Dealing with Dichotomies

In a previous blog I mentioned the problem outlined by religious historian, Karen Armstrong, in interpreting religious writings. She maintained that there was always tension between Logos and Mythos. Much of the wisdom of the world has been transmitted by myth, fable, allegory or parable (Mythos). When we get into trouble is when we start […]

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What’s Love Got to Do with It?

In our little book republished as The Myth of Nine to Five, the late Dr Phil Harker and I argued that despite the illusion we have of free will, in fact the only real choice human beings have is whether to choose to live with a worldview of fear or a worldview of love. (If […]

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The Primacy of Consciousness

As I sit here in my office I can see the small tree in the front yard. It is a favourite place for the bull-finches to sit before they venture down to the bird bath. This might seem to be just the start of a casual conversation but it has already introduced many philosophical concepts. […]

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The Spiritual Evolution of Mankind

The figures move about a bit with the continuing years of research, but on the evidence it is fair to say the universe is a little less than fifteen billion years old. The first vestiges of life on earth seemed to appear some one and a half billion years ago. Hominids have been around for […]

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Tribal Warfare and Gesture Politics


The good Dr Phil told us that because we were conscious (that is aware of our thoughts) it naturally implied we were compelled to live in two worlds. The first is the material world that we observe with our physical senses. This is the world “out there”. It is an important world because it has […]

August 26, 2017

History, Culture and Self


Our sense of self is largely a story we have constructed about ourselves which we imagine might help us cope better in the world. Oftimes such a story can prove to be not only unhelpful, but actually inimical to our well-being. When our imagined self is too out of kilter with reality we become dysfunctional, […]

August 19, 2017

The Rise and Decline of the West


The emergence of the West as a political, economic and philosophical force is principally a story of the history of Western Europe. With the decline of the Roman Empire, these peoples reverted to a subsistence economy which in turn imposed strict limits on the organisation and the extent of power. Authority among the barbarian peoples […]

August 13, 2017

The Essential Arrogance of Mankind


I have always believed that it is beyond the capacity of Mankind to fully understand the universe. Yet our continuing efforts to do so are some of our noblest undertakings. There is no doubt that we will always be able to learn more about this cosmological wonderland that we inhabit, and we can benefit immensely […]

July 29, 2017

Work and Meaning


I have written extensively of the importance of our spiritual needs and the necessity of humans to have a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. Traditionally many of us found meaning and purpose in our lives through our religion, our family or our contribution to the community. But such institutions are now in […]

July 22, 2017

Energy Trauma


I don’t watch much television. It presents me with an unenviable choice. Do I watch commercial television and be assailed with endless, brain-numbing, intellectually demeaning advertisements? Or should I watch ad-free ABC to be lectured by left-wing advocates, Greens’ politicians and committed virtue signallers? Faced with such a choice I watch a little news and […]

July 15, 2017

Being Homo Spiritualis


I have often thought that the Latin title for human beings, Homo Sapiens, is perhaps not the most appropriate name for our species. It was bestowed on humans because of their ability to reason. Quite often our reasoning processes leave something to be desired and despite our large brain and reasoning capacity it does not […]

July 8, 2017

Courage and Fear


You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. What is to give light must endure the burning. Eleanor Roosevelt   This week marked the funeral of South Australian nurse, Kirsty Boden, who was […]

July 1, 2017

A Little More on Identity and Religion.


The German born, American psychologist, Erick Erickson probably was the first to popularise the concept of personal identity and its role in the psychological development of human beings. He posited that the acquisition of a sense of personal identity was generally a feature of the adolescent years (those aged roughly between 13 and 19 years) […]

June 24, 2017

One Mind


A long time ago, There was only one mind Which became bored by being alone so long. So it decided to split into two, But since the two knew they were originally one, Playing together was not much fun – As if playing both sides of a chess game, So the two minds agreed to […]

June 11, 2017