Space is not Nothing

Parmenides argued that, because Nothing cannot be, multiplicity, movement, and change are all impossible. We observe multiplicity, movement, and change every day, though. By reductio ad absurdum, it appears that Nothing must be. And yet Nothing, by definition, is not. How, then, can we affirm the possibility of multiplicity, movement, and change without simultaneously affirming a contradiction,…

Nothing Comes Cheap

What does this day really mean? I feel obliged to think about this question at least a little bit during my day off from work. It's a solemn occasion. We're talking about dead people. But for what purpose are we remembering them? My immediate thought is that this is not a patriotic holiday. We are…

Know Your Enemy

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 ESV) We are at war with the powers of Hell. That sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it? And yet it is true. It is easy for us to forget that the devil himself is…

Revisiting Plato

I sometimes say that I hate Plato. By this, I really mean that I hate Platonism. And by this, I mean that I hate the rationalistic idealism that I have tended to associate, rightly or wrongly, with Plato. The more of his Dialogues I read, the more I think that I have been mistaken in my understanding of…

Insomnia and Giving Thanks

We're used to things working as we want them to, most of the time, but there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong at any given moment. In a sense, it's a miracle that anything ever works. When things go wrong, it's frustrating, but it also reminds us how remarkable it is that we…

The Value of the LSAT

As someone who has yet to attend law school, I am not qualified to comment on the LSAT's relevance to law school success. Nevertheless, I appreciated the way it made me think when I was studying for it. I can see what the creators of the test are trying to test, and why they're trying…

Someone Else’s Words

If you listen carefully to yourself, you might be surprised to find that you do not understand many of the things you say. People borrow phrases from others, and in doing so, they borrow thoughts. But when you do this without understanding the thought and making it your own, you're borrowing the thought, not as…

Brief Review: Catcher in the Rye

  I didn't like it. The main character annoyed me. I might have liked the novel better had it been written in third-person. Then I wouldn't have had to deal with Holden Caulfield's juvenile diction. There are just too many "and all"s, "anything like that"s, and "I swear to God"s for me. I got sick…

My New Project: Running

This morning I ran. It was horrible. But I'm going to do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. Etc. My hope is that eventually it will become easier. God willing, maybe I'll even start to enjoy it. I know some people are like that. I never understood it. People talk about getting a…

The Real Counter-Culture

I think there's a general sense in the American evangelical church that Christians are supposed to be counter-cultural. I think this is correct. What else could holiness entail? We are to be set apart from what is around us, just as the Israelites were to be set apart from the pagans that surrounded them. Where…