Religion
-
On perspective.
If we didn’t believe that the passage of time allows us to make a better world, then why would we try?
Book of Shem, Christianity, climate change, climate destabilization, club-winged manakins, cycles of time, cyclical time, David Kishik, death, direction of time, entropy, ents, evolution, evolutionary pressure, extinction, fall of man, global warming, good stewards of the Earth, hebrew, Hinduism, human evolution, improvement, Judaism, male nipples, manakins, mythology, optimism, originalism, perspective, progress, religion, Sapiens, the myth of progress, time, time’s arrow, tree communication, tree people, treents, trees, why do men have nipples, why does time move forward, Yuval Noah Harari
-
On the value of religious misinterpretation.
We’re liable to misinterpret old stories when we look at them with modern eyes … but it’s worth knowing what myths might mean in a better world.
Abraham, anachronism, anachronistic crtique, Ants Among Elephants, Bible, can God save us, caste, caste system, Christ, Christian theology, colonialism, conquest, covenant, creation in Genesis, dalit, David Kishik, DK, Dravidar Kazhagam, forgiveness, forgiving god, Genesis, God, God saw that it was good, God’s insecurity, Goldman, grammar, hebrew, Hinduism, human sacrifice, human sacrifice for good harvest, imperialism, incarceration, incarceration crisis, incarceration in the U.S., incarceration in the United States, jail, Jesus, Jesus’s sacrifice, Job, John-Michael Bloomquist, mass incarceration, merciful god, mercy, Noah, Old Testament, oppression, poetry, poetry in jail, rainbow, Rama, Rama threatening ocean, Ravana, Ravana worship, religion, Rudyard Kipling, sacrifice, sacrifice of Jesus, suffering, Sujatha Gidla, Tamil, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, textual analysis, The Book of Shem, The Flood, The Iliad, The Prodigal’s Return, theology, Translation, untouchable, why did Christ have to die, why did Jesus suffer, why does Rama threaten the ocean, why is God jealous, Yahweh
-
On resurrection.
We are unlikely to live again … but religions themselves get resurrected all the time. As you might expect, the religions that rise from the grave sometimes come back as shambling monstrosities.
Achilles, ancient European myths, Anthony Appiah, Asatru, astrophysics, Birka warrior, Boltzmann brain, Celtic mythology, Celtic religion, Christianity, Daoism, druid, druids, female viking, female viking warrior, female warrior, forgotten faiths, Greek mythology, Ian Johnson, Icelandic poetry, In Search of the True Dao, life after death, lost faiths, Louis Komjathy, milk, mythology, neopaganism, New York Review, Norse mythology, Odin, Odin’s gift, odinism, Odinist revival, Odysseus in the underworld, pagan, pagan revival, paganism, physics, poetry, prejudice, pseudoscience, rebirth, rediscovering lost faiths, rediscovering lost religions, rediscovering Norse faiths, reincarnation, resurrection, Roman propaganda, Sexism, space dust, The Lies that Bind, The Odyssey, the old beliefs, Viking myths, Viking religion, viking revival, viking warrior women, viking women, white supremacists, white supremacy, Wicca, witchcraft, world mythology, world religions
-
On parenting and short-term memory loss.
Caring for young children wrecks havoc on your brain. I’ve heard it’s temporary. And, to make a better world, more men need to do it.
Abdel Haleem, Abrahamic faiths, Anthropology of Childhood, attention span, banishment, banishment of Sita, Beverly Strassmann, childhood, Christian, Christianity, contract law, David Lancy, developing brains, Dogon, Dorothy Dinnerstein, Draupadi, Draupadi in the gambling hall, early development, Emily Wilson, emotional development, family, fatherhood, feminism, feminist, gambling, Garry Wills, gender equality, gender parity, gossip, inequality, Islam, Jewish, Judaism, Mahabharata, Mary Beard, memory, Mermaid and the Minotaur, misogyny, Muslim, parenting, patriarchy, Penelope, philosophy, polygamy, polygyny, preschool development, Quran, shirking responsibility, Sita, Telemachus, The Odyssey, value, what matters in life, What the Qur’an Meant, What the Quran Meant and Why It Matters, who should parent, Women and Power, women’s work
-
On radical religious terrorists targeting the United States.
