A feeling is a real feeling, be it awe, fear, love, or lust. It may or may not coincide with other real things. There is no need to disdain art for rationality; philosophy I'm not too sure about; theology is the most useless excercise ever invented by humankind. When it comes to practical decisions,...

Meaning is something human beings create. This does not mean that it isn't real; we create real paintings and real music. The meaning that comes from religion is also made up entirely by our own human minds. Is it in any way superior? I think not. How can a life of learning and discovery be meaningf...

yup

136Quote:The Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud ... would discover that human beings were as strongly motivated by a death wish...Discovered? Invented one of the goofiest ideas ever to leave the pen of an intelligent writer is more like it. It really hurts an author's credibility when she steps out...

Been there, done that. When I remember, I compose posts of any length in Word. I even have a macro for {quote} {/quote}. If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

Thanks, captainobfuscation, for that terrific article. I agree that what he refers to as the standard model borders on goofy and appreciate the introduction of actual evidence into the discussion, something all of sociology seems remarkably weak on. My point is a little different, though. It's not t...

Armstrong seems to have a recurring theme, of a "right" way and a "wrong" way to "do" religion. She keeps talking about "mystical" "truths", as though religion is fine as long as it keeps its mythos in and in its right place, but @#%$ up as soon as i...

The following is an email conversation, in reverse chronological orderI, on the other hand, found all three Matrix movies fascinating. They have successfully introduced a new metaphor in to our culture... bule pill, red pill... which is a first rate accomplishment for any work of art. As far as susp...

Quote:Just as it is difficult

I left part way through "Aviator". I found it very disturbing. The theme is madness... watching a talented, intelligent person lose his mind was difficult. But what really kicked me in the nuts was the audience. They were laughing at manifestations of insanity. And I couldn't brush that of...