religion
-
By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.
By building confidence, we become better able to choose nonviolence, since we’ll be that much more likely to feel safe.
Abdelfattah Kilito, aggression in animals, ahimsa, baboons, Babylonian mythology, Bible, biology, black belt test, black best essay, broadcast song, caretaking, Daddy Wake Up, death gods, Determined, divine aggression, dominance, dominance hierarchy, Dr. Strangelove, elephant seals, game theory, Gilgamesh, God, history, incarceration, jail poetry, John von Neumann, Joshua Rathkamp, Karate, kihap, Kilito, Korean mythology, linguistics, martial arts, mythology, nonviolence, observational biology, Origin Myth of the House God, peace, Popol Vuh, psychology, Ramayana, religion, Robert Sapolsky, Single Father, soft song, sparrow territory, sparrows, Taekwondo, tamarins, teaching in jail, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tongue of Adam, Tower of Babel, Travis Combs, Vishnu, Whorf hypothesis, Xibalban, Yahweh, YHWH
-
On ‘Babel,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ and violence.
Violence begets violence; to create a better world, we must act as though it could possibly exist.
Abel's sacrifice, Abraham, An Arcane History, authority figure, Babel, Bible, binding of Isaac, blessing, Cain and Abel, Cain's sacrifice, capitalism, curse, disease resistance, disruption, diversity of languages, Edenic language, electrical shock, Everything Everywhere All at Once, fantasy, fear, film critique, film review, folktales, Genesis 22, Genesis 4, germs, great floods, gun violence, guns, Guns Germs and Steel, Ham, hierarchy, hubris, human migration, immunology, inequality, language, leap of faith, love, Michael Bazzett, Milgram Experiment, Milgram shock experiment, Milgram test, multiverse, myths, Noah, Noah's curse, obedience, Old Testament, origin of Bible stories, origin of inequality, origin of languages, parallel worlds, quantum mechanics, R. F. Kuang, Rebecca Kuang, religion, slavery, spoken word, Stanley Milgram, Steel, The Matrix, The Necessity of Violence, The Popul Vuh, Tower of Babel, Translation, why did humans build the Tower of Babel, Yahweh
-
On Stonehenge.
After the winter solstice, we celebrate the birth of a rising sun.
-
On explaining religion to my child, part two.
In which our little ones just barely avoid making a scene in church …
-
On sexuality and freedom of choice.
If men were more helpful, we might not need to intimidate women with ghost stories.
-
On meditation.
Meditating seems like it’s just blinking for more time … but more is different.
attentiveness, blink, Bob Roth, Buddha meditating, comparative mythology, comparative religion, focus, hallucinate, hallucination, history of religion, how to do mantra meditation, how to meditate, isolation, Jesus meditating, learning to meditate, long blink, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, mantra meditation, meditate, meditation, meditation guide, mental health, mental quiet, meth, methamphetamine, methamphetamines, Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, mindfulness, mindfulness training, more is different, neopaganism, Odin meditating, origin of religion, pagan meditation, paganism, Pages to Prisoners, psychedelic, psychedelic meditation, religion, religions that meditate, Richard Feynman, sensory deprivation, sensory deprivation chamber, sensory deprivation tank, sleep, sleep deprivation, spiritual meditation, spirituality, stillness, Strength in Stillness, transcendental meditation, why meditate, why we sleep
-
On the evolution of skin color.
Over thousands of years, our ancestors evolved. Epidermal melanin protects us from the sun. Seems reasonable. But contemporary racism throws a wrench in the discussion.
African ancestry, ancestry, Asatru, biology of human evolution, books to prisoners, brain evolution, chance in evolution, chance in human evolution, Denisovan, Denisovans, diet in human evolution, domestication, edda, epidermal melanin, evolution, evolution of agriculture, evolution of brain size, evolution of epidermal melanin, evolution of great apes, evolution of human brain, evolution of human intelligence, evolution of intelligence, evolution of skin color, evolutionary advantage, evolutionary pressure, examples of evolution, explanation of human evolution, farming, folate hypothesis, history of human migration, history of human race, Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens evolution, how long does evolution take, Human ancestry, human body plan, human evolution, human migration, human race, human species, humanity, Icelandic, Icelandic mythology, Icelandic poetry, impact of agriculture on human evolution, incarceration, jail, latitude and skin color, learning, mass incarceration, melanin, Midwest Pages to Prisoners, Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, migration, migration and evolution, mythology, Neanderthal, Neanderthals, neo-paganism, neopagan, neopaganism, neural plasticity, Norse mythology, Northern European ancestry, Northern European evolution, Odin, odinism, outdoor rec, paganism, Pages to Prisoners, pre-christian religion, prehistory of agriculture, prison, prison education, race, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, racial injustice, racism, racist police enforcement, racist policing, random factors in evolution, religion, skin color, skin color evolution, starfish evolution, stickleback evolution, sunlight, teaching evolution, The Edda, The Poetic Edda, The Prose Edda, UV damage, Viking myths, Viking religion, what does melanin do?, what does skin color do, white supremacists, white supremacy, why do people have different skin color, why skin color
-
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 explaining religion to my child, part one.
Humans have told so many stories about sky ghosts, but don’t worry, kiddoe … ghosts are pretend!
Abrahamic faiths, atheism, atheist, Buddha, Buddhism, children, Christ, Christmas, cobra, death, deities, Eden, Enkidu, explaining Christmas to atheist children, explaining Christmas to atheist kids, explaining Christmas to kids, explaining god to kids, explaining holidays to children, explaining religion to kids, expulsion from Eden, fatherhood, forgiving god, Genesis, ghost stories, ghosts, ghosts are pretend, Gilgamesh, good without god, holidays, immortality, In a Dark Dark Room, jealous gods, Jesus, John-Michael Bloomquist, Loki, Magic Penny, Malvina Reynolds, Midgard Serpent, misogyny in world religions, Moana, Mucalinda, mythology, naga, nap, naptime, Old Testament, parenting, penance, Quran, Ragnarok, religion, religions, sacrifice, secular children, secular kids, secular parenting, sharing, Siddhartha, sky ghosts, snake, snake myths, snake stories, snakes in mythology, snakes in religion, spirituality, stories about death, stories about god, stories about snakes, teaching children about religion, teaching kids about religion, telling children about god, telling kids about god, The Prodigal’s Lament, Thor, to live forever, toddlers, trickster gods, world mythology, Yahweh
Frank Brown Cloud 