The Atheist’s Soul

My book club is like an extended family. We have been going long enough that we have already seen three of our number pass away, one from suicide, one from illness and one from not-so-old-age. I mention this only to convey that our members, a sprinkling of bright, secular-minded, financial types, techies and assorted professionals, […]

Our Visit From An Earth Mother

Last week our family’s house guest was an Earth Mother. She actually lives in a wind-swept land of magic and music but says that she comes from nowhere in particular. Sometimes as invisible as an experienced couch surfer and sometimes larger than life, she appears to be completely self-contained, having the ability to find stillness […]

The Myth of the Dark Ages

I recently watched Agora, the movie about Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in late 4th century Roman Egypt. In the film Hypatia struggles to save the Great Library of Alexandria from destruction and is finally murdered by Christian bigots. The film suggests what Stephen Greenblatt clearly states in his book, The Swerve: How the World Became […]

A Sense of Wonder

Lying under the stars in the Sierra Nevada and having a front seat at the greatest and longest running celestial production, I can’t help but feel a quickening of the pulse, a swelling of the heart and a suspension of breath, the usual accompaniments of a profound sense of wonder. Richard Dawkins has described wonder […]