August 2009
July 2009
The greatest movies ever made →
azspot:
All lists of the “greatest” movies are propaganda. They have no deeper significance. It is useless to debate them. Even more useless to quarrel with their ordering of titles: Why is this film #11 and that one only #31? The most interesting lists are those by one person: What are Scorsese’s favorites, or Herzog’s? The least interesting are those by large-scale voting, for example by IMDb...
'The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans'... →
Interesting article about the cult explosion of “The Big Lebowski.” Apparently the film did not do well amongst critics during its inchoate years, it having to size-up against the Cohen Bros. previously Academy Award winning flick, “Fargo.” Nevertheless, through the years the film has gathered quite a following, causing philosophy/film student, Eddie Chung, to create a...
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or...”
– John Adams (2nd President of the USA)
The Wonder of Evolution
“If there is as a continuum from self-reproducing molecules, such as DNA, to microbes, and an evolutionary sequence continuum from microbes to humans, why should we imagine that continuum to stop at humans? Why should there be an openended gap in the spectrum of beings?”
-Carl Sagan (The Varieties of Scientific Experience, 103).
...
God of the Gaps
“It used to be that the flowering of every plant was due to direct intervention by the Deity. Now we understand something about plant hormones and phototropism, and virtually no one imagines that God directly commands the individual flowers to bloom.”
[Here’s the kicker]:
“So as science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. It’s a big universe, of...
Qualms with Creationism
If the universe is only a few thousand years old, as radical creationists posit, then Darwinian evolution is nonsense. There simply isn’t enough time. Demonstrative geological and biological studies, however, have shown the opposite, and, I believe, they are accurate. The creationist mind-set most likely developed in order to secure Earth’s failed geocentric position in the universe....
Reality: Human Projections vs. Actual Consequences
Most of us grow up believing there is direct correspondence between ourselves, the universe and all life-forms. There is also the natural tendency to project our knowledge of the universe, our feelings, upon others. Not only is this mode of projection conventional within psychology and psychiatry, it has also extended to the natural world.
Physicists do it all the time. For instance,they relate...
Imaginary Friends →
azspot:
New psychological research suggests that loneliness can be alleviated by simply turning on your favorite TV show. In the same way that a snack can satiate hunger in lieu of a meal, it seems that watching favorite TV shows can provide the experience of belonging without a true interpersonal interaction.
For decades, psychologists have been interested in understanding how individuals...
The Room: The Best "Worst Movie" Ever Made →
We live in a strange world, where people line up to watch the Citizen Kane of awful cinema, throw popcorn at the screen in similitude of Rocky Horror, and pay gobs of cash to laugh at cheap humor. Morrison was right, people are strange. However, I am confident this film pales in comparison to Manos the Hands of Fate
Worlds without Number
“The number of external galaxies beyond the Milky Way is at least in the thousands of millions and perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of millions, each of which contains a number of stars more or less comparable to that in our own galaxy. So if you multiply out how many stars that means, it is some number—let’s see, ten to the…It’s something like one followed by...
optimisto:
jjaacckkssoonn:
” Breakfast in the...
Room for Religion in Science
For many, and I would probably venture to include myself, Darwinian evolution is not only a better naturalistic alternative than Genesis, it also affords a deeper, more satisfying spiritual experience. To be clear, the notion of the evolutionary slime-to-ape-to-man conjecture must, for the time being, remain humbly agnostic. Positive claims given on the matter at best have only broadened universal...
Nobody alive is old enough to be right. It’s barely possible. Sometimes, and I mean most of the time, we should work at being kind rather than being right.
Thoughts on Religion
All religions are tantamount: equally true and equally false. The truth of religious belief is predicated upon its use. You can use it in the service of self-aggrandizement, or you can use it in the service of the Truth. If you believe your religion owns a patent on truth, you are using it in the service of self-aggrandizement. Used as such, religion becomes ideology, gives an effervescent sense...
“On a collective level, the mind-set “We are right and they are...”
– Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth)
WatchTrevor, my ridiculously adroit brother, came home today. He had been serving a mission in Japan for the last 2 years. I’m very happy to see him again.
