The Politics of Religion, Jesus and Darwin, Rethinking Eve, the Bronx Bombers and How Pumpkin Cheesecake Solves Everything

Week in Review (October 14-19)

Oct 19, 2024

It’s pouring rain on Thetis Island. Few things are more agreeable than looking out over the water of the Salish Sea from a cozy spot inside (with coffee), and hearing the steady rain. Two weeks ago we arrived at this tiny 6-square-mile island off British Columbia, population 350. We are here for a six month stay. This past week we attended the island soup lunch at the community center, and made new friends.

I’ve been somewhat surprised by how many people on a wee Canadian island in the Strait of Georgia are captivated by American politics. There’s no question if the presidential election was determined by Thetis Island, Kamala Harris would be the 47th President of the United States.

Occasionally, I write an article related to politics. A couple of them recently have been:

My first published article this week was: From Project 325 to Project 2025: Does Cultural Christianity Do More Harm Than Good? In the article I wrote:

A common political strategy is to hijack religion for political ends. With respect to Christianity, Constantine created the playbook. Following his convenient Christian conversion after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity under the Edict of Milan, hastening the Church’s transformation from a humble bottom-up revolution to an authoritarian top-down empire. Summoned by Constantine, the Council of Nicaea in 325, a council, hammered out it’s own Project 2025 to serve as a stable glue for his sprawling empire.
It’s predictable for election-year politicians to leverage religion and argue that a citizens rights, privileges and liberties are inseparably founded upon a particular religious allegiance. A common claim in the US is that we are fundamentally a “Christian nation”. It only follows that it is politically useful to instill fear in people that their liberties are under seize because their political opponent isn’t Christian… or Christian enough. Seneca wrote, “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

The Case for Unifying Science and Religion

I’ve been publishing a series of Substack articles titled, “The Case for Unifying Science and Religion”. Some of the issues and themes I have discussed so far include:

Why Carl Sagan is the patron saint of scientific spirituality
Dispelling the misinformation about science that is spread by toxic religion
How the knowledge of science is instrumental in cultivating a meaningful, authentic and liberating post-religion spirituality
Why Jesus would have embraced Darwinian evolution had it been an option
How science answers life’s greatest existential questions
Resources for exploring the connection between the natural sciences and spirituality

The series includes four parts so far:

Here are a few quotes from this week’s article:

“The implications of Darwinian evolution is not a random, indifferent and meaningless existence, consisting of nothing more than particles, chemicals and mechanistic processes, forcing us toward the heat death of the universe.”
“That the universe evolved with a design process, which the word “intelligence” could be used to describe, doesn’t require there must be an intelligent designer, which is God. Of course a junk-yard tornado can’t produce a Boeing 747, but equating Darwin’s theory of evolution with a junk-yard tornado is not understanding evolution.”
“Homo sapiens require more than the knowledge and language of particles, neurons and quarks to survive and thrive. Science doesn’t want to acknowledge that the religious imagination was born as a necessary adaptation to the existential pressures of early human existence.”
“Rather than attacking fundamentalist or extremist religion (which any reasonable person would agree), I wish more evolutionary biologists would study fields such as the philosophy of religion and the anthropology of religion.”
“The human knower in relation to the known is where infinite possibilities and potentialities arise.”

What Subscribers are Saying

Thanks, Mary! I appreciate you being a paid subscriber. It makes me happy to know that I have contributed to your journey in some small way. Like you, I have had many “Eureka” moments along the way.

The “eureka effect” (also known as the “Aha! moment” or “eureka moment”) is defined as “the common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept” or “when a previously unsolvable puzzle becomes suddenly clear and obvious.” Often this transition from not understanding to spontaneous comprehension is accompanied by an exclamation of joy or satisfaction.

The four attributes of the eureka effect are:

the Aha! moment appears suddenly
the solution to a problem is processed smoothly, or fluently
the Aha! moment elicits positive affect
the experiencer of the Aha! moment is convinced the solution is true

If you’ve recently had an eureka moments, I’d be interested in hearing them. If you’re willing to share one of your eureka moments in a comment, that would be awesome!

