Our Inner Ape

A leading primatologist explains why we are who we are...

Frans De Waal's excellent book draw undeniable parallels between the great apes - bonobos and chimpanzees in particular - and humankind. In the categories of power, sex, violence, and kindness our similarities are hard to ignore. Excellent reading for the naturalist or the moralist.

What If Justin Brierly Wrote A Book

And some of his favorite non-believers wrote a response...

Justin Brierly, host of Unbelievable, has just written a book titled
Unbelievable?: Why after ten years of talking with atheists, I'm still a Christian. It's quite good, though it contains little we haven't heard on the radio program (or the podcast).  So of course me and some of the other non-believers who hang out at the Unbelievable forum are having a crack at a "Justin Response Book" in a manner inverse to the Christian response to Bart Ehrmann's How Jesus Became God: Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galilee. First, I had to read the book. Now comes the writing...

2017 Goodreads Resolution

A few more books, a little less screen time...

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. In progress [16]

Death's End, by Cixin Liu. In progress [15]

The Crash Detectives: Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters, by Christine Negroni. Negroni offers a credible theory about the disappearance of Malaysia Air 370 by folding in the fascinating and sobering details of at least a dozen other air disasters and near disasters that have occurred since the dawn of the age of flight. [14]

Deep Time, by David Darling. [13] 

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. [12]

Ancient Ruins and Rock Art of the Southwest, by David Grant Noble. Those who know me understand that sussing out what humankind was up to in the pre-historic period is my thing.  David Noble's book came highly recommended by another amateur enthusiast who works a V-Bar-V petroglyph heritage site.  It does not disappoint, offering succinct directions, useful descriptions, and thoughtful analysis of "ruins and rock art" found in my neighborhood.  [11]

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, by John G. Neihardt. "Black Elk Speaks" tells the story of an Oglala holy man and his Lakota people who lived through the worst of the American Indian Wars, from the Fetterman Fight to the Little Big Horn to the Wounded Knee Massacre. This book has long been on my "To Read" list (and my bookshelf), but when Joseph Campbell spoke highly of it in "The Inner Reaches of Outer Space" I bumped it to the top of my list. As I enter the autumn of my life I have been encountering books I should have read in my youth. This is one of those. [10]

The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, by Joseph Campbell. This collection of essays and lectures by Jospeh Campbell has been on my "To Read" shelf for quite some time, but Mortimer Adler took such exception to it in his "Truth in Religion" I had to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out Adler was upset with about one page of the 148 that make up "The Inner Reaches of Outer Space." I don't disagree with the views Campbell expressed on that page and the rest of the book is a heady melange of psychology, mythology, religion, art, and literature. Certainly not Campbell's most accessible work, but worth reading. [9]

Sinagua Sunwatchers, Kenneth J. Zoll. Of the thousand some petroglyphs discerned on the rock panels at V Bar V Heritage Site located along Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley, many correlate to midday shadows cast by two rock gnomens during the equinoxes and solstices and at other calendrical events throughout the year. "Sinagua Sunwatchers", by Kenneth J. Zoll, lays out the details patiently in methodical detail. [7]

Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth, by Mortimer Adler. The late Mortimer J. Adler reminds his reader, "De gustibus non disputandum: about matters of taste, there is no disputing. De veritate disputandum est: about matters of truth, we should engage in dispute..." And dispute he does. Adler's Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth (1990) is chewy, spirited, and oddly argumentative (Adler had some strange beef with Joseph Campbell, who approached religion as misunderstood mythology). A thought-provoking, challenging, and ultimately useful read. [7]

The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality, by Andre Comte-Sponville. My, what a fine "little book" this one is! Comte-Sponville reminds us that the search for meaning has long been - and will forever continues to be - conducted by the non-believer and the non-religious as well as the theist. He reminds the theist that atheism need not equal nihilism while reminding the atheist that non-belief need not entail fatalism. I plan to make gifts of this rich little volume to my favorite evangelical, my favorite Marxist, and many of the others I also love in between. I'll be reading "The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality" again. [6]

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Omar Khayyam. As with many volumes I finally have made time to read I wish that I'd read this many years ago. It stands as a worthy companion to the works of Rumi, Ecclesiastes, and the Tao Te Ching. [5]