Radical Christian terrorists have wrecked egregious violence throughout the United States, but few politicians speak out against them.
abortion, Abraham, Alta Vista Hospital, Aryan, attacking doctors, attempted murder, Bible, born into hostage situation, Camus, Christian apologist, Christian Identity, Christian terrorism, conception, Curtis, Danny Davis, Deliver Them from Evil, faith, Fear and Trembling, fetus, Gods of the Blood, gun violence, gynecology, homocide, hostage, hostage situation, intimidation, Israel, jail, Job, Kierkegaard, King James, knight of infinite resignation, leap of faith, Matthias Gardell, McDonalds, Michael Griffin, miscarriage, miscegenation, Mix My Blood with the Blood of the Unborn, Paul Hill, Phineas, Phineas actions, reproductive health, reproductive rights, Richard Kelly Hoskins, self-aborting zygotes, Shelly Shannon, shootings, suicide, terrorism, terrorist, The Pagan Revival and White Separatism, The Phinehas Priesthood, tubal ligation, Utah, violence against doctors, violent vanguard of the Christian Identity movement, when does human life begin, white supremacy, women’s reproductive health, women’s right to choose, zygote
-
On prayer, diversity among deities, and ADHD.
Throughout the ages, humans have worshiped a wide variety of gods — tricksters, schemers, bullies, lovers — and could celebrate those same traits in themselves.
ADD, ADHD, Arturo Perez-Reverte, Atrahasis, attention deficit, Babylon, Bible, Christianity, computer games, deity, Enuma Elish, First Coming, flood, Gilgamesh, God, gods, Hebrews, history of religion, imaginary video games, intelligence, Jerusalem, Kings, Loki, Marduk, Maui, mythology, myths, Nebuchadnezzer, neurodiversity, Norse, Norse mythology, Octodad, Old Testament, ontological argument, origin of the cosmos, origin stories, pantheon, prayer, psalms, Rampage, real-time strategy, religion, Rick Riordan, Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, Starcraft, Stephen Greenblat, The Club Dumas, The Lightning Thief, Tower of Babel, trickster gods, vengeance, Warcraft, worship, Yahweh, YHWH, Zedekiah, Zion
-
On storytelling.
Our myths engulf each other… but some stray remnants live on.
amoeba, animal life, Avigdor Shinan, Baal, Babylonian myths, Bible, biology, cellular biology, Christianity, dragons in bible, Eden, evolution, From Gods to God, Genesis, great whales, Jesus, King James, Marduk, mitochondria, morality, myth, mythology, narrative, Old Testament, origin of Bible, origin stories, paradise, polemic, Quran, reframing, religion, Religion in Human Evolution, Robert Bellah, science, sea dragons, sea monsters, storytelling, teleological misconception, Tiamat, Tower of Babel, Umberto Cassuto, Valerie Zakovitch, Yahweh, Yair Zakovitch
-
On silenced voices.
Today’s mystery is, when is a mystery novel not marketed to readers of mystery novels?
black history, Candravati Ramayana, Dravida Kazhagam, Dravida Kazhagam interpretation of the Ramayana, erasure, free will, history is written by the victors, James Meredith, my own fragmentary education, mystery novel, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Nat Turner, Parul Sehgal, Percival Everett, prejudice, racial protests at elite universities, Ravana worship, Rudolph Fisher, Satan worship, shelving all black authors under African American Studies, silenced texts, silenced voices, The Conjure-Man Dies, The Iliad, the invention of race, University of Mississippi, yale protests
Frank Brown Cloud 