Philosophy and Life
Recent writing and occasional thoughts on assorted matters.
- Christspiracy. The documentary’s claims about Jesus & Christianity put to the test, w Kameron Waters Mar 12, 2024 - An audio version of the conversation is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. The makers of Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy are back. Christspiracy is another profoundly disturbing film detailing the industrial abuse of our animal kin. Expect more horrific carelessness and exploitation on a mass scale. Only this time, Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters not only go… … Continue reading Christspiracy. The documentary’s claims about Jesus & Christianity put to the test, w Kameron Waters
- The Nature of Energy. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon Mar 1, 2024 - An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. Energy is a key organising principle in modern science, the conversation of energy being a grounding and universal law. But what is energy? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon examine the history of the idea and the… … Continue reading The Nature of Energy. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon
- What is soul? A Realisation Festival post Mar 1, 2024 - This year, 2024, the Realisation Festival is focused on the soul. Most will have an intuition that soulfulness matters. Many will go a step further and actively seek ways of attending to the soul. But what might be meant by this simultaneously crucial but elusive aspect of ourselves and life in all its fullness? I think of soul like this:… … Continue reading What is soul? A Realisation Festival post
- Participation renewed. Discussing The Riddle of the Sphinx, new essays from Owen Barfield Feb 26, 2024 - An audio version of this talk is at my podcast Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. I talk again with Landon Loftin and Max Leyf about the genius insight of Owen Barfield. The Riddle of the Sphinx (Barfield Press) is a new collection of talks and essays about the great friend of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. We discuss… … Continue reading Participation renewed. Discussing The Riddle of the Sphinx, new essays from Owen Barfield
- Apocalypse? It’s now! Good news & secular salvation, climate crisis & time. With Gunnar Gjermundsen Feb 22, 2024 - An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. How can Christianity address the climate crisis? Isn’t the objectifying of nature and the drive to improve our lot a secular legacy of Christendom? And isn’t individual conversion more or less irrelevant in a time of systemic crisis? I was delighted to be… … Continue reading Apocalypse? It’s now! Good news & secular salvation, climate crisis & time. With Gunnar Gjermundsen
- Practicing paradise, or refusing wretchedness in Lent Feb 15, 2024 - An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. Western liturgies are obsessed with sin. "There is no health in us", or words to that effect, begin and end most services, particularly in Lent. Jesus's wilderness experience was actually about something else - practicing paradise, to use to the phrase of Douglas… … Continue reading Practicing paradise, or refusing wretchedness in Lent
- Website launch of Project Love Feb 14, 2024 - Click to find out more! … Continue reading Website launch of Project Love
- The Speed of Gravity. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake Jan 26, 2024 - An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcasts feeds. Isaac Newton is best known for his theory of gravity. And yet, the great scientist also insisted: "ye cause of gravity is what I do not pretend to know.” In other words, notions like gravity, and force in general, are deeply mysterious phenomena.… … Continue reading The Speed of Gravity. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake
- How rituals of love can aid death and dying. A conversation with Madeleine Pennington Jan 25, 2024 - An audio version of this conversation is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. The rituals around death and dying are changing in the UK and across the developed world. Medical care advances, which is for the good, though can mean to a loss of other kinds of wisdom about this facet of life. People’s beliefs and… … Continue reading How rituals of love can aid death and dying. A conversation with Madeleine Pennington
- Nondualism & enchantment, acting & UFOs (Rupert Spira & Meister Eckhart too). Jan 22, 2024 - An audio version of this talk is at my podcast, Talks and Thoughts, available via podcast feeds. A conversation with actor, Jamie Robson, whom I met through the work of Rupert Spira. 00:00 Meeting through Rupert Spira 03:26 Nondualism and Christian mysticism 06:02 Nondualism and acting 15:00 Being and doing 19:40 Detachment and Meister Eckhart 26:48 Two modes of perception… … Continue reading Nondualism & enchantment, acting & UFOs (Rupert Spira & Meister Eckhart too).