July 30, 2015
The Invented Antagonism
The hallmark of a 19th or 20th century (or 21st century) debate about religion is a focus on origins. This began with Darwin’s The Origin of Species, in relation to […]
July 12, 2014
Twin Towers of the Intellect
Both the theologian, advancing abstract definitions of Deity as the Ground of Being, transcendent of language and intellection, the impersonal prime mover, hardly so limited and vengeful and silly as […]
December 11, 2013
Believe What You Wish
The Buddha’s hard-to-disagree-with central insight—that desire is at the source of human suffering, and human action in general—has ready examples in our loves, lusts, and ambitions; it seems to have […]
November 29, 2013
Child’s Play: The Maturation of the Mind
Freud, in his late life, moved from patient-on-couch analysis to larger theorizations about religion and civilization. In one such tract, The Future of an Illusion, he makes mention of how […]
February 10, 2013
“Western” and “Modern”
It is interesting to note that among Indian Hindus, the words “Western” and “modern” are well-nigh interchangeable in usage. That is, a “modern” way of dressing, loving and marrying, […]
December 28, 2012
The Importance of Telling a Good Story
You would think that with scientific knowledge expanding ever so exponentially, and literalist interpretations of traditional scriptures undermined east and west by it, you would see a great popular surge […]
August 27, 2012
The Two Gandhis
Takes on Mahatma Gandhi tend to focus either on the Mahatma or on the Gandhi: That is, they either consider him a holy man whose politics emerged from an inner “truth” […]