A Thinking Reed

  • This is your brain on God

    Marvin hits the nail on the head here: just because an experience can be artificially reproduced doesn’t mean it isn’t genuine or veridical when it occurs under other circumstances. Why would we expect that religious or mystical experiences, if genuine, would bypass the brain anyway? In fact, why would we even think that’s possible?

  • Sometimes a beer is just a beer

    I agree that Christians should drink beer (I mean, if they want to). But I’m not sure they need to put this much thought into it. Surely what the world needs now is not legions of hipster Christian beer snobs.

  • Republican demagoguery and Democratic pusillanimity

    Well, what else is new? The American Conservative‘s indispensable Kelley Vlahos on the Gitmo mess.

  • Alternate universes

    Michael Lind: Suppose that in an alternate Rod Serling universe our other-dimensional twins paid for Pentagon spending on the basis of a dedicated national consumption tax, while they paid for Social Security and Medicare out of general taxation. In that case, opponents of Pentagon spending might have a field day denouncing the gap between the…

  • Eating with civility

    I imagine this will be of interest to some readers: “Civil Eats,” a site dedicated to “critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities.” This post, by Paul Shapiro on big ag’s counterattack against animal welfare measures is worth checking out.

  • Religious distinctivism?

    In talking about the claims made by the world’s religions, this is the familiar typology used to map the possible positions: Exclusivism: the view that only one religion is true and/or salvific. Inclusivism: the view that one religion is maximally true and/or salvific, but that adherents of other religions (or none) can potentially be saved.…

  • Friday metal – Chimaira, “Destroy and Dominate”

    A couple of weeks ago I said I was really digging the new album “The Infection” by Chimaira. Here’s the first video off that album. more about "Friday metal – Chimaira, "Destroy and…", posted with vodpod

  • Mea culpa, Radiohead

    A while back I complained that I was never able to get into Radiohead’s post-OK Computer output. My beef was that they had sacrificed songwriting for noodly, experimental electronica. Well, I decided to give ’em another shot and downloaded In Rainbows. Verdict: an amazing, surprisingly accessible synthesis of Radioheads past.

  • The other war

    Liberal Democrats in Congress, starting to get uncomfortable with President Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan: […]American troop levels and war costs in Afghanistan will soar in the coming year, and party leaders, including Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, have warned that Democrats will most likely give the administration just one…

  • Justice among the beasts

    Interesting review of a new book portraying behavior of animals that can fairly be described as moral (via). I think our resistance to seeing animals as in any way “moral” might be rooted in the Kantian legacy of modern moral philosophy. Roughly, for Kant, you’re only acting morally when you’re acting for the sake of…