03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Postmodernism is the Buddhist "Beginner's Mind"
Ancient Taoist and Zen masters wrote about something called, "beginner's mind," or translated, the Japanese word shosin. In contemporary counseling the revolution taking place is finally catching onto their ancient message. Until around the 1990's a therapist was considered expert, authority, and guide until diverse voices challenged that position, including feminist thought, multiculturalism, person-centered thought, and an emerging preventive and wellness paradigm in healthcare. These chall...
1 It's a philosophy that pushes people to see things as if they were new.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Experiments are Key to Finding Truth
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth—never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments ar... 1 
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notesOtherwise we are left with only feelings that tell us nothing.
18 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
The Bible is Fallible, Nature is Not
For the holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the divine Word, the former as the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the latter as the observant executrix of God's commands. It is necessary for the Bible, in order to be accommodated to the understanding of every man, to speak many things which appear to differ from the absolute truth so far as the bare meaning of the words is concerned. But Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws i... 1 notes
notesGallileo argues that we must accept what we see in Nature, even if it conflicts with the bible.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Teaching a Child About Death
My dad used to take naps next to my daughter on the bed and I remember seeing them in there—my father with his oxygen machine and my daughter curled up next to him—and it was all so dreamy and loving and cute. And so, it was a big deal when he died. And my daughter had questions.
When she asked “What happens after we die?” I said, “To be honest, darling—we decompose.” And she wanted to know what that meant. A bird had died in our backyard and so we watched how it disappeared a ... 1 notes
notesJulia Sweeney describes how she taught her daughter about death after her grandfather died.
02 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
The Positive Mind
In the final, the positive, state, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their laws—that is, their invariable relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now understood when we speak of an explanation of facts is simply the establishment of a connection between single phenomena an... 1 notes
notesDoesn't concern itself with absolute truth, but is focused on laws and how facts tie into them.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Explorers Tolerate Complexity and Welcome Contradiction
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration. 1 notes
notesExploration requires these virtues.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Tolerating Complexity Lead to Science Making Progress
The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration.Folksonomies: scientific progress
Folksonomies: scientific progress
1 notes
notesWhen science stopped looking for truth and focused on how things worked, progress began.
19 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Galileo Defends Nature as Truth
It is necessary for the Bible, in order to be accommodated to the understanding of every man, to speak many things which appear to differ from the absolute truth so far as the bare meaning of the words is concerned. But Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operation are understandable to men. For that reason it appears that nothing physical which senseexperience s... 1 notes
notesExplaining why the Bible must be contradictory at times, he reveres nature as the word of God.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Leave Room for Uncertainty
What then is the meaning of the whole world? We do not know what the meaning of existence is. We say, as the result of studying all of the views that we have had before, we find that we do not know the meaning of existence; but in saying that we do knot know the meaning of existence, we have probably found the open channel--if we will allow only that, as we progress, we leave open opportunities for alternatives , that we do not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute tru...Science doesn't have the meaning of life, but we are muddling through it and that's a good thing.
