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Written by David Cowles, Thoughts While Shaving is the official blog of Aletheia Today magazine and explores short, profound thoughts and discoveries about theology, science, philosophy, literature, the arts, society, and prayer. Subscribe today for FREE! Enter your email address here: Subscribe now! Thanks for submitting! Jan 9, 2026 Does Spacetime Have Memory? “What if the universe is a copy of itself? Redundancy built-in, perfected…spacetime saves now save spacetime.” Read More Jan 8, 2026 Civilization is Discontent “Look upon our works, O Ozymandias, and despair.” Read More Dec 27, 2025 Plato's Contract “Plato is addressing a question posed in the Book of Job: Why do good things happen to bad people?” Read More Dec 27, 2025 Christ and the Cosmic Fractal “A process is recursive when it applies to itself… (but) doesn’t every process apply to itself?” Read More Dec 13, 2025 God is Green “Far from the apex of the pyramid of life, human beings are one among many, at best. God has his favorites, and homo sapiens is not among them.” Read More Dec 13, 2025 God & Time Crystals “Value forms the basis of the judgments that motivate the islands of order we call events. Read More Dec 6, 2025 More Kids More Curiosity “.” Read More Dec 5, 2025 No Kids and No Curiosity “Worship the pre-teens in your life and spend time learning from them and enjoying their company…for as long that is as you can stand them.” Read More Nov 28, 2025 Genesis and Time Crystals “Freewill survives and thrives locally in a Universe that is globally determined… Order and chaos are not incompatible; they are mutually reinforcing.” Read More Nov 26, 2025 Plato, Socrates & Time Crystals “The climax of the Phaedo is a debate between Socrates and Simmias on the nature of the soul… but now we know the answer!” Read More Nov 23, 2025 The Limits of Power “Civil laws derive their binding force, neither from the Divine Right of Kings, nor from the Consent of the Governed…” Read More Nov 19, 2025 Time Crystals and Pepperland “The Beatles’ Pepperland could have been considered mere fantasy; then along came…Rondeau Time Crystals.” Read More Thoughts While Shaving 37 Page 1

< Back Does Spacetime Have Memory? David Cowles Jan 9, 2026 “What if the universe is a copy of itself? Redundancy built-in, perfected…spacetime saves now save spacetime.” “The map is not the territory.” How often have you heard that old saw? We pay lip service to the meme…but then we go right ahead and ignore it. Take memory, for example: A family member once told me that the ‘meaning of life’ is making memories . He confuses the memory with the experience and perhaps the experience with the event: the map with the territory. Memory, as we typically use the word, refers to certain neuronal patterns in the brain that encode certain experiences (sensory, emotional, kinetic). Unless my family member holds a traditional Christian view of life after death (he doesn’t), his metaphysics makes no sense, IMHO. First of all, memories are just code that refers us to another place and time. The picture is woefully incomplete, often lacking in detail, and sometimes just plain wrong. Furthermore, at best ‘making memories’ works “in the living years” but if memories are stored in neurons, it doesn’t work for the long haul. Quite simply, memory likely vanishes upon the death of the organism. Unless Florian Neukart, the Chief Product Officer at Terra Quantum AG, and a Professor of Quantum Computing at Leiden University, is right! In an article dated June 16, 2025, Dr. Neukart proposed that spacetime itself has memory. Dr. Neukart: “To understand my idea, you first need to know that I assume from the start that space-time isn’t a smooth, continuous fabric…but is instead made of extremely small, discrete cells, like an invisible grid at the deepest level of reality.” This is a version of the ‘foam model’ of spacetime suggested by Planck. “This isn’t an entirely new idea in itself…but I build on this by describing how each of these space-time cells can act like a memory unit…The key is to realize that modern physics describes all particles and forces as excitations in quantum fields – mathematical structures that span space and time… “There is also a more emergent kind of quantum information at play that describes the relationship of each cell to the others – this isn’t held in any one cell, but in the sprawling network of relationships between them… “This is where we return to black holes… Even when a black hole finally evaporates, its imprint on the space that surrounded it remains. Information doesn’t vanish after all – it’s just been stored somewhere we hadn’t thought to look… This mechanism allows space-time to store the information that falls into a black hole … “My collaborators and I began to refer to this idea as the quantum memory matrix (QMM) framework… If space-time truly has a memory-like structure, then it should be able to store information from any of the four fundamental forces of nature… “We aren’t postulating new hypothetical particles or unseen dimensions, we are simply taking what we already know about quantum information and packaging it in a new structure…” Of course, physicists are rightly skeptical of theories that cannot be tested. At first glance, QMM would seem to fall into that category. But not so fast… “Such a test can at least be simulated in an existing quantum computer… We began by taking a qubit, the quantum equivalent of a computer bit, in a known starting state and letting it evolve over time. This evolution was designed to simulate the way a cell of space-time would be imprinted with information as quantum fields wash over it. The question was: could our imprint operator accurately describe the qubit’s evolution? “To test this, we measured the state of the qubit after it had evolved and then applied a reverse version of the imprint operator to see if this would describe the original state. We found that it did indeed do so , with an accuracy of about 90 per cent. “This wasn’t just a theoretical toy model. The imprint and retrieval protocols were grounded in QMM’s mathematical structure and translated directly into executable quantum circuits, validating the idea that memory-like behavior is physically modellable… “The curvature of space-time in general relativity is influenced by mass and energy. In our framework, there is an extra ingredient that should also contribute to that curvature: the weight of information woven into space-time… “Astronomers already know that the gravity of many galaxies seems to be stronger than would be expected based on their mass and rate of rotation alone. Lacking an explanation, they have invented a substance called