August 2005 Bookshelf
August was truly the last month for some time when I could spend significant energy on reading non-law related books. This month's reading contained a lengthy treatise on the French Revolution, a good photo-journalist book on the personal consequences of war, Cornell West's most recent commentary on American politics and culture, as well as a good book on the debate over intelligent design. I most strongly recommend Marcus Borg's book, Jesus & Buddha; a particularly critical book for me at this point in my journey.The Problem Of Being a Media Personality Is …
You can’t break wind on-air, and you are subject to occasional bouts of verbal diarrhea which at best only embarrass you and at worse illustrate to those paying attention your real heart’s intentions. Such is the lesson again reinforced by the always-insightful Pat Robertson and his comments that Venezuelan President Chavez should be “assassinated.” Pat’s got a long history of such illuminating comments, statements that always manage to say a lot more about him than they do about his supposed belief system (Christianity, in case his recent comments have caused you to be perplexed at what the foundations of his values actually are).The Agony of the Gaza Strip Withdrawal
Israel faces a difficult internal political issue as it brings the settlers back into their society. Many of the people who settled in the Israeli occupied territories were religious ideologues who viewed their choice of home as being significant in forcing Israel to accept its Divinely ordained obligation to occupy the Promised Land. Always vocal opponents to the Israeli withdrawal, the settlers are now being forced (in many cases quite literally at gunpoint) back into the mainstream of Israeli society. Pulled from the deep roots they had put down, the homes they had built, and communities they had fostered, these people are now angry. What will happen to this anger? Will it simply disappear with ...The Trauma of Personal Change
Most of us only seriously investigate changing our lives when we are broken, confused, and questioning that which once defined us. Making matters worse, we often refuse to let go of that which we need to – we hold on to what we think will make us happy when it is precisely that which weighs us down. The epiphany that will change your life is when you realize two things: to change you have to first have a healthy concept firmly in mind of what the change will result in and second, you must realize that the act of change will require an intermediate stage of floating where you will feel you are not at rest, are ...Changes for MysteriousFaith
In addition to changing the look of MysteriousFaith, yours truly will be going through some pretty profound changes over the next two weeks as I begin my J.D. Having quit my job, I am getting ready to fundamentally reorient my life towards areas I feel are better suited to my skill set. My thoughts on this change follow.The Point of It All …
Letting go of desire sets into motion an internal change of heart that is terrifying, an internal journey very few of us (myself included) have the courage for. This internal journey, what some call enlightenment and others call salvation is the point of it all. The point is not, as a former fundamentalist such as myself will struggle life long to appreciate, getting all the facts and ideas “just right.” The point is to be reborn, to become something new, someone special in his ethics, values and morals.Book Review: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
In wrestling with David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion I forced myself to write this book review attempting to capture the essential components of his argument for unlimited reason and limited ideas about God. This was not an easy book to read, but the review captures the essential dimensions of Hume's arguments.Is Doubt Healthy?
If we assume that coming to really know anything requires wrestling with what constitutes the foundation and support for our knowledge, it then becomes obvious that doubt plays an essential role in the act of testing those support structures we have in place for our beliefs. Never a comfortable exercise, learning to master the process of doubt is essential to saying we have found peace in our beliefs. Similarly, refusing to give sway to doubt builds straw houses of belief where we will hide behind complexity in the interests of protecting ourselves from the clean symmetry of doubt. If doubt is essential to being grounded in our beliefs, then it is important to discuss whether or not ...Understanding Doubt
Why do people doubt? Is it an important dimension to personal transformation, and if it is, can we learn how to harness it so doubt becomes a healthy part of our spiritual journey, and not a caustic response to bad experiences? If we believe, as many of us say we do, that we seek truth above all else, how do we make doubt a constructive part of the process of building, and not simply turn doubt into a force that destroys all belief it touches?July 2005 Bookshelf
The final month before I begin my J.D. provided time to do some additional reading on a far range of topics ranging from additional work by Ken Wilber, to a spiritual memoir from someone whose story is very similar to my own.About MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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