Let me note the recent passing of Lyall Watson, aged 69, author of the super bestseller “Supernature,” published in 1973, just in time to ride the tsunami of New Age fads that defined the time.
Skepticism
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On one’s knees in dewy grass
Here is the crucial moment in Francis Collins’ book, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence of Belief,” often offered as a antidote to Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.”
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Some observations regarding certain doctrines of faith
For the past few weeks, correspondents to the Irish Times have been furiously debating a recent Vatican document (Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of Faith) that said Christian denominations other than Roman Catholic are not “proper churches.”
Philip Gosse and his son Edmund in 1857
Father and son: A centennial recollection
On September 21, 1849, Emily Bowes, the wife of the British zoologist Philip Gosse, gave birth to a baby boy. The father recorded in his diary: “E. delivered of a son. Received green swallow from Jamaica.”
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When miracles are gone, everything is holy
What is a miracle?
The M33 Galaxy • Image by ESO (CC By 4.0)
Seeing what we want to see
A Newsweek magazine poll some years ago found that 87% of Americans believe in a God who answers prayers.
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A close shave with Occam’s razor
Why has the scientific community been so unwelcoming to such New Age gurus as Rupert Sheldrake, Russell Targ, Deepak Chopra, Harold Puthoff, and the like?
The Nightmare (1781) by John Henry Fuseli
Abducting the truth
Susan Clancy, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard University, has just published a book called “Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens.”
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Flying high
A friend sent me the following quote, from the now-deceased yogi Neem Karoli Baba: “It is better to see God in everything than to try and figure it out.”
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On pigeons and humans
The 18th-century philosopher, Voltaire, wrote this about superstition: “A Frenchman traveling in Italy finds almost everything superstitious, and is hardly wrong.