dark matter to account for the difference. “However, no one knows what it might be. But perhaps my collaborators and I have stumbled upon the answer: could dark matter be information, stored across space-time in a way that generates gravitational pull?” Dark matter is the 21st century version of the 19th century’s aether – everyone assumes it exists but nobody knows what it is or how to find it. If the phenomena currently attributed to dark matter can be explained more simply via information theory, it would be a big step forward for Cosmology. But the implications of QMM go far beyond ‘the matter of dark matter’. What if the universe is a copy of itself? Redundancy built-in, perfected. An heir and a spare. What if everything that has ever happened is preserved ‘forever’ intact in the structure of spacetime? O Death, where is your dreadful countenance now? Obviously, there is work to be done here. But superficially, QMM seems to be compatible with the idea that the universe is a hologram or that its underlying structure is fractal . It also conforms to the Gaia hypothesis, i.e. that the cosmos itself must be regarded as a whole (perhaps even as an organism) exceeding the mere sum of its component parts. Of course, in a sense QMM just kicks the can down the road. It’s a very long road…but still, it leads to Rome . We have ‘saved’ individual events by encoding them in spacetime, but we haven’t saved spacetime (Rome) itself. According to most current cosmologies, spacetime had a beginning (everywhen) and it will have an end (everywhere). And what happens to our cherished ‘memories’ then? Of course a number of general ideas, ranging from the purely physical to the richly theological, immediately come to mind. Incredibly, after realizing how ingeniously spacetime is engineered, I have confidence that we’ll find a context in which immortality (memory encoded in spacetime) becomes eternity (spacetime saved). Maybe it’s time for a new bumper sticker: Spacetime Saves now Save Spacetime! *** Wassily Kandinsky — Several Circles (1926) presents a dark, cosmic field punctuated by floating circles of varying size and color, evoking planets suspended in space. Kandinsky uses pure geometry and color relationships to suggest harmony, tension, and movement without reference to the physical world. The painting reflects his belief that abstract forms could express spiritual creation and the underlying order of the universe. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! 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< Back Civilization is Discontent David Cowles Jan 8, 2026 “Look upon our works, O Ozymandias, and despair.” 1100 words, 5 minute read. Life is simple! Eat, sleep, have sex, and stay alive. For almost all species, tool use, if any, is situational: grab stick, hit hive, eat honey, discard. The tool does not become a ‘thing in itself’. Winnie the Pooh does not think to put his Rube Goldberg contraptions into a museum. Christoper Robin on the other hand… Eve ate the proverbial apple in search of knowledge – a brave if costly choice. But in expelling Earth’s First Family from Paradise, God got the last laugh. From the get-go, the need to nourish, rest, procreate, and survive stimulated the emergence of a Technosphere, an amalgamation of tools and techniques intended to facilitate the human project. Genesis tells us that Abel tended sheep while Cain grew veg, at least until he went off to build cities. (Apparently, the authors thought that the sedentary life of a farmer was more conducive to urbanization than the nomadic life of a herdsman.) In Eden, God protected his intellectual property via statue (Don’t Eat the Fruit). Post Eden, humanity is on its own (“everything is permitted” – Dostoevsky), but no bother – God can rely on us to build nearly impermeable ‘physical’ barriers between ourselves and gnosis . To begin, we make a fetish of our tools. They become things in themselves and we house them in museums to celebrate our achievements. ( True art cuts the other way – it pierces the veil. Here’s a simple test of artistic authenticity: Does this open-up the ineffable to me…or is it just another brick in the epistemological wall? We are unable to see the forest for the trees. We have devised a highly non-linear ego-centric model of the World. Whatever is closest to me in space and time takes on an outsized importance: my family, my ‘garden’, my nation, my planet, my ‘day’. We see the World as if it had been built by Escher. (Perhaps it was?) We form social groups: our families, our neighborhoods, parishes, clubs, unions, etc. and we endow each with almost mystical significance. That ‘manufactured mattering’ obscures the real communities behind them. Manufactured mattering leads us to adopt false and empty Values, the ‘idols’ of the Old Testament under a new guise. I refer, of course, to our twin desires for fame and fortune. Longevity masquerades as eternity, security as peace. Ingeniously, we build economic systems that positively enslave us. Marx was right: we’ve gone from plantation slavery to wage slavery. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” ( The Who ) Then we fine tune our economies to ensure that the vast majority of us, around the world and throughout history, remain in a perpetual state of want so that “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” (Wordsworth) Socialism, capitalism, it makes no difference: we all live just below our own personal (floating) poverty line. Technology threatens the structural integrity of our cocoon. It develops geometrically and might soon outpace demand: Marx’ surplus. But ‘we’ are way too smart for Karl. We endlessly proliferate needs to exceed ever so slightly our accelerating ability to satisfy them. Supply will never catch up with demand. There is no such thing as ‘surplus’ in our world. Every so often, some ‘goodie two shoes’ (me?) comes along shouting, “Live simply that others may simply live.” But the relentless expansion of the catalogue of available goods and services makes a simple lifestyle unattractive. “’Tis the gift to be simple,” according to the Shaker hymn adapted by Aaron Copeland for Appalachian Spring ; but how many Shakers do you know? Culture is another symptom, and engine, of Civilization. On the one hand, it is a method of recording and preserving our advances toward Truth, but on the other, it forms a forbidding barrier, shielding Truth from experience. We acculturate our children, i.e. we train them to be the people we wish we had been. We prepare them for life…our life. We train them to fight the last war. Kultcha projects the past into the future and protects us from having to live in the present. We are always one generation out of sync. As