Jul
29
2015
When we use the language of purpose please understand we mean purposeless, tiny scraps of matter act as if they were the most devious politicians (just a metaphor but a metaphor of what pray?), ideas that couldn't possibly have...
Jul
28
2015
Rationalists generally think that primitive people believed in religion because they didn't have science. Offering sacrifice to the gods was the only way they could think of of getting their crops to grow. This is a complete misconception. Primitive...
Jul
27
2015
Most rationalist take their stand on the principle that science and only science tells us truth because only science follows a rigorously rational method of enquiry. But science by definition only investigates material dismensions of reality. If there were...
Jul
17
2015
Capitalism has been an immense boon to mankind. Nothing else that has been invented so far has been so good at creating wealth and making poor people rich. But like everything else, it is not immune to change and...
Jul
16
2015
We can understand more of the Greek concept of comedy too by considering its connection to the mysteries of Eleusis. The rituals of Eleusis certainly went back to a pre-patriarchal era in neolithic Crete when religious experience seems to...
Jul
12
2015
The evidence that global warming is man made and, later this century, will be by far the greatest peril humanity has ever faced if we don't quit fossil fuels a.s.a.p., is now overwhelming. But the Tory Government is backing...
Jul
11
2015
The inseparable relationship between comedy and tragedy goes back to the origins of drama itself. Our word comedy comes from the Greek komos, the joyful procession that accompanied the rural god Dionysos at the festival of wine on his way...
Jul
10
2015
Adelman’s handling of the late plays is a triumph of doctrinaire feminist dogma over Shakespeare’s art. Her profound misunderstanding of them is rooted in her failure to appreciate the comedies, which she barely treats in her book. The comedies...
Jul
08
2015
Sex in Shakespeare’s Late Plays (1) Janet Adelman In her treatment of the late plays Janet Adelman, the Shakespearean feminist scholar, expands her thesis that Shakespeare only resolved the dilemmas of woman-hatred that he had exposed in the tragedies by ...
Jul
06
2015
Introduction I am a great admirer of Richard Dawkins. He is, of course, not without faults and blind spots, and I want to spend much of this book pointing out what I think those are as best I can...