Beat Your Plowshares Into Swords And Your Pruning Hooks Into Spears

Nineteen fifty-nine was an exciting year for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Luna 2 was the first man-made object to reach the moon, an important step in space exploration. As a token of friendship, the U.S.S.R. gave U.S. President Eisenhower a copy of the pennant that declared the Soviet presence on the moon. Not […]

God Goes ‘Trick or Treat’

In many primitive cultures, God is not portrayed as all-knowing, wise or benevolent. He’s rather a cosmic prankster who delights in provoking, sometimes tormenting his subjects. He may be insatiably hungry, either for food or sex. He’ll lead people down a path and then chastise them for taking it. He (she, it) is not someone […]

Why not commit suicide? Camus & country music

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2011) presents a rather gloomy portrait of the great French Existential philosopher Albert Camus (who denied being either an Existentialist or a philosopher). He mostly brooded over the meaning of life in the face of inevitable death. It has no meaning, he said; we are compelled to spend our […]