Musings of a Middle Aged Man

Perception is an active process by which an individual organizes, interprets, and makes sense of sensory information from their environment to form a coherent understanding of the world. The foundation for perceiving is our senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. A simple example of the process. A vibration is gathered either in the ears or via bone conduction and is transformed...

Sin is broadly defined as a transgression of divine or moral law, a violation of what is right, or a failure to meet god's standards. The concept of sin includes transgressions of action, thought, or attitudes, such as disobedience, selfishness, or not performing good deeds, and is often seen as separating an individual from connection with the divine. Sin typically carries negative consequenc...

According to Star Trek, space is the final frontier. I disagree. Yes, space is vast beyond comprehension. We will never completely know what lies amongst the stars, let alone understand a mere 0.0001% of the billions of galaxies comprising the solar system. The final frontier, in more ways than one, is death, the mysterious realm where all men and women have or will go when the life force decides...

When it comes to free speech, I am pretty much an anarchist, viewing speech as a an individual freedom, a universal right that must be free from state-sanctioned coercion or regulation. No central authority should have the right to censor or inhibit expression by an individual or a group. If there are going to be consequences for speaking, they should be social, such as boycotting or exclusion fro...

The challenge with any cross-cultural dialogue resides in the reality that what we say generally has roots deep in our cultural context. It is a context in which we move seamlessly, unknowingly, not realizing the context is unknown to others, meaning any attempted dialogue is obscured by clouds blotting out foundational understandings. A couple examples should help clarify. It is common in Vietnam...

I find it helpful to answer this type of question by first defining the terms, in this case, the proposed dichotomy between believing and knowing, to help ensure a common foundation from which to draw a meaningful conclusion. Knowledge is defined as facts and information acquired by experience or education, with facts further refining it to be something verifiable and, just as importantly, can be...

Daedalus and Icarus could very well be the first recorded instance of humans, the two men, and machines, attached wings representing a simple machine, were combined to form a man-machine hybrid in literature. Yes, it is a bit of a stretch considering the wings were not permanently attached. Edgar Allen Poe, in 1943, wrote a short story about a war hero who, it is gradually revealed, is almost enti...

The idea of "self" is multifaceted and complex. Self refers to an individual's unique identity and being, understood as a combination of one's beliefs, memories, thoughts, physical and mental attributes, and the subjective experience of consciousness. It encompasses both the "I," source of agency, and the "Me," the object of reflection, creating a continuous s...

The idea that animals should have the same rights as humans extends back to the 9th century BCE, along with the principle in Eastern religions of ahimsā, non-violence toward all living beings, advocating for kindness and non-cruelty expressed daily by a vegetarian diet. I guess they did not believe growing, breathing plants were living. An odd prejudice, one arising because humans are unable to he...

When thinking about the lasting impact of decisions or responsible planning, the impact on the future must be taken into account. Businesses typically have monthly, quarterly, and annual targets guided by a five-year plan and longer-term ambitions. A couple looking to start a family will, when buying a home, seek out a location that will suit their future needs. They look as far out as the schooli...

As humans with only our singular, first-person experience as a reference, we assume everyone experiences the world the exact same way we do. My red is your red, despite the color triggering emotional responses based on unique genetics and divergent experiences. My sadness feels like your sadness, irrespective of the truism that each person grieves in their own way. My conscious experience is ident...

For as far back as I can recollect, I have been fascinated by religion, by man's attempt to connect what they view as the ultimate power and the many masks those deities wielding that power wear. I had already set aside the religion of my birth due to conflicting texts and hypocrisy of both the hierarchy and followers when I became captivated by the enthralling PBS series, "Joseph Campbel...

If I were forced to choose between being intelligent or exuding wisdom, I would opt for the latter. Make no mistake, I prize intelligence, love when I learn things, I can add to my knowledge database, I've been cultivating for some 64 odd years. I define it as the ability to grasp abstract concepts quickly, recall information readily, and solve problems. The problem, though, intelligence can r...

One of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV involved a neo-Nazi, white supremacist seeking to create an all white enclave in North Dakota. To be clear, I do not condone in any way, shape, or form white supremacist ideology or any other reason one can conjure to prejudge another human being. He was ranting about nonwhites being inferior and raging against what he termed the ethnic impurity...

The intrepid crew members of the Star Trek Enterprise bravely signed up for a five-year mission to explore life, seek out new planets, and survive. Unbeknownst to them, it was unlikely the red shirts would explore beyond one episode, a fact that may have altered their choice to join the crew, were they informed when they enlisted. I wonder if that would have altered their choice? In the Foundation...

I have dabbled with being disciplined frequently over the course of my 60-plus years and counting. By discipline, I do not refer to hiring a prostitute to dress up as a nun who paddles my pasty ass to get aroused before having my body ravaged by wild intercourse. Nope. I mean self-discipline, training myself to do something in a controlled and habitual way to achieve a goal, such as when I attende...

The concept of permanence with respect to humans can be interpreted in at least two different ways. One permanence implies the person in soul form, a soul which God has foreknowledge prior to existence, enters the physical realm at birth in the form of a body, exists at death to persist in an afterlife divided into a pleasant place and a not so pleasant place. The final destination is dependent up...

Independence is the ability to function autonomously and make decisions for oneself, while interdependence is the state of relying on and being relied on by others, often in mutually beneficial relationships. Symbiosis is an extreme form of interdependence wherein one species cannot exist independently of another, such as with the Pronuba moth and the Yucca plant. The female Pronuba moth pollinate...

The beauty of the human mind, a characteristic arrogant fools claim is exclusive to humanity, is the conjuring of imaginary realms to mentally explore while the physical being, relaxing in a comfy chair, remains in a state of stasis. I don't believe imagination is a human only capability. I am not alone in this supposition. Science has shown behaviors in dolphins, chimps, rats, gray parrots, a...

For a significant part of my life, perhaps from birth, I was a contrarian, typically taking an antagonistic stance against the prevailing winds of the day. I don't know if I am genetically predisposed, though I strongly suspect I am, to go against the flow or something in my environment trained me to embrace the struggle upstream rather than float downstream with the flotsams and jetsams. I su...

Truth is generally defined as something in agreement with fact or reality. Correspondence theory states that truth occurs when a statement or belief corresponds to the reality it describes. A critical nuance missing, though, is one of perspective, of context. Perspective can render one man's number six, another woman's number nine and vice versa. These two distinct realities mean there are...

I imagine a question of this sort first arose when one would be ancient philosopher peered out of the window of the brick home from one of the first human settlements, looked past the central temple complex dedicated to Enki, the god of wisdom and water, past the settlement's boundaries, where a hunting party was returning carrying gazelles lashed to long sticks with their mouths open and tong...

A fundamental flaw in the question, despite being uttered by the renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan, is the presupposition that there is only one universe. Modern astrophysicists theorize that the number of universes is in the realm of 10 raised to the 10th power raised to the 16th power. A number so big, it is essentially infinity. I have difficulty wrapping my head around one observing infinity...

I have been enthralled with the visual arts for as long as I can remember, paintings and photography primarily. I am also intrigued by ceramics and sculpting, but not enough to try my hand at either. I would like to try turning spalted wood into a stunning bowl or vase. I lack the space for even a halfway decent lathe and the myriad tools necessary to perform turning magic. Primarily, though, my j...

One of the life challenges humans must navigate throughout our lives is the effective management of our egos. The ego drives multiple life decisions, particularly when it is in some way challenged or offended by a second party not privy to our inner machinations. Without conscious thought, the ego, triggered unconsciously, reacts irrespective of the odds of coming out the better in a confrontation...