March 2012
Watching Sad Movies Actually Makes You Happier →
From bawling your eyes out over Bambi as a kid, to the slow, painful tug of the heart strings that was Beginners, most of us are suckers for a sad film. But a new study suggests that the reason for that might be incredibly simple: It turns out that sad films make us happy.
Previous psychological research has linked sadness with increased thoughtfulness. What’s happening with sad movies, say...
WatchThe Power of Introverts
Can religion tell us more than science? →
Art and poetry aren’t about establishing facts. Even science isn’t the attempt to frame true beliefs that it’s commonly supposed to be. Scientific inquiry is the best method we have for finding out how the world works, and we know a lot more today than we did in the past. That doesn’t mean we have to believe the latest scientific consensus. If we know anything, it’s that our current theories...
Disappointed Rationalists
“What existentialists say about the structure of human existence is existentially relevant only if we choose to see it in relation to our own life, incorporate it into our life, and become involved in an intensely personal act of self-transformation as a consequence of it. Only then can we ‘know’ the subject matter of existentialism. Such ‘knowledge’ or self-awareness...
The Perfect Me
Often, it is the case, when feeling terribly sad and dissatisfied, I get this counter feeling that tells me to build against the enemy’s unbuilding. Building something, anything, always makes me feel better. Makes me feel temporarily in control of the chaos. It’s what theologians refer to as creation ex materia, or building preexistent material in transcendent ways. What is this building? Perhaps...
“Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, religion no longer offers an...”
– Christopher Hitchens (via fuckyeahsexyatheists)
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Yes, because we all know the most important things in life can be examined under a microscope you quasi-free-thinking, petty excuse for a...
Man In The Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your father or mother or wife,
Who judgment upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one starring back from the glass.
He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the...
More Pi
Max’s preoccupation with things was, as a friend of mine pointed out, “preventing the breakthrough he was searching for.” Intellectuals struggle most with their preoccupations, their ideas. They’re so in tune that they become out of tune by being so close. Breakthroughs require homework, yes, and often a great deal of intensity, but they also require us detaching ourselves from our method...
