinson Regular readers of this blog know that I very seldom make it through any post without referring to something from the Bible. This is partially because I know the book well; extensive study and memorization of scripture beginning at an early age was a required part of the religious world I was raised in. More often than not, I use the Bible as a tool to... Read more
I wrote this essay while I was on retreat in early July but, for reasons that will become clear by the end, chose not to post it here until now. Except for those who deliberately and religiously stay disconnected from current events and those who live under a rock, everyone in this country knows that the United States Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in June, thus overruling fifty years of precedent and abolishing the right to... Read more
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