Bashing God for fun and profit

Literary critic and author Christopher Hitchens’ “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” (2007) reached number one on the New York Times bestseller book list and biologist Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” (2006) has sold over 1.5 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages.… Read the rest

This truth is false

The scientific method requires that to be called truth, theory be confirmed through experiment and yield quantifiable and replicable results. Without such, theory will simply remain theory and will fade into obscurity.

When it comes to quantum mechanics (dealing with the very smallest forms of … Read the rest

Spring training

While walking with my friend Stanley a few months ago, I happened upon an orphaned hardball in the gutter. It’s been 45 years since I held a hardball, sensed the stitches snaking around the leathery surface and grasped its perfect hand-held size.

I tossed the ball to Stanley. “When’s the last time you … Read the rest

Empire’s decline

America maintains over 800 military bases in countries across the globe (in blue)

We live in an accelerated age, one in which each change hastens the next. It may seem like the world is moving faster, but it is really karma that is accelerating. Karma is simply the law of cause and effect, and as the causes… Read the rest

Feeling green with envy

When I first joined the Sierra Club in 1975, I fully understood that being labeled an “environmentalist” was not too far from being labeled an “anarchist.” This was, after all, in the era when “tree-hugger” was not a compliment, and many thought that recycling was about riding used bicycles. Despite… Read the rest

Life among the brokenhearted

Like many other medical patients confronting mortality, I have had to come to terms with my broken heart. No doubt our modern American lifestyle has made its contribution to heart disease – super-sized portions, trans-fat and processed foods, refined sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, lack of exercise,… Read the rest

The nature of natural

When it comes to today’s marketing of products, there is no word more powerful and effective than “natural.” Natural evokes the primordial benevolence of nature and qualities of purity, freshness and beauty. It is used to promote food, deodorant, candles, clothing and cosmetics. Almost everything… Read the rest

It’s how you play the game

When Watson and Crick revealed the structure of DNA to the world, science concluded that genes were destiny. At the time the double helix blueprint containing millions upon millions of individual coded genes seemed to be of such magnitude and complexity that it would forever be beyond the reach of science… Read the rest

On making dogs of heroes

Profiting from the suffering of others: a “Roman Holiday”

Scratch deeply enough at the hide of any hero and you will find some dirt. Commonly, we refer to “feet of clay” when we find fault in those we first admire, but today the art of finding fault has reached new lows.

From “gotcha” to unearthing… Read the rest

If animals could talk

Washoe the Chimpanzee using sign language to communicate

I recently noted the passing of Washoe, the 42-year-old chimpanzee that became a pioneer in human-chimpanzee communication. Washoe was taught to use human sign language and the manipulation of symbols to communicate, and researchers claim… Read the rest

The world as it is

It seems just like any other ordinary day, when Wham! My father suddenly ends up in the hospital – seriously anemic. As soon as he is doing better and things begin to feel normal again, Wham! My sister gets thrown while white-water rafting in Thailand, cracks her helmeted head into a rock and suffers serious… Read the rest

Of art and the sacred

Only a space remains where the enormous Bamiyan Buddha of Afghanistan once stood

People have been arguing about art for a very long time. The cave paintings in Lascaux, France, are reported to be over 20,000 years old, and no doubt they stimulated considerable dialogue, “It looks more like an ox than … Read the rest