Film & TV. Booklists. Myth & Mystery. Cultural Perspectives. Criminal Justice Reform. Liberty. Mother Africa. Education. Generation Z. Quotables. Environmental. Spirituality. Critiques, Questions, and Sauve-qui-Peut: Looking Toward the Future of American Christianit(ies) The terrain is indeed shifting as the latest Pew survey results suggest, but it’s not a simple matter of secularization or non-affiliation. My own working assumption is that many of those who will no longer answer “Christian” in answer to polling questions will still be drawn to Jesus as an ethical icon, as a theophanous human being, and as a social revolutionary, for a long time to come. They may even see Jesus (quite accurately in my view) as someone standing eternally against ossified religious expression and formalized religious observance: as a kind of freedom fighter against the strictures of dead orthodoxies. Similarly, I expect that what philosopher Daniel Dennett calls “transparency” will lead to more and more people coming out as non-theists within the churches and within their personal circles.
What is coming, I believe, is a not-untenable and in some ways predictable separation between the arena of ultimate belief and the arena of ultimate commitment.
Regionalism. Carl Honoré: In praise of slowness. 7 truths about the mind you missed in psychology class. The longer you live, the more you realize that the difference between success and magnificent failure lies in how well you understand people. If you’re like many, that fact makes you regret not having studied psychology. I hate to be the one to tell you, but holding both a BSc. and an MSc. in psychology – yep. You missed a lot. And yes, I am analyzing you as you read this. But there’s good news, too. You don’t have to attend lectures on multivariate statistics, neuroscience, or early childhood development to learn about what makes people tick. The following 7 truths are what I consider the most valuable things you can learn from the past few decades’ best books on brains. 1. Most of us assume we are rational decision makers, but in the last 10-15 years many books have challenged this assumption.
Of course, your irrationality isn’t always a handicap. Take it to work: People used to have time to make “cold decisions,” – fully processed choices based on reason and logic. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
How Mindfulness and Home Cooking Helped Me Lose 12 Pounds - Observations - Scientific American Blog Network. Like many Americans, I have struggled with weight much of my adult life. In my case, a desk job and a tendency to eat under stress have made it easier to add a few pounds than to maintain my weight in any given year. Starting in February, however, I tried two new things to slim down. I learned a few mindfulness techniques for dealing with stressful situations and then I began making almost all my meals at home. I'm rather pleased with the results, as measured on my bathroom scale: I lost about a pound a week for 12 weeks.
But more importantly, I've softened my approach to life, food and work. I think I may have even broken my decades-old habit of scarfing down chocolate chip cookies on deadline. Surprisingly, this latest weight loss journey felt easier than have past experiences. Truth to tell, I thought I was doing okay with nutrition—cookies and, well okay, the occasional pizza binge notwithstanding. In addition, to meditating, I also learned how to eat mindfully. Wizards, Workings and Walk-Ins: Be My Baby(lon) There's been little news on the project as of late but last year we heard that Ridley Scott was developing a miniseries based on the life of Jack Parsons, the co-founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratories and inventor of solid rocket fuel. Such a project proves how esoteric Scott is becoming in his maturity, seeing as he's also executive producing a Philip K. Dick novel and an adaption of Lords of Chaos, the landmark history of the Norwegian Black Metal scene.
Of course, any project based on Parsons' life would also deal with his involvement with Aleister Crowley and the OTO, as well as his infamous Babalon Working, undertaken with future Scientology guru L. Ron Hubbard in early 1946. Parsons' stated intent was to summon a Scarlet Woman with whom he could give birth to the Moonchild, or avatar of the New Age of Antichrist. But wasn't this all just a return to first principles? Enochian magick is a system of ceremonial magick based on the evocation and commanding of various spirits. Jan 15. Charleston Church Shooting: KKK, White Supremacists Operate in South Carolina. South Carolina is home to 19 known hate groups — including two factions of the Ku Klux Klan and four "white nationalist" organizations, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. While police described Wednesday's massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, of nine people at one of the nation's oldest African-American churches as a hate crime, they did not suggest the attack was linked to any group.
The SPLC's database records the distribution of KKK leaflets in a Seneca neighborhood was among four hate crimes committed in the state last year. Related: All You Need to Know About Hate Crime in America More than a dozen of the groups listed are explicitly based on racial hatred — perhaps a reflection of local history in a corner of the U.S. where the Confederate flag still flies in the grounds of the State House. Six neo-Confederate groups listed by the SPLC include two branches of the League of the South, which advocates for Southern secession and "the advancement of Anglo-Celtic culture.
" In Epic Drought, California's Water Cops Get Tough at Last. Want to get rich? Move to California, become a lawyer. Most important, specialize in water, because as the state’s drought drags on, every drop of coastal rain, every flake of Sierra snowpack, and every inch of reservoir water becomes both more valuable and more contested. Before long you’ll start counting rain drops—every one that fails to fall will ring cha-ching. The latest windfall to California’s legal community came Friday, when the State Water Resources Control Board announced it was cutting certain historical water rights—held by some farmers, communities, and companies for more than a century. In a normal state with a normal drought, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue.
“California has the most complex system of water rights in the world,” says Buzz Thompson, a legal expert in said system at Stanford University. If you want water to run through your land in California, you have to dig a path for it yourself. Here’s where things get ridiculous. Which brings us to last Friday. Futurism. Wayfaring. Print, Film, & TV. Ed Innovation. The Working Poor. The majority of the United States' poor aren't sitting on street corners. They're employed at low-paying jobs, struggling to support themselves and a family.
In the past, differing definitions of employment and poverty prevented researchers from agreeing on who and how many constitute the "working poor. " But a new study by sociologists at BYU, Cornell and LSU provides a rigorous new estimate. Their work suggests about 10 percent of working households are poor. Additionally, households led by women, minorities or individuals with low education are more likely to be poor, but employed. Science magazine says the data from this study is relevant to the upcoming presidential election, as candidates discuss ways to help the working poor move out of poverty. BYU professor Scott Sanders says the findings dispel the notion that most impoverished Americans don't work so they can rely on government handouts. Accurate data on the working poor is timely for current political dialogue. Polyglot. Current Events. The Dilemma of the Fourth of July. The other day I was eating dinner with my wife in a restaurant located in Gallup New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo reservation.
Gallup was recently named "Most Patriotic Small Town in America" in a nationwide contest. Soon after sitting down I noticed that we were seated at a table directly facing a framed poster of the Declaration of Independence. The irony almost made me laugh. When our server, who was also native, came to the table, I asked if I could show him something. I then stood up and pointed out that 30 lines below the famous quote "All men are created equal" the Declaration of Independence refers to Natives as "merciless Indian savages. " The irony was that the restaurant was filled with Native American customers and employees.
And there in plain sight, a poster hanging on the wall was literally calling all of us "savages. " The server was concerned that I might be upset so after our dinner the manager of the restaurant came to our table and asked if everything was OK. Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America. A day of lament... Today I lament, I mourn over the life of each and every person that was taken last night in Charleston South Carolina.
I lament that a 5 year old child was robbed of her innocence and forced to "play" dead in order to survive. I lament that today, the confederate flag is still flying in the Capitol of South Carolina. I lament the roots of dehumanization that exist within the founding documents of the United States of America; in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and our Supreme Court case precedents. I lament that our nation continues to celebrate its racist foundations with holidays like Columbus Day, sports mascots like the Washington Redsk*ns and the putting of faces like Andrew Jackson on our currency.
I lament the deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and countless others. Today I lament that the United States of America does not share a common memory and therefore is incapable of experiencing true community. Mark Charles (Navajo)