Flintknapping: Making & Understanding Stone Tools, by John C. Whitaker. A rich resource for those who want to make stone tools or just understand their place in pre-history. [4]

An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar: Talking about God, the Universe, and Everything, by Randal Rauser and Justin Schieber. [3] A worthy effort by two evenly matched opponents, yet more enjoyable than most such exchanges in that authors Rauser and Schieber obviously respect each other. Not sure they got to choose their title. Schieber was called upon to defend the implications of a materialism I'm not sure he holds, while Rauser defended a God of the Philosophers (bare theism) rather than the trinitarian~monotheism of biblical Christianity. I'd buy a sequel, but next time I'd hold out for paper rather than use the Kindle app on my smartphone again.

Hiking the Southwest's Geology: Four Corners Region, by Ralph Lee Hopkins. [2] A marvelous and easily accessible guide to all the many features of the primordial past that lie beneath our feet and entertain our eyes with scenic vistas. This is one of our "Go-To" books we use to plan our road trips across the southwest. Highly recommended!

Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It, by Julia Keller. [1]  A social history about the man and his times, the application of patent law, the rise of industrialization, the internecine machinations of weapons procurement by the American military establishment, and the role of military technology applied to the acquisition and defense of empire. Regrettably, this book contains very details about the innovative gun itself, its evolutions, or its re-adoption in modernized form in the Jet Age. Not what I expected.

Let's read 48 books in 52 weeks...

Maybe God Is A Bad Boss

I suppose it's possible we're not getting the whole story...

No sooner was the celestial kingdom established but a third of the heavenly host rebelled and were cast down from heaven. Then God created a physical world and humankind. But no sooner than it took for Adam to name all the critters and hook up with the only girl in town and - BAM - they give in to temptations and find themselves cast out of paradise. Maybe God is a bad boss? So, if there's free will in heaven what's to keep another third of the angels, or the souls of humankind, from rebelling again? The Book of Job (arguably the oldest book in the bible) gives other clues. What's the big deal about wrestling with behemoth and leviathan? You spoke them both into existence with a word and You can unmake them with a wink. Maybe the various Abrahamics have been snookered. Maybe the Zoroastrians have the straight scoop. Maybe it really is nasty barroom brawl on earth at it is in heaven, winner take all...and no clear winner in sight.

Yeah, some days Unbelievable gets me going...

More Books Than I'll Have Time To Read

There are worse problems I suppose...

So, there I was driving through downtown Prescott on my way home after working 20 hours of the last 24, none of them for good reasons. Suddenly I remembered I needed a patch kit for my Thermarest mattress in anticipation of my trip to Colorado to visit son Erik! Granite Mountain Outfitters was closed but, hey, there's The Book Nook! In I went because, well, I've been looking for a copy of The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality, by André Comte-Sponville (seriously, I really have). No joy searching for that slim book in the just barely shoulder width stacks. But look, here were four other volumes begging to be taken home!

The Art of Living, by Epictetus (because Massimo Pigliucci said so)

The Phenomenon of Man, by Teilhard de Chardin (because I read it in my undergrad years, but haven't seen my copy since)

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse (because Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse)

The Courage to Be, by Paul Tillich (because I like Tillich)

Being about a dozen steps from Rosa's, it seemed only sensible to step in for an antipasto salad and a tall beer. I walked past the tattoo parlor (focus!). After my late lunch I walked to the courthouse square on the chance The Hike Shack was open. It was. Remember that patch kit? It cost $10.00. The Thermarest Slacker Hammock and its tree-friendly suspension kit ran me another $110.00.

There, just like I planned it...

More Books

For the "To Read" list...

I took my daughter Cassandra to Peregrine Book Company to choose a going away present. She's a fan of Mary Roach so she rounded out her collection with a copy of Spook.

Of course being in a book store meant I couldn't leave without a handful myself, so I added three volumes to my collection as well...

Pagans: The End of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity by James O'Donnell

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond

So many books, so little time.

Whence Orthodoxy?

An Unbelievable episode got a little unbelievable...

Two nice young Christian fellas were debating whether or not the God of the Christian bible (or Hebrew scriptures) is a God of Wrath (which is apparently pronounced wroth in the UK). Never mind that bible contains the following passages on the topic:

Psalms 7:11 - God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry [with the wicked] every day.