further protection against the possibility of a satisfied citizenry, we have invented yet another ring of fortifications: Society - a new pantheon of needs, e.g. recognition, honors, social status, and fame, i.e. things that make us feel good about ourselves. We must feel good about ourselves; we crave it at all costs – which is why cyberbullying so often ends in self-harm. At the bottom of this particular rabbit hole, lies the mother of all delusions: our nearly universal desire to ‘leave the world a better place’ - as if we could know what’s ‘better’ beyond our immediate environs, and as if we could ‘make it so’ if we did. Add to that a litany of activities, euphemistically known as ‘hobbies’ (hobbles?). For example, many of us devote two days a week to a pointless pursuit known as golf . We hit a ball and chase after it like a dog playing fetch; from some vantage points, we must appear mad. Yet, we gladly trade family and career in hopes of a pewter cup at the end of the season. And those of us who can’t do, root. We rely on a team of professionals to do our ‘doing’ for us. Like bourgeois draftees during the Civil War, we pay others to perform in our place. We live and die for the Yankees and the Knicks, though most of us will never know George Castanza, or anyone else connected to either team. Every weekend, New Yorkers sit down to their TVs and joust with their peers in Boston and LA…Philly, Frisco, and Chitown if they’re slumming…virtually. We have measured out our lives with coffee spoons and yet we cling to the illusion that “there will be time…there will be time for all the works and days of hands.” (Eliot) And so we create bucket lists – things we want to experience ‘in the living years’, things we will remember, things we may record in journals or on photos, things we can share with others via social media…until the memories flicker out and the records decompose. How diabolically ingenious! Driven by our unquenchable thirst for sweet gnosis , we have erected virtually impregnable fortifications ( aka civilization) to protect the ‘pearl of great price’ from our probes. Look upon our works, O Ozymandias, and despair – “nothing beside remains…boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.” (Shelley) *** Giorgio de Chirico — The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914) presents a deserted cityscape where elongated shadows, rigid architecture, and an unseen threat create a sense of unease beneath apparent order. A small child and a rolling hoop introduce movement and innocence, contrasting with the oppressive stillness and suggesting a world governed by hidden forces rather than human logic. The painting embodies metaphysical uncertainty, inviting the viewer to sense an underlying truth that is felt intuitively but never fully revealed. Previous Share Next Do you like what you just read and want to read more Thoughts? Subscribe today for free! 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Aletheia Today magazine essays relating to philosophy with a focus on pre-Socratic philosophers and their influence on modern thinking Philosophy Philosophy is the story of ideas, from the pre-Socratics through the Analytics…and beyond. Apr 1, 2025 From Socrates to Silicon Valley “Who is Peter Thiel? Conservative, libertarian, or 21st century Marxist?” Read More Feb 1, 2025 After Parmenides... “Western philosophy is the history of our effort to understand the silence of Parmenides, or to break it.” Read More Dec 1, 2024 Causes of the Civil War “Chaos is not an absence of causality, as is generally supposed, but an excess.” Read More Oct 15, 2024 Zeno's New Paradox “Achilles is still sulking, humiliated by a…tortoise; but at least we have a universe and…we can be assured that its ultimate trajectory is toward Good.” Read More Oct 15, 2024 The Secret Life of Things “The secret life of things is nothing less than the life of God.” Read More Oct 15, 2024 The Probability of Nothing “Divinity is a language unto itself, or as a five-year-old grandchild once explained to me, ‘God is outside the numbers’.” Read More Oct 15, 2024 Robert Frost was Wrong “Waiter, bring me one order of everything on the menu and when I’ve finished, I’ll pay for whichever dish I liked the best.” Read More Sep 1, 2024 Why R U, U? “Hamlet was right: you either are…or you are not. There is no disembodied ‘being’ walking abroad, seeking an ‘identity’. King Hamlet’s ghost is not real!” Read More Jul 15, 2024 Destiny Versus Fate “Your Destiny is the Fate of others; the Destiny of others is your Fate.” Read More Jul 15, 2024 Moses, Machiavelli, and Morality “The moral value of an event lies in the act itself, not in its conformity to a set of norms and not in its consequentiality…every event is its own end!” Read More Jul 15, 2024 Is the Universe Real “The most important thing we’ve learned is that we know so much less than we thought we knew.” Read More Jun 1, 2024 The Living and the Dead “1,500 years ago, we didn’t have these problems. We knew all that we needed to know about life.” Read More Apr 15, 2024 The Meaning of Life “In the absence of God, or any transcendent reality, the meaning of life can only be death, oblivion, and the total absence of meaning – aka the Absurd.” Read More Apr 15, 2024 Dante and the Yellow Submarine “Yellow Submarine did for the Divine Comedy what West Side Story did for Romeo & Juliet…but I very much doubt the Beatles had any idea what they’d done!” Read More Apr 15, 2024 Super-Determinism “Things are the way they are simply because they are the way they are.” Read More Mar 1, 2024 Happiness “Some folks are ‘happy’ living their lives on a beach; others need a boardroom; some need a bar.” Read More Mar 1, 2024 Life is a Movie “Our so-called World is a reflection without an object; it is the sound made by one hand clapping.” Read More Jan 15, 2024 I Seem To Be a Klein Bottle “I am what the Universe sees when it looks in the mirror.” Read More Jan 15, 2024 Determinism…or Entanglement? “Take Vegas! The casino’s ‘edge’ is as little as 1% on some bets. At those odds, I should be able to play forever…but probability is not actuality.” Read More Jan 15, 2024 Robert Frost “Anyone can go for a walk in the woods but only Frost can walk this way.” Ask any English teacher. The Road Not Taken is a perennial favorite, especially among young readers, who often understand it as an anthem of adventure and non-conformity - Jack Kerouac in verse. But is this really what the poem is about? Read More Dec 1, 2023 Do you Know *What I am*? “I am my own great-grandmother (‘Eve’). Eerie…not to mention incestuous.” Read More Dec 1, 2023 Do We Need ‘God’? “Does the idea of a Supreme Being make you uncomfortable? No problem; just will it away!” Read