by Leigh Anderson Photo by Joyful on Unsplash I have been journaling on and off for over thirty years. There are times when I’m in the habit of not only journaling daily but writing multiple pages at a time. There are also months that I go without writing anything, when its hard to write even a paragraph during the day. Much of my journaling has been a record of events that happened. Occasionally I will throw in some feelings and... Read more
by DT Strain You walk into a coffee shop and approach the counter. The barista carries a large lizard on his shoulder. The lizard looks at you and asks what you’d like. You order a coffee and pay. Next you are seated with your coffee and notice it is a latte. You curse the lizard for his carelessness. Then you wake up. Recalling the dream it is amusing that you simply accepted the presence of the talking lizard as though it... Read more
by Thomas Schenk I’ve long been interested in alchemy. According to several sources, alchemy was practiced in some form from at least a few hundred BCE until around the time of Isaac Newton, who had more than a passing interest in it. It was practiced in ancient Egypt, China, India, Arabia, and Europe. The thing that people are most likely to know about the subject is that alchemists tried to turn “base” metals, such as lead, into gold. But just about... Read more
by SNS Guest (Today’s article is by guest writer Kai Whiting. For brief bio, see below.) The ancient Stoics would not have recognised the modern distinction between religious thought and scientific inquiry. This is because the Stoic God, as the very essence of Nature, was envisioned and arrived at through a naturalistic and rational framework that, apart from forming the basis of Stoic virtue ethics, provided practitioners with the rationale to study the natural world and the wider cosmos, including... Read more
by SNS Guest (Article is by guest writer Rob Wheeler. See bio below.) All religion is fiction I begin from the simple but not uncontentious premise that all religion is fiction. I want to make the strong claim that no religion contains any historical or metaphysical foundation. Religions are fictions all the way down. I don’t intend to argue the case for treating religion as fiction, rather, my task is to examine why we might regard religions as continuing to have... Read more
by Dennis Oliver The Perfect Storm (from the Film directed by Wolfgang Petersen) I remember as a boy reading Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring (published in 1962), with its warning that pesticides were harming the environment and wildlife, particularly birds. This is just one of the chickens, turned grim reaper, now coming home to roost. Today we realise the crisis is much deeper and broader. It seems possible that the twenty-first century will witness the end of a habitable world. It seems that the very... Read more
by Gregory Gronbacher It’s That Time of Year Again The winter holidays are upon us once again. Twinkling lights, decorated trees, candle lighting, gift giving — all the usual trimmings for this time of year. And while it’s hard to resist the charm of all this, many naturalists still approach the holiday season with a mild sense of ambiguity. Christmas is lovely, if not over-commercialized, but for naturalists, it’s not about virgin births. Hanukkah is also beautiful, but it too is... Read more
by Jeff Worthy Anaphylaxis [an-uh-fuh-lak-sis], noun. Pathology: An exaggerated allergic reaction t0 foreign protein resulting from previous exposure to it. That sounds relatively benign, doesn’t it? Trust me, Dictionary.com fails to capture the visceral terror that parents feels when forced to watch their child enter the full cascade of anaphylactic shock, not to mention the fear that must course through that child, who knows he or she is fighting to survive. Many people have experienced some form of allergic response in their lives, and most... Read more
by Daniel Shkolnik I was recently asked, “When people say they are “spiritual,” what do they mean?” I thought it was a brilliant question — one that spiritual seekers themselves often don’t stop to ask. While there are countless practices, beliefs, traditions that fit comfortably under the heading “spirituality,” I think there’s a simple answer to this question that unites them. In short, I believe that to be spiritual is to seek connection with spirit: the soul, or “essence,” of reality. Here it’s... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In several articles for SNS, I have written on cultivating our inner resources and how this can enrich our life. In particular, I have emphasized the cultivation of various forms of mindfulness, such as meditation and contemplation. We live in an externally directed culture that provides few examples of people who have attained contentment through the cultivation of inner resources. We are more likely to find such examples in the Far East or medieval monasteries. If Western culture... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In