Reading Time: 16 minutes “I don’t get out much. I could use the excuse of the pandemic. Or my multiple sclerosis. But the truth is, the beach is only just down the road and I’m lazy. No, not lazy…obsessed. Obsessive.” Jonathan MS Pearce, sporting his anachronistic and somewhat iconoclastic mutton chop sideburns, offers me into his suburban house just […]
Philosophy
Posted inPhilosophy
What does ‘exist’ even mean?
Reading Time: 7 minutes “Exist” can be a tricky word. Unless I define the term upfront, people often think I mean something other than I do. When I am talking about the color red, or, the concept of loyalty or morality, I might say that these things don’t exist. What I usually mean is that they exist in our […]
Posted inEthics
An ethical maze: Designing babies for a greater good?
Reading Time: 16 minutes “At ten months old, we were told he would need a heart transplant. There was no cure for his condition, so we would have to go to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital at some point. If they had a bed. And a heart. And agreed to the procedure.” Great Ormond Street, the famous children’s hospital […]
Posted inCulture
Hey curling, it’s not you, it’s us: The silliness and seriousness of sports
Reading Time: 4 minutes OnlySky · Hey curling, it’s not you, it’s us | Jack Bowen One of my favorite diversions during the Winter Olympics involves tracking the popular opinion of curling…in the United States. The overriding conception seems to be that it’s just plain silly. A New York Post article deems curling the “weirdest” Olympic sport and a Google […]
Posted inPhilosophy
What is transcendence?
Reading Time: 10 minutes Transcendence can mean an awful lot of things in many different contexts. But it is a word that carries some heft in philosophical and theological discussions. I have to say, though, that my opinion is that there is often equivocation going on in its usage. This entails that its meaning can shift or be unclear […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
The resurrection of Ethical Culture
Reading Time: 5 minutes This one’s for my people. My Ethical Culture people, the people I spoke to in my last column declaring Ethical Culture “dead.” I have heard from a lot of you in the day since my column was published. Some of you are angry. Some of you are sad. Some of you are relieved that someone […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
Ethical Culture is dead. Long live congregational humanism!
Reading Time: 10 minutes I can pinpoint the exact moment I realized Ethical Culture was dead. I had just struggled through yet another virtual board meeting, the discussion dominated by an issue that had riven our tiny federation of humanist congregations for months. Once again, institutional dysfunction was getting in the way of progress. We had a clear opportunity […]
Posted inVideo
Jack Bowen: This is Awe | TEDx
Reading Time: < 1 minute OnlySky columnist Jack Bowen thinks we’ve got it all wrong when it comes to what makes us happy. In his TEDx talk at Stanford University, the philosopher, drummer, and coach argues that awe should not result from the things that make us happy and grateful. It should instead be the starting point from which everything […]
Posted inPhilosophy
The problem of evil: What would Ockham do?
Reading Time: 4 minutes A Christian wrote a long, thorough response to the Problem of Evil, but that length is a weakness. A shorter, simpler explanation is much more plausible.
Posted inCritical thinking
Atheology is intellectual, respectful, and apolitical, but not perfect
Reading Time: 5 minutes A new generation is taking over the online discussion of god and faith, and mostly it’s a welcome change—improving the quality of atheist arguments. Many atheists, of course, have no interest in apologetics (aka the use of reasoned arguments to justify a religious view). To them, the non-existence of God is simply a given—an assumption […]