More Dec 1, 2023 Logical Positivism “Following the science, LP assumes that the same act, performed under the same conditions, will always produce the same result…it’s true, precisely 0% of the time!” Read More Dec 1, 2023 Utilitarianism “How new wealth is to be distributed is just as important as how old wealth has been distributed.” Read More Dec 1, 2023 Love Actually “…When your identity is indefinitely plastic, when events are no longer ‘orientable’, when relations are neither transitive nor commutative, that’s Love…actually.” Read More Oct 15, 2023 Causality and 'The Bhagavad Gita' “Because every event is sui generis, no event causes any other event! That said, every event contributes to the Actual World of every subsequent event.” Read More Oct 15, 2023 R U WYSIWYG? “What You See Is What You Get! Right…or wrong?” Read More Jul 15, 2023 Personae “Turns out, I am the Worldwide Wrinkle…and so are you!” Read More Jul 15, 2023 I am the Walrus “Popular music is a treasure trove for the philosophically curious.” Read More Jul 15, 2023 The Ship of Theseus “There is only one I am, shared by YHWH and Jesus…and me…and you…and Rene Descartes (…ergo sum).” Read More Jun 1, 2023 Albert Camus “Either death is ultimately subjected to something greater and more general than itself (Being) or death ultimately subjects everything to itself and then nothing else has any meaning or value.” Read More Apr 15, 2023 Mythology Now! “Mythology is common to all ages. There is no theology, philosophy, or science without it.” Read More Apr 15, 2023 Morals and Values “Don’t our morals reflect our values? Surely the concepts are at least related. Yes, they are related…they are antonyms. A value is the opposite of a moral.” Read More Apr 15, 2023 I Seem to be a Membrane “My so-called inner world, the ‘I’, contains nothing; it is simple. It admits no change…there is no inner world.” Read More Mar 1, 2023 Middle Voice “Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. It’s a terrible way to live! But we’re living it…(but) it wasn’t always this way, and it doesn’t…have to be this way.” Read More Mar 1, 2023 Who R U? - The Caterpillar “It is the uniqueness of events that 'creates' spacetime; it is not spacetime that makes events unique.” Read More Jan 15, 2023 Particularity “The first known application of Occam’s Razor occurred 50,000 years ago, not in 14th century England as is generally supposed.” Read More Nov 30, 2022 A Universe From Nothing I’ll take the wisdom of Yogi Berra over that of Bill Clinton any day: Whatever is, is! Read More Oct 15, 2022 I Wasn't Anything Every day is Halloween…Every day I get to make the decision anew: who am I going to be today? Read More Oct 15, 2022 Systematic Philosophy Some people's search takes them to Fatima or Lhasa or into Outer Space. Mine took me to the dentist. Read More Oct 15, 2022 Achilles and Tortoise If Zeno can defeat his teacher, the whole class wins! Zeno today, me tomorrow! Read More Oct 15, 2022 Prepare to Be Shocked You may be thinking, “WHAAAT? That’s impossible! Who could live without numbers? If they don’t have them, then they must invent them, right?” But you would be wrong. Read More Oct 15, 2022 Ectaban Ecbatan may share the seven-ringed pattern of the solar system, but Paradise shares the seven-ringed pattern of Ecbatan! Read More Sep 1, 2022 Imagine! “John’s Utopia is a 20th century version of Friedrich Nietzsche’s flat universe.” Read More Sep 1, 2022 Parmenides I “Parmenides anticipated Trinitarian theology and 19th century German dialectics (Hegel, Marx). May we refer to his cosmology as Monothreeism™?” Read More Jul 13, 2022 Shakespearean Nihilism Editor’s note: It’s that time of year when many readers attend ‘summer theater.’ If Shakespeare is on the bill, you may find this essay relevant. Don’t leave home for the theater without reading this first! Read More Jul 12, 2022 The Sultan and the Sea One of life’s great ironies is that people who live near water are not always very good swimmers, if they are swimmers at all. And this is how it was on this island. Read More May 29, 2022 The Problem of Good The purpose of this essay is not to resolve, or even rehash, the Problem of Evil, but rather to situate the Problem of Evil in the context of an even broader problem that I call, ‘the Problem of Good’. Read More May 29, 2022 Eternity vs. Immortality Do our lives have meaning? You bet they do! But what is that meaning, and from where does it come? Read More Return to Table of Contents, Holiday Issue Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, September Issue Return to Table of Contents, Beach Issue Return to Table of Contents, June Issue

“Your Destiny is the Fate of others; the Destiny of others is your Fate.” < Back Destiny Versus Fate David Cowles Jul 15, 2024 “Your Destiny is the Fate of others; the Destiny of others is your Fate.” Destiny and Fate are two words I hardly ever use. They seem to suggest a passivity that is alien to my philosophy…and perhaps to yours as well. But whenever I have used them, I’ve used them interchangeably…and I was wrong! Far from being interchangeable, Destiny and Fate are antonyms. And for just that reason, they turn out to be very useful concepts after all! Destiny concerns what you make of yourself: “She was destined to do great things.” Fate concerns what the world makes of you: “He was fated to die in battle.” But even that is an oversimplification. Better to say, Destiny is what you can make of yourself; it is the sum of your possibilities while Fate is the sum of your limitations. Every failure can be attributed to the fickle finger of fate; likewise every success is a fulfillment of destiny. Traditional Physics offers a simplified view of the world: the future consists of all the points in your forward light cone. This might work in an empty or solipsistic world, but it won’t work in any universe that includes the category of the other, i.e. something other than the self but sharing some ontological properties in common with that self. Every ‘other’ has its own unique light cone but cones intersect, generating an interference pattern that we know lovingly as this world. Imagine the Universe as a beaker of supercooled water. Drop in a precipitant et voila instant crystallization. The other has just that effect in our universe. Such crystallization destroys the monotonous symmetry of the solipsist’s universe. The array of points in the light cone now manifests as short cuts and obstacles, tools and impediments. I remain 100% free in my actions but those actions now must take into consideration the presence of the other. The insertion of the other modifies the terrain in which I operate. All this has nothing to do with ethics; not yet! Whether or not