Batman and Superman matter, because the tales of the superheroes are our modern myths. By “superheroes” here I mean not just the DC and Marvel pantheons, but all the larger-than-life heroes of popular speculative fiction: Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, Frodo and Sam, Kirk and Spock. These stories are to a modern American what the tales of Heracles and Jason and Apollo were to a citizen of ancient Athens. Read more
A golden apple is no trinket. You don't just pop over to the produce aisle of your local supermarket and pick one up. Retrieving a golden apple was the penultimate labor of Heracles, and it was not a trivial task. But we're asked to believe that Eris repeated one of the greatest feats of Heracles in order to pull off a prank? I don't think so. Read more
Confused progressives have been celebrating the shutdown of the Trump rally as a victory. But it was neither a moral victory nor a tactical one. If anything, it put Donald Trump closer to the White House. Read more
What's remarkable is that the collision happened because, in effect, we were operating under different sets of coordinates. I oriented my partner and myself relative to that crazy wall AB, while the other pair oriented themselves to the square portion of the room. And neither of these is more or less correct than the other. Read more
It's a funny thing about those inner voices. Many voices together make an incomprehensible noise. It's only when things become relatively more quiet, when only one at a time is talking, that we can clearly make out what's being said. Read more
But, gee, Patheos, since you asked for more politics...well. I feel a little clickbaity here, but let's start with that idea you're basing this on: that American politics consists of two and only two constituencies. Read more
Kameyama asked several priests to exorcise the ghosts, and they came and did all sorts of elaborate and involved and powerful rituals to break the ghosts' power. But they all failed. Finally he invited Fumon, a priest of the relatively new Zen sect of Buddhism, to take a crack at it. Rather than raising a fuss to dispel the haunting, Fumon and his disciples sat in silent meditation. The ghosts disappeared. Read more
If you find the bullet spiritually horrifying but are perfectly comfortable with the blade or the bow appearing in ritual, I have to ask you to consider carefully the origins of that attitude and whether it is consistent with the actual nature of these items, or whether you've been caught up in a distorting social construct. Read more
that you exist is proof that the universe loves you it brought you into being against the odds Read more
But I can never be sure. This routine bit of business becomes a topic of doubt. It reminds me of how contingent and fragile our picture of the world -- and of our selves -- is. It reminds me of how many fundamental assumptions we make to get through the day. Read more
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