MSI Press Blog

  Core Question: What language should we use to describe the material nature of the world?  If we advocate that this world is fundamentally material—which is to say that all the objects described in our everyday language are essentially matter—we soon become embattled by difficulties of semantics. Some words refer to very “concrete” substances and engender no dispute, such as “apple.” There are few who would confuse apples with pears. However, it is undeniable that many highly “abstract” and “conceptual” words are also used in our daily linguistic practices, such as “thought” and “virtue,” along with those that are harder to define, such as the aforementioned “mind” or “mental activity.” Moreover, there are other words that seem familiar and specific; yet, their material realities have always been questioned. Examples of this category would include “light,” “time,” “space,” etc.  In trying to prove that every word indicates a being of matter, we may argue that the referents of those hi

  Imagine you had a time machine. Imagine also that you had one purpose in mind for this time machine: to ask human beings living at different intervals in history a series of prepared questions. The goal? A detailed analysis of how humanity’s worldview has evolved over the centuries. Consider Wiktionary.com’s definition of the term worldview :   [Worldview] – One’s personal view of the world and how one interprets it / the totality of one’s beliefs about reality / a general philosophy or view of life .   With this definition in mind, suppose your first stop in history was the year 5,000 bc, somewhere in Mesopotamia (we must also assume that you would somehow be able to communicate linguistically with the peoples you would encounter). After you went through your list of questions and notated the given answers, perhaps your conclusions for the worldview of that time period might be something like this:   These people have an extremely primitive worldview. Their entire

  Excerpt from The Musings of a Carolina Yankee by Wally Amidon. Alone in the Swamp Have you ever had a day that you would like to forget but that seems to come back at regular intervals in your life to haunt you? I had such an adventure a few years back. I can laugh at it now, but at the time, it really tried my spirit. I have two sons, Mike and Steven, who, I think, sometimes thought of themselves as Lewis and Clark because of the way they could navigate the woods. One day, they thought it would be nice to take me to their newly found hunting area. Now, things would have been different were I built more like a Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone, but I am built more for comfort than for physical exertion. The boys came by the house at about 3:30 a.m. to pick me up for the adventure. I should have known the day was going to be long when they told me to hop into the back of the pickup as there wasn’t enough room for the three of us in the front of the small truck they were driving. I l

  excerpt from How to Argue with an Atheist (Brink) -  STEP #1: I affirm that people are values-centered.   STUDENT: Dr. Brink? Do you remember me? I came by last week and we talked about religion.   BRINK: Of course, but as I said last time, to give you the entire answer as to why I am religious or why you should be religious is not something that we should attempt all at once. We need to approach this topic one step at a time.   STUDENT: So, where do we start?   BRINK: My first point is that humans are values-oriented beings. They seek values, uphold values, and when they are not oriented by values, they fall into alienation.   STUDENT: That sounds like Chapter 13 on social psychology.   BRINK: My, you have read ahead in your psychology textbook.   STUDENT:  So, what's the next point?   BRINK: Don't be so quick to agree with me. If we have not fully established step #1, then we do not have a good footing for the next step. We need to break down step #1 into several sub-step

  Excerpt from A Guide to Bliss Expansion and the Creation of the World Let us now “expand” the context in which the principle of expansion is activated. In the teachings of Ha’Ari (Isaac Luria, 1534-1572), which to this day are considered the prime interpretations of the Kabala, the process of creation is presented as a process of contraction. The infinite divine light contracted itself, more and more, into structures, and this is, in fact, the created world as we know it: a denser, or more contracted, divine light. Matter is, in effect, a condensed or contracted spirit.  From this astounding point of view, we can perceive the entire universe as narrow channels through which divine energy flows, as formations containing a condensed divine light. Each form and every structure are nothing but an “entrapped” light, a light that was limited so as to create and make visible the form or the structure. Hence, contraction was a necessity in the original divine creation. Without it, cr

FINDING OPPORTUNITY DURING THE PANDEMIC Making the Possible Possible We are older. We are vulnerable. We are taking our place as spectators of those younger and on the front lines of taking care of the ill and providing essential services. We are less able to see those who are working from home unless they appear in one of those boxes on the grid of people commenting on today’s news. We are missing being with some of our favorite people and doing some of our favorite things, but, for the moment, we’ve right sized our life during a pandemic to meet the needs of our unique selves and those for whom we care. No doubt we’ve had moments of what’s being called “quarantine fatigue.” A friendly grocery clerk likened it to the movie, Ground Hog Day , in which the same story repeats daily. Sometimes, we feel great progress is being made, and sometimes, we think it will never change. Depending upon the extent we’ve been directly exposed to the tragedy of COVID-19, we may be wonde