I engage with the other, I must take it into consideration simply in order to realize my own personal, entirely selfish goals. When the law student asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” he is essentially asking who qualifies as an other? Jesus makes it clear that all human beings belong to the category of the other. His made his point. But we are free to ask, “Are human beings the only others?” What about God? According to Martin Buber, God is the ultimate other. What about animals: corvids and parrots, primates, sea mammals, octopus? Trees, forests, and other plants? Fungi (the wood wide web)? Prokaryotes (e.g. bacteria)? What about the individual cells that work together to constitute an organism? We mustn’t forget other ‘life forms’ either, e.g. AI bots, Extraterrestrials. And what about Gaia? Or Kosmos? Clearly, different cosmologies classify different entities differently. Simply put, your Destiny is the Fate of others and the Destiny of others is your Fate. Example: Robert Frost is out on his famous walk in a ‘yellow wood’. Home is his destiny (and destination) but fate decrees that he can only get there via one of two paths. How come? The forest also has a destiny: to regenerate and proliferate. The forest’s destiny becomes Frost’s fate; his choice of routes is limited. But Frost’s destiny requires the forest to accept two roads across it; that is its fate. Consistent with that fate, the forest is free to pursue its own destiny by rejuvenation and reproduction. Map this relationship onto the traditional timeline: destiny is the present exerting influence in the future while fate is the future being felt in the present. And what of this illusive present? The present is a region hypothesized to exist between past and future. Its width is indeterminate: in some models (Laplace) it is zero, in others it is infinite (but bounded by a membrane of infinitesimal width). I am 5’ 4” tall; fate keeps me from realizing my dream of playing for the Boston Celtics. On the other hand, I may be destined to ride a Kentucky Derby winner someday. Fate becomes destiny. At any point I can see myself as the victim of fate or the beneficiary of destiny. A friend’s mother used to say, “Whenever God closes a door he opens a window.” Exactly! In fact, a closed door is an open window. We all seem to have an almost insatiable desire to be ‘someone’, to make a difference, to leave the world a better place, to fulfill our unique destiny. I am the author of my own play, the world is my stage (Shakespeare) and you, dear readers, I might as well just say it, you are my props. So go on, hate me! It’s ok. Of course, you have your own destinies to fulfill, and potentially at least, I am one of your props. So we’re both telling the same story, but in one version, I play the lead and in the other version, you do. Life is a high school director’s dream: every part is the lead! (No more noise from disgruntled helicopter parents or their overachieving progeny.) Your destiny is the self you choose to project (superject) into the world. It’s you as you’d like the world to remember you… a few billion years from now; as if. You control your destiny. If you don’t control it, it’s not your destiny, it’s your fate…over which you have no control. Destiny is what you make of yourself; Fate is what the World makes of you! The Serenity Prayer (AA et al.) says it all: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (fate), the courage to change the things I can (destiny), and the wisdom to know the difference.” Ah, wisdom! A slippery commodity, that! Trying to alter things that cannot be changed (fate) can lead to depression, resentment, anger, and addiction. Failing to alter things that can be changed (destiny) can be a symptom of apathy, laziness, cowardice, etc. It can lead to anxiety, rage, and self-loathing. Destiny is what you do to the world; Fate is what the world does to you. You are responsible for your destiny. You are what you make yourself to be. But your little skiff is not merely storm tossed on a dark and raging sea. Your boat is equipped with a rudder to help you steer and, through the fog, you can just make out a beacon of light. Value (Good) is the beacon that continually reorients you throughout your journey - it acts as an existential GPS. Of course, nothing makes you sail toward the light; you can get your bearings from a full 360° of possible courses. It’s 100% up to you, it’s your destiny after all, but there is a safe harbor if you choose to take advantage of it. If you arrive safely home, you may say that the harbor was your destiny all along and that the lighthouse (wisdom) showed you the way. And that’s true! But you and only you sailed your vessel safely into port. Ultimately, freedom trumps destiny and fate. Destiny and Fate are often seen to be in conflict. The dichotomy is enshrined in our modern Indo-European languages. When we speak using active voice verbs, we talk about destiny; when we speak in the passive voice, we talk about fate. We know how to struggle, how to fight, how to compete against others. Often, I pursue my destiny by limiting yours. I do for myself by doing to others: it’s the Golden Rule for survival in a bi-polar world. But is it best practices? Is it possible that I might enhance my destiny by helping you advance yours? Could it be that destinies can be mutually reinforcing? If I am your fate, might you harness that fate to help you achieve your destiny? If you are my fate, might I harness that fate? Could fate be a trampoline rather than a tar pit? Consider space travel. The #1 impediment is gravity. The thrust needed to overcome the Earth’s attraction requires an enormous expenditure of energy. But once I have put the blue planet in my rear view mirror, I can use the Sun’s gravity to slingshot my capsule into deep space. What was once an obstacle (Earth’s gravity) has now become a tool (Sun’s gravity). Gravity, my fate, need not just limit my destiny; it can also facilitate it. Jesus final commandment, delivered to his disciples on the eve of his Crucifixion, was just this: “Love one another.” (John 13: 34) When I love an other, I want both of us to transcend our fates and fulfill our destinies. In fact, I come to understand that achieving my destiny includes you achieving yours. Your destiny and mine become entwined. My destiny is your fate just as yours is mine. For the most part, one dampens the other; I limit you, you limit me. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Every so often, our destinies may reinforce each other instead. When that happens fate and destiny (your trajectory and mine) coincide, each amplifying the other. What do Utopia, the Garden of Eden, the Kingdom of Heaven, and Pepperland have in common? They are states of being in which Destiny and Fate are one. Revelation tells us that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Christ is not two persons; he is one person with two aspects. He is the convergence of Destiny and Fate. He is that from which the universe comes to be (“without him nothing came to be” – John 1: 3) and that toward which the universe inexorably tends (“so that God may be all in all” – First Corinthians 15: 28). Like great circles, our event lines diverge at Alpha and reconverge at Omega…but with their ‘orientations’ flipped. The arrows that once pointed up now point down. Event lines are Mobius Strips; we live in an non-orientable universe. Like electrons and other massive quanta, events occur in 720° space (vs. 360° for photons and 180° for gravitons). A key question in cosmology these days is whether ‘information’ per se has mass. Most physicists think it does, but how do you prove it? I would propose that the fact that events behave like massive particles (720° geometry) suggests that events have mass over and above the mass/energy of their components. That ‘mass’ could only be a function of their information content. It could be that content. According to Euclid, no two parallel lines ever intersect. What a lonely world that would be! Talk about ships passing in the night. But 10 th grade geometry notwithstanding, the world is anything but Euclidean. According to the ‘better geometer’, John of Patmos (Revelation), all lines intersect…at the Alpha and at the Omega – one point, two countenances! David Cowles is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aletheia Today Magazine. He lives with his family in Massachusetts where he studies and writes about philosophy, science, theology, and scripture. He can be reached at david@aletheiatoday.com . purpose and devotion. Return to our 2024 Beach Read Share Previous Next Do you like what you just read? Subscribe today and receive sneak previews of Aletheia Today Magazine articles before they're published. Plus, you'll receive our quick-read, biweekly blog, Thoughts While Shaving. Subscribe Thanks for subscribing! Click here. Return to Table of Contents, Winter 2023 Issue Return to Table of Contents, Holiday Issue Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, September Issue Return to Table of Contents, Beach Issue Return to Table of Contents, June Issue

Win prize money or the chance to be published in Aletheia Today magazine by taking of the AT Challenges. Challenges Are you clever? Good at riddles, a poet, a writer, a math whiz, or just a sharp critical thinker? Take one of our AT Challenges and you may win prizes or see your work published in a future issue. The Sultan and the Sea Challenge First, read The Sultan and the Sea in this issue of Aletheia Today magazine. Next, take the Sultan and the Sea challenge. Read More Winner of the Haiku Challenge Find out who is our first ATM Haiku Challenge Winner! Read More The Haiku Challenge Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry usually consisting of 17 syllables, arranged in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. Take the Haiku Challenge today! Read More The Faith Chaplain Challenge Inspired by this issue's Being Faith Chaplain in a Secular World, tell us how you navigate not just your faith in the workplace, but also how you share your faith with others in places where your personal beliefs aren't always popular or even welcomed. Read More

The Arts Art is how we express philosophical and theological insights beyond merely denotative language. We All Live in a Yellow Submarine “The occasional dragon notwithstanding, we hardly ever see monsters in Liverpool anymore.” Read More The Owl and the Pussycat “The entire story makes no sense…unless there’s something special about that ring, something you can’t get at Harrod’s at any price.” Read More Dante and the Yellow Submarine “Yellow Submarine did for the Divine Comedy what West Side Story did for Romeo & Juliet…but I very much doubt the Beatles had any idea what they’d done!” Read More Marcel Proust “Who has not dreamed of reliving a cherished moment, not through the ghostly shadows of mind but, like Job, in the flesh?” Read More Robert Frost “Anyone can go for a walk in the woods; only Frost can ‘walk this way’.” Ask any English teacher. The Road Not Taken is a perennial favorite, especially among young readers, who often understand it as an anthem of non-conformity and adventure - Jack Kerouac in verse. But is this really what the poem is about?" Read More Do You Noh? “In the eternal present, not only is every historical event preserved in real time, but every possible event is preserved as well.“ Read More I am the Walrus “Popular music after World War II is a treasure trove for the philosophically curious… Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes, there’s a time to wind and a time to unravel, and now is the time to unravel.” Read More Messiah Redux “Were Handel and Jennens dog whistle revolutionaries?... It is one thing to criticize the secular State, yet another to call for dashing it to pieces.” Read More Handel’s Messiah "There is only one full proof indication that Christmas is coming: the endless performances of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Yup, it’s that time of year! Read More Moore's Nativity “No need to study theology at university… (or) go to Sunday school. It’s all right there in front of us…and Henry Moore helps us see it: Christianity!” Read More Kandinsky: The Painter of Other Worlds The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Alice In Looking-glass world, there’s plenty of there and then, but not a whiff of here and now. Read More Mary Poppins, Sufi Master The story of Mary Poppins is the story of one small boy’s initiation into the teachings of Sufi spirituality and the secrets of Sufi mysticism. When the initiation of Michael Banks is complete, Michael has come, at least in some measure, to know the mind of God. Not bad for seven-years-old! Read More The Meaning of Music We pray the Psalms hoping to conform our minds, our values, our wills to God’s. Remember, God is his essence; we, on the other hand, are each free to create our own essences. Unfortunately, most of us are making a hash of it! Music elucidates the pre-verbal, non-phenomenal structures of the real world. Its meaning is not subject to logical analysis, scientific verification, or mathematical proof. The only test of music’s validity is its beauty. Read More

What happens when we converge a completely unlike pair of ancient and modern influencers? Converge This! Converge This! Articles exploring the 21st century convergence of philosophy, theology and science.