Ezekiel 25:17 - And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

Nahum 1:2-6 - God [is] jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and [is] furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth [WRATH] for his enemies

Romans 1:18 - For the WRATH of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Matthew 10:28 - And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 

Luke 12:5 - But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. 

John 15:6 - If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned.

John 3:36 - He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the WRATH of God abideth on him.

Revelation 20:15 - And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Hebrews 9:22 - And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 

Thank you KJV Online!  Emphasis ADDED   

So, according to the Christian's own bible (the KJV, no less) God has wrath, exhibits wrath and anger, and appears also to be big on casting into fire, wreaking vengeance, taking revenge, rebuking furiously, being jealous, shedding blood, and destroying bodies and souls in hell.  

Seems the bible can mean whatever you want it to mean and even not mean what it clearly says...Hmmm.

So I wrote the following post for under the show notes:

Whence Orthodoxy? 

No wonder Christianity has some 30,000 denominations, sects, cults, and spin-offs! Every last one of you sit at your very own private mixing board fitted with dozens, if not hundreds, of sliders with which to match what you choose to believe. From Zero to Ten (and sometimes Eleven) you dial in your feelings, surmises, and conjectures about the following topics (and others) to arrive at your sure and certain faith: 

Epistomology

Revelation

Orthodoxy

Orthopraxy

Number of gods

The attributes of God

The nature of Creation

Predestination to open theism

God as the author of Evil

The nature (and failure) of Omniscience

The power of Satan

Angelology

Definition of Sin

The effects of The Fall

Total depravity to blank slate

Details of the Incarnation

Attributes of the Christ

Virgin birth

Immaculate conception

Humanity of Jesus

Deity of Jesus

The death of God

The significance of The Cross

Adoptionism to Docetism

Theories of the Atonement

Meaning of the Resurrection

The power of the Holy Spirit

Efficacy of prayer

Importance of the Sacraments

Baptism

Nature of the Eucharist

Transubstantiation

Consumption of alcohol

Nature of The Trinity

The existence of Hell

The duration of Divine punishment

The nature of Heaven

The means of Salvation

How many paths to God?

Veneration of Mary

Praying to the Saints

Eschatology

Details of the Rapture

Millennialism

Inerrancy

Inspiration

Infallibility

Idolatry

Election

Justification

Perseverance of faith

Apostasy

Bible: Curated collection to God Breathed Master Plan

Creationism vs Science

Slavery

The role of women

Intimate partner violence

Corporal punishment to the death penalty

From color blind to anti-miscegenation

The impact of LGBTQ issues on The Church

Certitude

If your version of the bible says it you can quote it, harmonize it, or insist on a metaphorical interpretation. If your bible doesn't say it you can infer it, assemble a cumulative case, or please ignorance as needed. You pick, choose, listen, follow, agree, disagree, harmonize, conflate, and confabulate from five millennia of folk wisdom, traditions, the text of your holy book, and the writings of your favorite apologists to arrive at your very own custom version of Christianity, certain in your bones of your correctness and some of you quite comfortable calling those in the congregation across the street heretics. Rather than steering you toward the One True Faith The Church, the Good Book, and The Holy Spirit are offering a self-serve à la carte smorgasbord...

You Are Not So Smart

Not an insult, just the name of a podcast...

While working in the yard I've been binging my way through the back catalogue of the You Are Not So Smart podcast. Just finished Episode 019 – Placebo sleep and other new discoveries in placebo research. Host and interviewer David McRaney has an engaging style, does careful research, and selects interesting speakers. Mr. McRaney is also the author of two books:

• You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself

• You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Ou tsmart Yourself.  

McRaney eats a cookie - made from a listener's recipe, some of which sound quite tasty - at the end of each show, a schtick which may be skipped without risk, especially if you're trying to stick to a careful diet.

The Podcasts

I'm listening to these days...

