Supernaturalism is Inherently Impossible — I’ve long been interested in prebiology and chemical evolution and was recently watching a video where a scientist said “life is the most interesting natural phenomenon.” This got me to thinking about how life being a natural phenomenon is basically axiomatically true. It can’t not be a natural phenomenon. The…

Nagarjuna and the Deconstruction of Gender — This post may be easier to understand if you first read my post on the ideas of Nagarjuna. “I’m not a woman I’m not a man I am something that you’ll never understand” — Prince The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna pointed out that all phenomena are empty (sunyata) — or devoid…

The Meaning of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā — “Everything is real and is not real, Both real and not real, Neither real nor not real. This is Lord Buddha’s teaching.” — Nagarjuna (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Ch. 18) “All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and…

And the Nature of Biblical Truth — I have, for quite a while, identified as both an atheist and a Zen Buddhist. I do not believe that the biblical prophets, the apostles, and the Early Church Fathers were “making it up” when they claimed to have these mystical experiences in which they saw the “uncreated light,” had…

I recently watched a couple YouTube videos that got me thinking. In one video, Rokas and Icy Mike talk about boxing being the best martial art for dealing with multiple attackers. They make a really good point — boxing is the only martial art where there are multiple videos of…

I was listening to music while working the other day and an old Third Eye Blind song came on. The meaning and significance of songs seem to change drastically over time. I’ve always loved this album, mostly because it evokes feelings of nostalgia for me. As a kid, I spent…

We Don’t Have to Choose One Over the Others — I am a fan of various basic income schemes, including negative income tax, the social dividend, and universal basic income. We often think of these as mutually exclusive schemes that are incompatible with one another but I don’t think that they actually are. We don’t necessarily have to pick between…

I follow two Twitter accounts that just retweet all the tweets of every Congressperson (one for the Senate and the other for the House). …

It is frequently claimed that Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world because it is loosely based on the Vedas. It is also claimed that Siddhārtha Gautama founded Buddhism in response to Hinduism (or, possibly even as a reformation of Brahmanical/Vedic Hinduism). It is assumed that the Buddha was…