by SNS Guest (Article is by Edward Kelly Jr. For brief bio, see below.) In my first Pastorate in a small rural church in Northeast Iowa as a Fundamentalist Pentecostal, a woman came into the church office and wanted to schedule a wedding. She explained that she had been living with a man for eight years, had several children and he had finally agreed to marry her. Without any hesitation or conversation, I gave her my answer based on my theological... Read more
by Brock Haussamen She lived about 150,000 years ago in southern Africa. Today she is known as Mitochondrial Eve. The “Eve” part is a little misleading since unlike the Biblical Eve, Mitochondrial Eve wasn’t the first or only woman alive at the time, and there were also plenty of men around. Still, Mitochondrial Eve was an actual person to whom every human today, male as well as female, can be traced back on his or her mother’s side—from mother to... Read more
by Thomas Schenk I have been re-reading the book Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki, a book I first read while still in high school. This was my introduction to Zen and got me interested in meditation. It is a venerable old book and Suzuki, more than any other writer, introduced the West to Zen. There have been a flood of books on the topic sense, but this one is still a good overall introduction. Nearly any book that presents the... Read more
by Daniel Scharpenburg “Waves roughen the sea and windmill turn because of the wind. Take away the wind and the sea becomes calm and the windmills come to rest. For every effect there is a cause. The waves of desire for things in the material world churn our minds, keep up in a constant state of agitation, scrambling in all directions. What do you think could happen if we eliminate desire?” – Master Silly Mountain Our various struggles can really get us down sometimes. Life is... Read more
by SNS Guest (Today’s article is by guest writer Jon Cleland. There is a short bio below.) I’ll not deny that one could be both a naturalist and postmodernist, but that’s a bit trivial, because we are talking about humans, who can compartmentalize practically anything. For instance, my mom was active in the Right to Life anti-healthcare movement, as well as being a supporter of Planned Parenthood. The question is whether or not naturalism and postmodernism are contradictory. This is of course... Read more
by Thomas Schenk What is real? It is common sense to distinguish the real from the imaginary – real tigers can maul us, imaginary tigers cannot. For humans of all time and place, differentiating the real from the imaginary has been important for survival. Our notion of progress includes the idea of our becoming better at distinguishing the real from the unreal. Modern science is valued as the method that helps us do this. Looked at in this way, the mythologies... Read more
By Eric Steinhart Does magic work? I mean: does it work objectively, not merely psychologically. If you cast a spell for some goal (like health, or love, or money), does casting the spell change the physical universe outside of your body in some way that you intend? Before trying to answer that question, we might want to draw some distinctions. Consider treatments for diseases. Before regulatory bodies (like the FDA) approve a treatment, it has to demonstrate safety and effectiveness.... Read more
by Dennis Oliver Buddha instructing his disciples. Preface: Although the following remarks are limited to explicit Buddhist content, they are meant to turn readers to their own framework of thought. I trust that none of us are so narrow minded as to ignore the helpful insights which can be found in other faiths. My experiential acquaintance with Christianity leads me to welcome Jesus’ perspectives and parables as “wise and skilful words” to inform my behaviour and my thought – even though... Read more
by Jeff Worthy I am continually amazed how truly timeless literature can appeal to us in different phases of our lives; a given work remains the same, but it resonates differently with us as we grow and evolve, and we see new lessons and gain new understandings from it as our own lives transform. On such work that has influenced me in such a way is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” a narrative poem written in 1842 that tells... Read more
by Jeff Worthy Recently, a specific line from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (the film script, actually) has been resonating through my skull: “Do you know how few vampires have the stamina for immortality? How quickly they perish of their own will? The world changes. We do not. Therein lies the irony that finally kills us. I need you to make contact with this age.” That was the 500 year old vampire Armand, speaking to Louis, the novel’s title character. Now, I’m no... Read more
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