Distraction, With Dr. Ned Hallowell - Psychology

Monster Talk - Monsters in the popular imagination 

The Deconstructionists Podcast - Religion, mostly Christianity

Spark My Muse - Spirituality, mostly Christianity

Point of Inquiry - Critical thinking

The Classic Tales Podcast - Classic tales; I listen for the horror

Skeptoid - Critical thinking

Rationally Speaking - Critical thinking

On the Media - News media coverage of current events

Ideas, With Chris Kennedy, From CBC Radio - Currents events from a Canadian perspective

On Being, With Krista Tippett - Spirituality

Quack Cast - Critical thinking applied to medicine

Reasonable Faith Podcast - Evangelical Christianity as interpreted by Molonist theologian, philosopher, and apologist William Lane Craig

Escape Pod - Science Fiction

Astronomy Cast - Astronomy 

Please recommend others...

Hanging With Some New Homies

Not sure what the Deconstructionists are about...

...but their enthusiasm is infectious.

The Deconstructionists Podcast is hosted by John Williamson and Adam Narloch, who appear to be sincere seeker who just may be hobbled by their presupposition that the form of Christianity they profess is self-evidentially true.  Still, their giggling, "Yeah, man!" and "Oh, wow!" exclamations are so true I can't not listen.

I've asked them - but have yet to hear their reply - the following questions...

Still working through what you mean by deconstructionism. I do wonder a little if everything is on the table as you deconstruct your religiosity. Your method - post modernism, maybe? - seems to allow a certain credulity when it comes to what moves you. You referred to John 7:53-8:11, the story of The Woman Taken In Adultery as though it features Jesus' own words. It's one of my favorite bible stories too but it was not in the original manuscripts and is first found in the form we recognize in Codex Bezae (~400-500 CE) and is widely accepted to be an interpolation. Further, the discussion of Dr. Masuru Emoto was enthusiastically accepted at face value, when his work is widely regarded as pseudoscience derived from poor technique. [See] https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4433 I so hope your definition of deconstructionism means more than simply discarding ideas you don't like and keeping your favorites. I'm not a Christian but I have no interest in being an angry atheist either. Ironically, I've been studying the history of religion, the science of mystical experience, and the nature of the religious impulse for some time now. There are those, myself among them, who found no there there when they took it all apart.

And...

Unless and until you face the possibility that some of the story didn't happen at all, or at least not in the way traditionally expressed, have you honestly dug deeply enough? If you are genuinely serious about your deconstruction/reconstruction project read everything L. Michael White, , Elaine Pagels, Candida Moss, Paula Fredriksen, Pamela Eisenbaum, Bart Ehrman, A.N. Wilson, [and] Reza Aslan have written. If you don't have time for all that at least read Ehrman's "Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium," "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament," and "How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee." You may scream and chuck these books across the room but at least you'll have stuck your hand into "The Box."

Not quite sure these young fellas can escape the core presuppositions but I'm going to listen all the way through. They are worth a try.

An Episode of Unbelievable Got Me Thinking

Such is my synthesis so far...

The Saturday, April 2, 2016 episode of Unbelievable - Did Jesus' followers believe he was God? Yusuf Ismail vs Jonathan McLatchie - was a thought provoking hour and a half. Yusuf Ismail was erudite and well spoken. Still I found it interesting that a Muslim apologist was chosen to argue for an evolving Christology - in which he does not believe. And it was amusing when the evangelical apologist, Jonathan McLatchie, quoted the Quran - to which he otherwise grants no warrant - to buttress his claims for the credibility of Paul.  Here are the comments I left in the discussion section below the episode:

As I read my early Church history, there were all flavors of Jesus followers: Ebionites, Adoptionists, Docetists, Separationists, Gnostics, Modalists, Patripassanists, and so on and so forth. Most of these believed Jesus to be divine in one way or another at some point in his life or ministry. Believing that the man Jesus had been raised from dead as the first fruits of a coming resurrection of all the faithful at the end of time is different from believing that Jesus' resurrection elevated him to the status of messiah, appointed lord, or divinely elected saviour, is different from believing Jesus was adopted by God at his baptism or conception, is different from believing Jesus to be a pre-existing deity, let alone co-equal and co-eternal with God.

There are Ebonite and adoptionist strains in Mark (60s CE). There's fuel for docetism and separationism in Matthew and Luke (70-80s CE). John responds to separationist and gnostic themes (90s CE). When one reads the gospels in parallel the evolution from a simple to a sophisticated Christology is striking.

