Archive for the ‘ Religion ’ Category

Something Too Horrible for Words

There is always something we dread more than anything else, something so horrible we don’t have the words to express it – but it is always in the back of our minds, and determines much of our behavior. There are two ways of dealing with this problem, or any other problem: recognize it or deny it. Any [ READ MORE ]

The Church That Went Away

I did not intend to write about religion this morning,  After all, the tiny church my family belonged to, and was their whole lives, was hardly important – and now barely exists. Why should I bother with it? Because, for one thing, it was a big part of my early life – and a part [ READ MORE ]

Domain-Driven Development

This is a followup to Modeling a Domain. I am giving you fair warning, as I did with that posting, that this is about software development. I will show how can be applied to more than that, but you may not have the patience to see how this can be done. I start by reminding you of [ READ MORE ]

When Art was Ornamental

Harper’s – Byzantium From the first page of this article: Pagan classicism – mamoreal, monumental, certain of the primacy of earthly life – yielded to Christian abstraction and introspection. Art was now the ornamentation and the not celebration of a transitory world; the physical world would never again be heroic. This article has much artwork [ READ MORE ]

The Protestant Ethic

This has been denigrated recently – and rightly enough, but what has replaced it has not been much better: consumerism. I continue to read The Condition of Man, by Lewis Mumford, an excellent historical review. The following long quotation is from pages 199-200: — If his image-breaking might turn into a callous contempt for all [ READ MORE ]

Emerson’s Foolishness

Here are the final sentences in his Divinity School Address: I look for the new Teacher, that shall follow so far those shining laws, that he shall see them come full circle; shall see their rounding complete grace, shall see the world to be the mirror of the soul; shall see the identity of the law of gravitation [ READ MORE ]

To Make a Better World We Must Destroy the One We Have

Somehow or other, this makes sense to us – or at least to judge by our actions it does. When deciphering unconscious processes, such as this, we have to work backward – from what we are doing (which is clear enough) to the hidden forces behind them. We will always deny these – but that [ READ MORE ]

The Origins of Capitalism

Capitalism is a word that has religious significance for us. It is obvious that Business has become our new religion; but it is also obvious that no one wants to recognize this. Business (Capitalism) has become all-powerful, just as the Medieval Church used to be. This transition should be clearly understood – but it is denied [ READ MORE ]

More Bloom on Mormonism

Bloom’s take on this subject still bothers me – but I have to admit it is original. From pages 87-89: — If one stands back from contemporary Mormonism in order to achieve perspective on it, the most singular impression has to be the Mormon drive for increasing the population of the church by procreation and [ READ MORE ]

Harold Bloom on Mormonism

I was born and raised a Mormon – albeit a Missouri Mormon, a church I left when I went to the University of Illinois. But if someone now had asked me to say a single good thing about Joseph Smith, its founder, my mind would have hit a blank. I could have said plenty of [ READ MORE ]

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