According to Rumi, one's words should pass through three gates: 1. Is it true? 2. Is it necessary? 3. Is it kind?
Could it be that any Creator worth existing must be beyond human understanding, so that religion is actually a human construct? Perhaps speculating on human behavior in regards to religious habits should be no different than studying any other type of human behavior, because if God is behind it at all, God is behind it... Continue Reading →
This is the third in a series, in which I will present a partial summary of systems for three theorists and then apply them to a question in the final post: the relationship between social indoctrination and personal belief. To read the previous post, regarding Michel Foucault, read here. To jump to the first post... Continue Reading →
This is the third in a series, in which I will present a partial summary of systems for three theorists and then apply them to a question in the final post. To read the previous post, regarding Louis Althusser, read here. To jump to the first post and read from the beginning, read here. This... Continue Reading →
In the previous post, I presented an overview of this series. Here, I will focus on Louis Althusser. After providing a more comprehensive overview of the three theorists, I will discuss the relationship between social indoctrination and personal belief. Althusser Louis Althusser claims that a primary function of State Power in a capitalist society is to perpetuate the... Continue Reading →
Early church fathers Clement and Origen of Alexandria both contended that, for God to be truly all-good, all-powerful and omnipresent, it stands to reason that (everything being a part of God and destined to return to God in the end) Satan would also be redeemed, forgiven, changed and would return to the Source with all... Continue Reading →
The following is an abridged version of a five-part series I published on moviepilot.com. There, I compared the short-lived NBC series Constantine to the long-running FX show Justified to show what Constantine should do to succeed on another network...basically, it's an article about the difference between trope (read: cliché)-ridden network television and the more daring and... Continue Reading →
I earned my master's degree in Religious Studies with a near perfect GPA last week and then headed out west to visit the desert with one of my closest friends. I'm back to writing today, excited to get some new fiction under my belt. More details about Death Valley, The Valley of Fire and new... Continue Reading →
Pass Three Gates 