In “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” Jorge Luis Borges playfully suggests through an unreliable narrator that Don Quixote could have been written twice, once by Miguel de Cervantes in the seventieth-century and again by a fictional French … Read the rest
Waiting on My Rights
I’m reading 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know, and was surprised by Barron v Baltimore (1833), which determined that the Bill of Rights doesn’t actually restrict the states. Textually, the ruling seems to be sound as the First … Read the rest
The Difficulty of Giving
In Theravada Buddhism, the Bodhisattva (the Buddha pre-enlightenment) spent 540 lives cultivating the ten perfections so that he could at last be enlightened as Siddhartha. The most difficult to master is generosity. The Bodhisattva began by giving his wealth. Then … Read the rest
God’s Lie to Abraham
Earlier we determined that commands can deceive and possibly be lies because they can be used to convey deceptions or lies. What is the theological significance? We have reason to believe that God deceives Abraham, one of His greatest servants. … Read the rest
Deceptive Commands, Lying Commands
In the The Man in the High Castle, Inspector Kido orders his subordinate to hunt down an enemy operative. His last instruction is: “I can’t interrogate a corpse.” Of course, this is an instruction. A necromancer newly bereft of … Read the rest
Orality and Respawn
There is a frequently overlooked problem in video game design involving the consistency of the game narrative alongside the need for the player to be able to respawn, meaning continue the game in light of being slain by a game … Read the rest
Can a Religious Outsider Be a Theologian?
When I was an undergraduate studying religion and a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School I was taught that theology is written by religious insiders, and theologians are religious insiders. Non-Christians cannot be theologians of Christianity or write Christian theology, … Read the rest
My Hope for a Post-Pandemic America
My hope for a post COVID-19 Pandemic America is that Americans will see restrictions on their freedoms as a blessing.
Allow me to explain my blasphemous words by listing some of the things that I most dislike:
- Choosing between 50
Understand Before You Criticize
Once when I was discussing a paper topic with Frank Clooney, I told him I wanted to critique some parts of the ritual theory of a third-century Indian thinker by the name of Shabara. He asked me, “Have … Read the rest
Amnesiac Vacation and Meaning in Life
I was re-reading Daniel Kahnemann’s Thinking Fast and Slow and came across this thought experiment about a hypothetical vacation:
At the end of the vacation, all pictures and videos will be destroyed. Furthermore, you will swallow a potion that will