Society Society is the way we live together. It is the concrete manifestation of Culture in interpersonal behavior and institutions. From Marx to Mark “The Gospel of Mark is no biography…It’s a call to action, a manifesto, a How to manual for non-violent guerilla warriors everywhere, 1st century…or 21st.” Read More Christian Anarchism ”A heretical state is not a bad state…A heretical state is not a state at all. There are no bad states. There are only states and pseudo-states.” Read More Fifth Grade Slump, Eighth Grade Cliff “We must surrender the notion that adolescence is a dress rehearsal for adulthood. It’s not; it’s real life! Read More Jesus Christ Revolutionary “He cured the sick and fed the hungry…because it was the right thing to do, here and now, and because it demonstrated what might be possible, universally, in a time to come.” Read More The End of History “Fukuyama proclaimed ‘The End of History’ with a celebratory flourish. But be careful what you celebrate!” Read More The Wonder School “Learning begins with curiosity and children are nothing but question-boxes.” Read More Leviticus and the Fed "The Fed’s 2% inflation policy is a modern version of the Levitical program. It pays for the social safety net that is our way of redistributing wealth.” Read More Home Alone “Macaulay Culkin is ‘every boy’ and his Home Alone family is ‘America’s family’ – except it’s not!” Read More Satan, Mary, and ‘Da Judge’ “Satan glorified political power for its own sake. He defended the socio-economic status quo…Jesus’ mother proclaimed a political and economic revolution...” Read More Political Alienation “Marx’s hypothesis that a person’s voting habits would be determined by their relationship to the means of production was blown out of the water…” Read More How Moses Saved Egyptian Civilization “…Walk through the streets of Jerusalem, through the marketplace at Mahane Yehudah, and find distinctly Judaized foods, dress, music, and customs from every part of the world.” Read More The Lottery “The state lottery is just about the only financial vehicle that offers some folks a realistic opportunity to materially impact their economic circumstances.” Read More Jean-Paul Sartre and Pope Leo XIII “Separated by c. 75 years, these men nonetheless faced a common challenge: Rebuild civilization!” Read More Christ the King “Sir, you are quite simply insane. We know exactly what holds our universe together; it is electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong force…not Christ.” Read More Job vs. James, Rex “God is good because he’s good, not just because he’s God.” Read More

Alethia Today magazine essays relating to contemporary beliefs and values in today's society Culture Articles on contemporary society--its beliefs, values, and accomplishments; plus, original poetry and fiction BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different News Title The role of the artist is to challenge “common sense,” to point out the unrecognized assumptions that underpin naïve realism and to suggest certain directions we might travel in pursuit of deeper truth. Read More Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, Holiday Issue Return to Table of Contents, Halloween Issue Return to Table of Contents, September Issue Return to Table of Contents, Beach Issue Return to Table of Contents, June Issue

Culture Culture Culture is the way we live out Philosophy and Theology in community. Pontius Pilate “Pilate could be the avatar of an entire class of folks in the post-industrial West, society’s so-called middle managers.” Read More What’s the Matter with Santa Claus? “Do you remember when and why you stopped believing in Santa?” Read More The Seven Pillars of Wisdom “Kabbalah kept the pre-Socratic tradition alive until it could be born anew in the Age of Aquarius.” Read More Don’t Teach Your Kid to Count! “Our own number system is based on a highly specialized, and not necessarily privileged, concept of quantity.” Read More The Great River “What the Cross is to Christianity…the River is to Process Philosophy.” Read More Self, Inc. “You’re the CEO of Self, Inc…What’s your mission statement?” Read More Childhood Lost “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, but children are from the planet Mercury.” Read More Be Half There “'Be Here Now,’ cried Baba Ram Dass in the ‘60s. But was that good advice?” Read More Alphabet “Reciting the alphabet is like peeling layers off of a prize-winning red onion.” Read More Arithmetic “I want to repeal all the fundamental laws of Arithmetic.” Read More Just One More Beer “…Regretting your actions would mean disclaiming the entire forward course of world (cosmic) history.” Read More Everybody Loves Grammar “If the physical world isn’t structured according to the rules of grammar, the social world certainly is.” Read More Mythology Before Marvel Comics “Sturluson searched for the universal patterns that connect all times, all places, and all scales…and, Glory be to God, he found them.” Read More Should I Vote? “What if there was an election where everyone was eager to vote…but nobody cared who won? It’s happened!” Read More The Paradox of Childhood “…We treat children…as pets, slaves, snuggle bunnies and proto-adults”. Read More Is Childhood a Crime? “Parents dote on their royal highnesses…and rarely miss an opportunity to damage them in the process.” Read More Vanity “Every day for 80+ years, we imagine ourselves to be someone we are not, and we work tirelessly, and fruitlessly, to become that person. 'That' is Vanity.” Read More Bacteriology…and American Football “…Will it surprise you to learn that not every bacterium is a team player?” Read More Kabbalah and Thomas the Train “Children and tank engines are not so different from the rest of us. They crave meaning! They only settle for pleasure when…they lose hope.” Read More Deconstructing Popeye “…then I am basically an automaton. I am carbon-based AI. I am the product of nature (inherited traits) and nurture (upbringing)…my parents’ mini-me.” Read More Age is an Algorithm “We systematically suppress our actual experience and replace it with whatever it is we think we are supposed to experience, and we call that reality.” Read More Chess “A recent headline in the 'New York Post' read: King Castles!” Read More Football and Quantum Mechanics “This is what we do on Sunday nights and Mondays during football season: we play 'what if' and 'if only'.” Read More May Day “This one day converges mythology (Norse), cosmology (Pagan), theology (Christian) and ideology (Marxist) with ancient fertility rites. And for my next trick…” Read More The Lego Movie and John Stewart Bell “This movie includes a huge twist with cosmological implications.” Read More Middle Voice “Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. It’s a terrible way to live! But we’re living it…(but) it wasn’t always this way, and it doesn’t…have to be this way.” Read More JK Rowling and Pliny the Elder "What about werewolves, giants, trolls, and dragons? We don’t believe in them; they’re not real! Are they?" Read More Dante and The Beatles “If a world can or must…self-annihilate…then that world does not exist, never did exist, never will exist, cannot exist.” Read More Football Math “At last, an opportunity to watch football in peace! … Just beer, pretzels and picking out the next Tom Brady.” Read More I Led Three Lives “Modern physics is right now living at least three lives and possibly a fourth.” Read More I Wasn't Anything Every day is Halloween…Every day I get to make the decision anew: who am I going to be today? Read More Mommy Math Part One If counting is such a powerful tool, how is it that for the most part, we don’t count? Read More Pronouns Next time someone asks you for your ‘pronouns,’ try telling them, ‘you/you’…see what happens. Read