For the ethicist, a fundamental question of philosophy is the following; "what does the good life entail and how can we attain it." Contrast this with Albert Camus' stunning remark within The Myth of Sisyphus where he boldly posits that:

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judgine whether life is or is not ( Read more... )

Do any of us really know anything?

Rene Descartes rationalized our "existence" (I think, therefore I am), but he could not bring himself into an understanding of reality beyond that we are sentient beings who are able to conceive thought. And although many have taken to the task of proving existence and fact, all have fallen short of a logical, ( Read more... )

Last Friday, I spoke of my love for Thomas Hobbes and his theories on the natural state and social contracts. Another philosopher who is helpful in the discussion of social contracts and the natural state is John Locke. No, I don't mean the bald headed old man from LOST, I mean the English philosopher that was his namesake (interesting fact; many ( Read more... )

I just began reading Rob Bell's new book "Jesus Wants To Save Christians." It's a pretty good read so far and I'm sure that I'll be commenting further as I get deeper into the book. But I wanted to mention something astounding that I discovered yesterday ( Read more... )

I love Thomas Hobbes. This may come as a surprise to those who know my political leanings. He's the philosopher who argued that in our natural state, humanity is entitled to (or feels entitled to) everything under the sun. In this state, war never ceases and crimes against one another never end because each individual naturally feels that ( Read more... )

The Western world, primarily influenced by Judeo-Christianity, have been oppressing Muslim communities for such a long time that I think we're asking for it. Seriously ( Read more... )

When I first heard Brian McLaren using the phrase Emergent in regards to the kind of churches he was trying to create, I thought it was some sort of play on the word emerging. I thought emergent meant spontaneous and new. That emergent was a sort of present and past tense of emerging; a church that continues to look for what's next and embraces the ( Read more... )

There's a strange paradox that surrounds creating meaningful art. It seems that the better artists become at their own skill- the more polished and accomplished they are- the more likely it is that they'll create "safe" art that loses the edge that the raw untapped talent of their youth was able to convey ( Read more... )

Weeks like this one are proof that I need an agenda in order to write. I usually make a list of what I want to blog about at the beginning of the week and then check off one per day (of course, I deviate when I feel passionately about something that's happened in my life or in the news). This week, however, crept up on me and before I had a chance ( Read more... )

I found an interesting blog today where the author argues that when writing memoir or creative non-fiction, facts may actually be less true that perception. The premise is that if I'm writing about my experience- what I remember, and how I feel about it- the account may not line up with the reality of what actually happened ( Read more... )