Tuesday, August 21, 2012

God Is Retreating


It's getting increasingly difficult to be religious – not that it stops lots of people from persisting – as the progress of science forces God to retreat step by step. In  the world and how we learn it works, God is becoming redundant.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

God Is Retreating


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Driven by Pleasure


In an episode of Through the Wormhole dealing with evil and psychopathy, a neuroscientist explained how normal people and psychopaths drive their cars. He did so while driving his car. It struck me: Oh, what if he's a psychopath? It turned out he is.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Driven by Pleasure


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

That Damned Why


Continuing to watch episodes of Through the Wormhole, I sense a pattern. The science described mainly speculates about the how, rarely about the why. That might be increasingly insufficient as we get closer to the inner workings of the universe.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

That Damned Why


Monday, August 13, 2012

Pseudoscience and Pseudoskepticism


Yet an episode of Through the Wormhole, this time about the sixth sense and some similar parapsychological concepts. Some quite spectacular claims were made in the episode, so I had to check out the sources. Not that solid.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Pseudoscience and Pseudoskepticism


Time Is But a Measure of Change


I saw another episode of the thought provoking TV-series Through the Wormhole, and here I go again: this time about time. I doubt that it exists as an entity of its own. It's just a convention we choose in order to note and measure change. That's all there is: change.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Time Is But a Measure of Change


Sunday, August 12, 2012

We See the Aliens When They Cease to Be Alien


SETI is a worldwide science project searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. They listen for radio signals, but that's jumping to conclusions. Radio communication is a recent thing on earth, applied for no more than a hundred years or so. Who says we'll even stick to it ourselves, much longer?


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

We See the Aliens When They Cease to Be Alien


To Be Aware of Being


I'm watching episodes of Through the Wormhole, reminding me of the cosmological speculations that have been a kind of background radiation in my brain since I was a tiny kid. I'm sure we all have them. This time, the subject is life and its origin.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

To Be Aware of Being


Big Bang Is No Answer


Big Bang is presented as a theory about the origin of the universe, but it has no answer to that question. It may explain the emergence of the world, but not from where it came and what was before it. So, we still have no clue.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Big Bang Is No Answer


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Mama, Just Killed a Man


Writing at some depth about the Queen anthem Bohemian Rhapsody would take a book, so here I will have to settle for just touching at the subject. A few thoughts on the lyrics. They're just as impressive as the music.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Mama, Just Killed a Man


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Mental Narcissist


I watched all the episodes of the first four seasons of The Mentalist, the police procedural TV series. It's catchy. But it's not about a mentalist. It's about a raving narcissist.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Mental Narcissist