More Ectaban Ecbatan may share the seven-ringed pattern of the solar system, but Paradise shares the seven-ringed pattern of Ecbatan! Read More /ˈdjuːti/ Why can’t a monarch wear whatever shade of nail polish she wants? Read More Learn to Swym “Language Endures. We Don’t” – now that is a bumper sticker! Read More Alice In Looking-glass world, there’s plenty of there and then, but not a whiff of here and now. Read More Imagine! “John’s Utopia is a 20th century version of Friedrich Nietzsche’s flat universe.” Read More BeHukkotai: Why Land is Different Land is imbued with holiness, which means that, like God, it is beyond human measures of usefulness or control. Read More Xiako Can't Count So, what’s up with the Piraha? How can they get by without numbers? Read More Speaking Piraha The hidden grammar censor in our Euro-brains whispers inaudibly, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Why did the speaker place ‘tall’ and ‘basketball’ in the same sentence, unless they are somehow connected?” A major fallacy that comes with a huge price tag. Read More Enlightenment! “It is often said that victors write history. That is even truer when the war is cultural rather than political.” Read More How to Coach an Undefeated Football Team “Team is not a collective noun; it’s a verb: to team.” Read More Teaching Physics in the 21st Century Schools will soon be reopening with kids returning to begin a new school year. Now is the time to begin thinking about the fall curriculum. In this article, we outline a 10-unit physics curriculum for grades four through eight, all based on The Yellow Submarine. Read More I'm Bored! “We are co-responsible for the world. We are all always our siblings’ keepers!” Read More Believers Need Not Apply We’ve constructed a super-elaborate cosmology to explain how ‘it is’ arose spontaneously from ‘it is not.’ (If that doesn’t make any sense to you, trust me, it doesn’t make sense to me either.) How did the universe come to be? It just did! How did the ratios of the masses of subatomic particles get so finely tuned? They just did! Read More Offense Taken! There is nothing more self-satisfying or self-aggrandizing than ‘taking offense’. Read More Is 65 the New 45? That’s conventional wisdom…and in this rare case, conventional wisdom is not wrong…but neither is it perfectly right. Read More Everybody's Autobiography Is it possible to write an autobiography of everyone, to somehow incorporate the wildly varying events of different people’s lives into a single story? Absurd, right? But not so fast! Read More Can Subject/Verb Agreement Make the World Go Round? We imagine that our world is made up of ‘things’ (nouns), their accidental qualities (adjectives), and the relationships between them (verbs). We imagine this because just such a classification system is embedded in our native tongue: modern English, for example, or most any other contemporary Indo-European language. Read More Voice Verbs “I am stuck on Band-Aid ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me!” So says the jingle for one of the world’s most iconic products. But more importantly, and quite unexpectedly, this slogan is one of the best examples of ‘middle voice thinking’ in American pop culture. Read More Antonyms Antonyms. No such thing! Not-X includes the shadow of X. Example: ‘Pretty’ and ‘Ugly’. ‘Pretty’ refers to the totality (gestalt) of a person, place, or thing. ‘Ugly’ refers to those elements of the aforementioned that are not consistent with a ‘pretty’ whole. ‘Pretty’ and ‘ugly’ appear to be antonyms…but they’re not. In fact, they operate on two entirely different syntactic levels. ‘Ugly’ actually derives its meaning from the concept of ‘pretty’. Therefore, we can say ‘ugly’ includes “the shadow of ‘pretty’”; but not so the other way around. Read More Covid 20 So we were told that COVID-19 came from bats. By the summer of 2020, it should have been obvious that this was wrong. COVID-19 has behaved in some very unique ways that most probably reflect the effects of ‘human engineering’. Now the scientific consensus is shifting. Read More Amazon Amazon provides reliable, rapid, and inexpensive delivery service; and the US Postal Service? Well, to be kind let’s say ‘not so much’. So who is being sued by the feds? You guessed it…Amazon. Apparently, success today is automatically an anti-trust violation. Read More Culture

The Bible The Bible is a treasure trove of primary source material at the foundation of the Intellectual History of the West. Ephesians 2:10 “In this one verse…St. Paul proposes a radically new model of what it means to be a human being.” Read More How Matthew Spins Mark “The same facts can take on different ‘meaning’ depending on how they’re presented. Read More Mark’s Diary – Notes for a Screenplay “And so they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were filled with awe, while those who followed behind were afraid.” Read More Jeremiah “God places his words in Jeremiah’s mouth. How can this be consistent with Jeremiah’s status as a free and independent entity?” Read More Mark’s Marks of Authenticity “There is no single work more important than the Gospel of Mark…the Intellectual History of the West hangs on it, so its authenticity is of paramount importance.” Read More Re-Imagining the Magnificat "In our zeal to project our conceptions of The Ideal Woman onto this enigmatic first-century figure, we’ve strayed a bit from the little we do know." Read More The ‘O Antiphons’ “We are asking Christ to come… to teach us, rescue us, shine on us, free us and, repeated three times, to save us.” Read More Eucharist “…The spacetime world of matter and energy, 14 billion years old and almost 100 billion light years across, is not the final word.” Read More The Comedy of Job “Failure to appreciate the comic elements in Job has resulted in an almost universal misreading of the text.” Read More Revelation “This is possibly the shortest ‘play’ in all of literature…and yet it is arguably more important than anything Shakespeare (or even Andrew Lloyd Weber) ever wrote! Read More Psalm 151 “But deliver us from evil,” this last verse is the key to the entire prayer. Read More Beatitudes “The eight beatitudes are a 'manifesto' for change, a change in the way we understand the world…behave in that world… (and) act toward one another. Read More Jericho “Some of us were waving copies of Mao’s Little Red Book; we all should have been clutching copies of the Old Testament.” Read More Job is My Superhero "No one has taken a bigger risk than Job, and no one has faced longer odds; and yet, Job has taken God to court and won!" Read More Bible Read Backwards What would happen if we read the Old Testament in reverse order? From back to front. What if we began with Malachi and ended with Genesis? Read More What Did John See? The Bible doesn’t tell us what John saw, but it does tell us that the breaking of the seventh seal was followed by half an hour of total silence. Why? Read More The Final Psalms Ultimately, the Kingdom of Heaven is the transfiguration of the historical realm into the eternal realm, according to God’s values. Read More Corinthians How is it that God can perform the miracle of Incarnation? Or to put it more accurately, how is it that God is the miracle of Incarnation. Read More The Riddle of Job If I do my job in this essay, you may become a modern-day version of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, who “stoppeth one of three." You’ll be spreading the truth about Job to anyone who’ll listen. Read More Genesis Wins Nobel Prize Traditionally, Nobels are awarded only to ‘living recipients’ and only for work completed in the preceding year. In its statement, the committee said it felt an exception was needed in this instance “in order to right a grievous wrong.” Read More