Mystical Truth, Cybernetic Truth

THE INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 

By

Christopher Hall
 

Introduction: The Author Seeking Himself in the Words Claimed to Be His 

I do not remember how old I was, or even where I was.  But the memory is still vivid in my mind.  There is nothing I can say about the memory that will help you understand it.  All I can tell you is that it happened, and that I remember it.  Saying this, I will try to explain the memory here in this text.  The explanation I am about to offer is in every way inadequate.  The relationship between the memory and the upcoming words is best described as an  incommensurable one.  This is what I offer for the memory's explanation:

Why I Left Islam

 By

Ruhi Al-Ahmed 

I didn't become an atheist because I rebelled against Islam. I rebelled against atheism as a practicing Muslim until I couldn't rebel any further.

Why They Hate Us

Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri in their own words 

 By

Sean Ewart

“A terrorist group is only the apex of a much larger pyramid of sympathizers and supporters.” 

- Clark McCauley, Co-Director, Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict -

The Calvin Fallacy

 We don't need Santa - or God - to be good.

By

Sean Ewart

Pascal agrees...

It's the most wonderful time of the year... so I am told. I'm not about to bah-hum-bug my way through an article begrudging the American version of Christmas, and I am not going to list off all the reasons that its silly for Christians to celebrate Christmas because, after all, Jesus wasn't born on December 25^th and the symbolism is mostly pagan and, duh, Mary wasn't a virgin... deep breaths. Growing up an Evangelical Christian, I actually never believed in Santa Claus because my parents, wisely, figured that lying to your children really isn't that cute. I mean, common, an eternal gift-giver living at the North Pole relying on elvish slave labor is the sort of lie that, once revealed for the facade it is, begs the question: “ok, Mom and Dad, what about the eternal old man in the sky who relies on angels and committed suicide on Easter to save us?” But I digress.

The Three Elements of Democratic Enlightenment

A Rebuttal to Whitman

By 

Sean Ewart

Introduction

Democratic enlightenment is that process through which the masses are transformed into a democratic society. As Walt Whitman says in Democratic Vistas, “the democratic formula is the only safe and preservative one for coming times. We endow the masses with the suffrage for their own sake, no doubt; then, perhaps still more, from another point of view, for community's sake. Leaving the rest to the sentimentalists, we present freedom as sufficient in its scientific aspect, cold as ice, reasoning, deductive, clear and passionless as crystal.” We are left, thus, to understand the process which makes this enlightenment possible, aided by thinkers like Whitman, but ultimately left on our own in the harsh reality which is our world. Indeed, as will be shown in this essay, there is something lacking in the scope of Whitman's theory, a crucial element (or combination of them) which brings to life the idealized democratic vista he envisions. 

Over the course of this essay, wherein there is a rebuttal to the Whitman hypothesis of democratic enlightenment, it will be shown that the critical error which he makes, is to mistake the results of the enlightenment with its causes. We will take, especially, the image of the marksman as our means to communicate the three essential elements of democratic enlightenment which are here pinpointed: the truth image, the justice image, and the knowledge image. To further our ability to grasp the concepts, periodic references to the Matrix (1999) will be given, a supplement to the marksman analogy. 

Tonight, on the News

By

Joe Chiarenzelli

“Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

“Dover Beach”

In recent weeks we have seen various movements in the world of international politics that seem to be of some importance, although I cannot tell of what. Nor do I wish to know what they mean in the first place. Though I suppose even if I did want to know I would not be able to know nor admit that I was able to know. You know what I mean.

The Person I Pretend To Be

By

Sean Ewart

Working, for the last two and a half years, at a laser tag arena has been – if not always exciting – rather enlightening. This is the eight-dollar an hour ticket to financial independence I have chosen for myself instead of living at home with my parents and attending a less than ideal college. I try, of course, to salvage my time spent within the 35 hundred square foot arena by imagining real world scenarios in which the talents I have picked up may be applicable; being able to calculate the time between shots on the Cobra Laser Tag sub-machine gun in single fire mode without thinking about it just doesn't seem like a skill that would make my resume look any better. And sure, I am technically the Assistant Manager and the Marketing Director, but in a small business, we all sort of fill those roles.