A few of my recent eureka moments have been:

Discovering Hegel’s Dialectic (thesis → antithesis → synthesis) as a reliable tool for converting opposing views or positions into a more profound alternative.
Understanding Darwinian evolution as an algorithmic property of the universe, which opens into a field of infinite possibilities and potentialities.
Realizing that Christianity and Atheism working together uncovers liberating truths that could not be discovered on their own.
Learning that anything is possible in a world where Vanderbilt beats Alabama, and the Vikings are 5-0.

Top Views

As of today, my top 6 most popular Substack articles are:

Seven Weekend Substack Reads

Here are seven worthwhile Substack articles for weekend reading:

Get Ready for AI Religions: How AI is changing spirituality, and what it means for our collective fate by
Alexander Beiner
Why Prayer Isn't Like God's Gumball Machine by
Nadia Bolz-Weber
Is Buddhism therapy or spirituality? Buddhist Advice Column by
David Michie
Presidential Election Update: Bret Baier interviews Kamala Harris by
Heather Cox Richardson
How To Learn Anything With Ultra-Learning by
Axel Casas, PhD Student
The Wisdom of Boredom by
Karun Pal
Recipes for the week (including pumpkin cheesecake overnight oats) by
Kylie Perrotti

This Week in Pictures

This cartoon by David Hayward caught my attention. Alice Walker wrote, “Any God I ever found in church, I brought in myself.”

A 2013 photo of the members of One Direction. Liam Payne: 29 August 1993 – 16 October 2024)

NY Yankees one game away from heading to the World Series.

A young man sits in the Colored Forest, a project created by local artists to raise awareness of large-scale deforestation.

In Praise of Lot’s Wife

“The story of Lot's wife begins in Genesis 19 after two angels arrived in Sodom and were invited to spend the night at Lot's home. As dawn was breaking, Lot's visiting angels urged him to get his family and flee, so as to avoid being caught in the impending disaster for the iniquity of the city. The command was given, "Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, lest you be swept away." While fleeing, Lot's wife turned to look back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot's wife was emphatically told not to look back, but she did. I love her for that. It was so human. There is hardship, tragedy, heartbreak and suffering in our world every day. We turn a blind eye, conveniently not notice, and find all kinds of rationalizations for turning our heads. Maybe we all need a little more of Lot's wife within us. The courage to look back, even if it means we our reduced to pillars of salt. Jesus once said we are to be the salt of the earth. I wonder if he had Lot's wife in his mind.

Lot’s wife looked back and that deeply impacted me. She could not betray her own humanity, and it cost her everything. I now carry her in my heart. I will not be told to look the other way. I will not walk away from the suffering of my world. I will embrace my humanity that cares and weeps. I will be the salt of the earth, even if it means I am reduced to a pillar.”

Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge

Jim’s Crossword Puzzle Challenge

Below is my new crossword puzzle based on my recent Substack articles. I bet you can’t do it :)

In Summary

A heat stove is our primary source of heating our home on Thetis Island, and my fire craft skills are improving… slowly.
Don’t forget to leave a comment and share any recent eureka moments you have had.
Even residents on a 6-square-mile island off British Columbia are concerned about the US presidential election.
My father was a huge New York Yankees fan, and for this reason I’d be okay with the Yanks making the World Series, though growing I took the subway to Shea Stadium and root for my Mets…. it doesn’t look like a Yankees-Mets World Series is likely, unless there’s another Met’s Miracle.
You can’t go wrong with pumpkin cheesecake overnight oats.
Thanks for subscribing to my Substack and making this possible. If you find what I write and share meaningful, consider becoming a paid subscriber and recommending this publication. Every paid subscriber receives several goodies, including: my Life After Religion 30-Day Detox Guide, my unpublished book, How to Have a Great Day Without Religion, and full access to my archives, which currently includes 144 articles.