We all know the limits of the human mind. So, what would happen if much of what is now part of the human catalog of knowledge suddenly disappeared and we no longer knew much of what we now know? How would that affect the 7 billion of us who occupy this planet? Transversely, what if the human population was suddenly and precipitously reduced from 7 billion to 100 or down to 2? Would a large portion of human knowledge and ideas suddenly disappear?

How would these scenarios play out? This is more than just a thought experiment. It goes to the heart of answering the most pressing question we have face: Who are we?

"How do we fix this?" is not the question we should be asking today but we have convinced ourselves that this is the only question that can direct us to a solution of what we think is wrong with our world.

This question arises naturally from our scientific activity. We do science by conducting experiments that indicate which action produced better results than other actions. But the success of our scientific activity has blinded us to the fact that we are a part of the same reality that we are attempting to understand through our use of science. Being a self-taught species has tremendous challenges.

Why would you of your own volition, or under the influence of others, believe that to say that the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is a parable is the same as saying that Adam and Eve did not exist?

When did you start believing that what is told about somebody must always be true or the person does not exist? Should I believe everything I am told about you for you to exist?

I am now convinced that marriage equality will prove to be the most significant human movement of the twenty-first century. It needs to be stated that marriage equality is not about the validation of homosexuality. Thinking that it is misses the point of the exercise.

If God made the world it must also follow that everything that happens in the world is part of God's "plan." This does not mean that He intended for all the pain and torment we suffer anymore than I intend for the first piston in my car engine to go down at precisely the moment that it does. But the moment I decide to turn the key in the ignition that piston is going to go down. If I don't want it to go down all I do is refuse to turn the key. Consequently. the piston going down at that precise time is part of my "plan."

In the wake of the Boston marathon bombings many people are wondering how two seemingly ordinary young men could so easily and so quickly embrace such violence.

This question addresses both the motivation and the process of their conversion. The irony of our concern is how willing we would be to convert people who were in the state these young men were when they planted those bombs into the kind of people we think they should be. Whether one goes from acceptable to unacceptable or from unacceptable to acceptable the process is still conversion.

We do not pay much attention to the motivation behind what we consider to be "good" conversion. But our willingness to classify conversion as good and bad may lie at the heart of the problem we are attempting to solve. The fact is that no one goes from bad to good; that is a judgment made by those who disagree with their ideology.

It appears that the message of Genesis is eternal: in the day that you claim to know the difference between good and evil, violent death will result; you will surely die.

This is really funny. Humans know they need to work together but no one wants to stick their neck out and work together with the others until everybody else is working together.

The first step to overcoming your problems is to understand that your problems are not yours. If you think they are your problems you may be able to solve them but you will never overcome them.

Think about this. God does not judge because He can but because He knows. If you have to be told, you don't know. If you have to discover, you don't know.

And because God knows He does not have to judge.

If you, as a human being, are unsatisfied with what humanity has become you cannot solve that problem by getting rid of the "bad" parts. You have no example of that approach in nature and nature is your only teacher.

The worst part of my wife's funeral service was the funeral service, and I feel the same way about all funeral services. We advertise them as celebrations of the decedent's life but the primary focus of these services is on what the individual has done during their lifetime. There is very little focus on what that person was -- his/her sense of identity. Even at those rare moments when the person's essence is mentioned it is in the context of what that person did. We are obsessed with activity and that is not entirely a bad thing. But what each of us does is just a role each has been given to play, and each does what anyone in similar circumstances would do. But what each of us is; that is where the rubber meets the road.

A good way to demonstrate what I am driving at is to restate the last two sentences to read: But what we do is just a role we have been given to play, and we do what anyone in similar circumstances would do. But what we are; that is where the rubber meets the road.

What meaning we derive depends on how we are thinking.

Summer time?

Aristotle was correct when he said that "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy." But we must be careful not to conclude that the swallow is just an illusion if it is not yet summer. One event does not indicate a trend only if you are anticipating a trend. Summer or not the swallow has appeared and, in the context of life, its arrival has meaning. After all, one has no meaning unless you have two.
Or, does it?

I don't understand why theists find atheists or agnostics to be objectionable. One must first define something before one can disbelieve it. Saying "I don't believe in any gods" is not a reasonable answer to "What god don't you believe in?" Since anything can be a god that would mean that the valiant atheist does not believe in anything. The person who does not know whether there is a god is as threatening as the person who does not believe there is a Santa Clause. Theists should be more concern about theists who do not believe in the full power of their god.