But because "bible believing" evangelicals regard everything in the good book to be factual and moreover that all the red letter words actually came from Jesus' mouth they treat all the gospels as though they were composed during Jesus' ministry and simply were not recorded until 30, 40-50, and 60 years later. By doing so, rather than simply finding their theology in the NT and OT, Christians read their ever evolving Nicene, Constantinopolitan, and medieval Christologies into and over the stories there.

The Christian who reads the Pauline epistles as though they were written after Paul (and those writing in his name) had read everything in all the gospels might be forgiven for thinking the story was meant as a fully harmonized package. If one reads the papers in order Paul comes across more as the first franchisee, a little too desperate to establish his credibility and at times at odds with a more conservative Jesus movement (and its traveling preachers) in Jerusalem to whom he had to pay licensing fees. If one doesn't assume Paul really was Jesus' mouthpiece then a lot of his theology reads like he just made it up, riffing on hymns and statements of faith made by early Jesus followers.

The authors/editors/redactors of the later gospel traditions spent 30-60 years adapting the good news for their respective audiences, quote mining the OT, as well as responding to traditional, skeptical and heretical criticisms.

These ideas are not my own. I owe much to Karen Armstrong, Bart Ehrman, Pamela Eisenbaum, Paula Fredriksen, John Hick, Burton Mack, Jack Miles, Elaine Pagels, A.N. Wilson, L. Michael White, and others.

Home Improvement Projects For 2016

A log home is a non-stop labor of love, I guess...

2016

• Put some particle board under the expansion to protect insulation - DONE 1/1/2016
• Insulate the sub-floor in the crawl space - DONE 1/3/2016
• Insulate the plumbing in the crawl space - DONE 1/3/2016
• Never spend two days in the crawl space again... - DONE 1/3/2016
• Replace the dryer, if only so it matches the new washer - DONE 1/4/2016
• Reinstall my home's street number - DONE 2/6/2015
• Plug the holes at the peak of the roof the bats use in the summer time - DONE 2/6/2015 [A bat still got in though...]
• Refurbish the irrigation system DONE May 2016
• Replace the scary heater in the bathroom
• Rebuild the steps from the drive to the lower part of the yard
• Finish sanding, caulking, and painting the exterior
• Replace the deck rails DONE July 2016
• Replace planks as needed and refinish the deck DONE July 2016
• Rebuild the steps from the back of the deck to the back yard DONE July 2016
• Have installed a metal roof DONE October 2016

2017 

• Get some pieces of furniture from the house after it sells NO LONGER NEEDED
• Buy a garage
• Remodel bathroom
• New carpet
• Expand the flagstone treatment in front of the fireplace

The Man Cave Is Mostly Complete

After a year in my burly log home high in the Prescott National Forest all my books are finally unpacked...

Hunting, fiction, biography, natural history, American history, world history, geography, and the classics.

Religion, philosophy of religion, theology, neurotheology, philosophy, biography, and natural history.

Guns, gun building, hunting, natural history, and American history.

Guns, reloading, and hunting.

Leadership, management, security, psychopathology, teaching, and more American history.

Literature, fiction, horror, science fiction, more natural history, more philosophy, more religion, and more classics.

Still have sorting to do, but the manly coziness is to die for.

UPDATE: On Boxing Day I decommissioned the lower file drawers of my IKEA organizer and filled the shelf immediately.  No more unpacked book boxes!

Still Reading

The books of 2015...

Been busy.  The house.  Work.  Netflix.  Might not finish them all before my time is up.  Press on, press on...

Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, Bart D. Ehrman

Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud

The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu

The Disappearance, Philipe Wylie

God in the Age of Science, A Critique of Religious Reason, Herman Philipse

Doubt, A History, Jennifer Michael Hecht

The Martian, Andy Weir

Ethics Without God, Kai Neilsen

The Human Division, John Scalzi

Morality Without God, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi

Shaman, Kim Stanley Robinson

Brown On Resolution, C. S. Forester

American Gods, Neil Gaiman

The Last Colony, John Scalzi

Magnesium Overcast: The Story of the Convair B-36, Dennis R. Jenkins

The Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version