Myth as Asylum from Questioning
There is too much religious tolerance in the world today.
This may read as nonsense given the seemingly endless stream of news items in which guy from faith A attempts to kill person from faith B and recent quasi-scrutiny of the belief system birthed by that science fiction author; if so, suspend your disbelief for a [...]
Marked as: Belief Systems • Science • Societal Policies — 7 comments (RSS)
Leaving The Cult: An Interview With Therapist John Knapp
John M. Knapp, LMSW (pictured below), is a therapist who specializes in counseling those who are recovering from “cultic abuse”.
Doug: A friend of mine forwarded me your website and I’m generally very skeptical of cult experts, but I was struck by the fact that you don’t seem to be promoting the idea, popular in the [...]
Marked as: Abnormal Sociology • Belief Systems — 1 comment (RSS)
The Empty Safe
As an amateur prestidigitator, I have always had the utmost respect for well-performed stage magic. In the Art of Magic, effect is of course everything. Sleight-of-hand is a practiced and elite skill, but I am equally impressed by the genius that has devised methods of producing illusions that are staggering in effect but simple [...]
Marked as: Belief Systems • Bunco — 3 comments (RSS)
Expulsion
I didn’t recognise her voice, nor did I recognise the number on my caller ID, but she said my name with such enthusiastic familiarity that I felt compelled to match her tone. Some of my friends have proven easily insulted by my occasional failures of immediate voice recognition, and who but a friend would [...]
Marked as: Abnormal Sociology • Belief Systems • Science • Societal Policies — 21 comments (RSS)
Of Souls and State Machines
William is packing for, and in transit to, Italy this week where he’ll be doing a couple months of work on The American Memory Project with Justin Bennett. So, you’ll have just Doug and myself this cycle.
Many known belief systems in the world feature the idea of a ’soul’ — a sentient component of [...]
Marked as: Belief Systems • Introspection — 13 comments (RSS)
4 Reasons that the Afterlife is for Chumps
This discusses only some of the more common concepts of an afterlife; if you do not have a personal belief in the afterlife, or you do but it doesn’t feature your eternal continuation in a different realm, hanging out with friends and relatives, then you can safely read this article with your value system unassailed.
Marked as: Belief Systems • Introspection — 5 comments (RSS)
What’s Wrong with Stereotypes?
During the few years in which i was at Sun, i worked with several talented people. One of which, Ρ, was a very Silicon-Valley-normal, very intelligent, software developer with a great work ethic; after a while, he had taken a job across the street at Apple and as he was preparing to leave, [...]
Marked as: Belief Systems • Introspection • Societal Policies — 12 comments (RSS)
Belief and Common Reality
I was sitting with a close friend, F, and his wife, W, in a Tucson breakfast joint the other month; the discussion was hovering around figures of the Deepak Chopra flavour: how those types continue to profess insight on the workings of the universe by stringing together sexy physics words like a guru-Mad-Lib but who [...]
Marked as: Belief Systems • Introspection • Science — 8 comments (RSS)