Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4674 )

• Flight of Fancy

  

  I’m about fully recovered from my recent visit to Texas. Travel is perhaps the greatest form of education. After having my regular government pat-down, and... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Real Life Zombies

  

  In recent months Binghamton University has been on my mind. Binghamton has a number of videos available on YouTube which I find to be entertaining and even,... Read more

  Posted on 10 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Esalen

  

  Every great once in a while, you read an academic book that really makes you think. Not that many books aren’t erudite or thought-provoking, but the ones that... Read more

  Posted on 09 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Celebrating Women of All Nations and Faiths

  

  So it’s International Women’s Day, and I’m thinking about what various religions might do to celebrate it. How about equality? True equality. With rare... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Beg Your Martyr

  

  Despite the extreme antipathy shown toward religion by the educational establishment, the Chronicle of Higher Education doesn’t shy away from the topic. Read more

  Posted on 07 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Animal Mentalism

  

  Science is how we know things. Most things, at least. One of the fundamental aspects of human life not yet grasped by the great empirical method is creativity. Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Flying None?

  

  While reading about a saint or two recently, I once again came across the concept of levitation. Long dismissed as overly gullible piety of superstitious... Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Computer of Dr. Caligari

  

  To be human is to be ethical. Not always in the best way, unfortunately. Nevertheless, our moral sensors are pretty much constantly running as we try our best t... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religion and Its Discontents

  

  Travel broadens the mind. I’ve always felt that travel, for those who pay attention when they do it, is one of the best forms of education available. Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Guidance

  

  My relationship with Shiri is a love-hate relationship. Shiri is what I called my “Neverlost” GPS in my rental car in Texas. My iPhone has a female voice... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Monkey’s Uncle

  

  An opinion piece in Saturday’s New Jersey Star-Ledger highlights the 150th anniversary of T. H. Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature this month. Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Persistent Idealism

  

  Few spans of human life are so idealistic as our college years. There we meet many people from beyond our hometown, and we learn the treasures of diversity and... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Austin City Limits

  

  Maybe it’s just because Texas feels like the brass buckle of the Bible Belt, but I had moral qualms about landing in George Bush International Airport this... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Continental Drift

  

  So this is the way epiphany works. (I know it’s Lent, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry.) I sat down to check my personal email after a horrid day at work, and... Read more

  Posted on 26 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• In Touch with History

  

  A friend recently sent me a package with a Roman jar handle from Caesarea Maritima. It’s not everyday that I receive 2000 year-old artifacts in the mail. Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Wrongful Resurrection

  

  H. P. Lovecraft was a tortured man. An atheist, he saw the inevitable dilemma of human life. We want to live forever, but even the short time we have is full... Read more

  Posted on 24 February 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Apples to Apples

  

  Religion is all about death. Well, maybe not all, but still…All religions deal with death in some detail. Perhaps that’s because death is such a universal... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Gods and Goliath

  

  Not only gods are proficient at creating worlds. Writers, as readers know, are the creators of worlds too. I first discovered Jasper Fforde via a friend’s... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Wolves and Sheep

  

  A state of the university address might not be a bad exercise.  If I might be so bold, as an inveterate outsider who nonetheless has tried to play by the... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• No Play-Thing

  

  Possession. It’s one of the scariest concepts in the religious arsenal. The idea that a person could be taken over by a different entity and surrender his or he... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY