Godly Sex

On a lark, I looked up celibacy as it pertains to Roman Catholic priests.  OK, not on a lark.  I am a recovering Catholic, 35 years in remission.  But back to my story.  I had heard that many priests are actually married.  I wanted to know more.  Here’s what about.com has to say:

You aren’t likely to hear a great deal about married Roman Catholic priests, but they do exist. First there are the priests who are part of the Eastern Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern Rite, who can be found in places like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, the Ukraine, and other nations along the border between Western and Eastern Christianity. These churches are under the jurisdiction of the Vatican and they recognize the authority of the pope; however, their practices and traditions are much closer to those of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and one of those traditions is allowing priests to marry.

They are Roman Catholic priests and many are married – so many, in fact, that some estimates place their number at around 20% of all Roman Catholic priests in the world. This would mean that 20% of all Roman Catholic priests are officially and legally married, even though celibacy continues to be a requirement. But marriage is not limited to priests who are part of the Eastern Catholic Churches – we can also find about 100 Catholic priests in America who are married and who are part of the Western Catholicism that comes

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How to have good ideas

Having good ideas is a quest with which all writers struggle.  And all non-writers too.

How does one develop good ideas?  Have them, recognize them and hone them, it would seem.  But only the first of these three tasks (having raw ideas pop into one’s head) is easy.  For the most part, good ideas are developed (not found) and this requires hard work.  Developing good ideas is rarely like it is portrayed on television, where fully formed ideas drop down from the sky with little effort.

I am not suggesting (by writing this post) that I have more original ideas than the average person.  I plainly admit that almost every worthy idea I’ve ever expressed was not original to me.  In fact, I’d be surprised if I had more than a couple dozen original, substantial and worthy ideas in my entire life.  I assume that most of my ideas have been plagiarized (though usually not intentionally) or that they were simply a modified versions of someone elses’ ideas (modified by stretching them, inverting them or combining them with other borrowed ideas).

How does one have good new ideas?  When Linus Pauling was asked how he was able to make so many discoveries, he replied: “You must have lots of ideas and just throw away the bad ones.”

Those who don’t have many ideas of their own (for instance, those who watch lots of mind-numbing television) don’t have many good ideas of their own.  For most of my life, I have …

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In what ways are the OTHER animals moral?

Primatologist Frans De Waal has spent much of his career pointing out how incredibly similar the emotional and moral behavior of human animals is to the behavior of many other animals (he focuses especially chimps and bonobos). In this post, I will comment on De Waal's 2005 work, Our Inner Ape, where De Waal substantiates his stunning conclusion (well, stunning to those who just can't bear to acknowledge that humans are animals - see here and here and here) that the precursors of morality are easily seen in animals other than human animals. More specifically, De Waal demonstrates that there is a well-substantiated continuity between the proto-moral behavior of chimpanzees and bonobos and the full-bloomed sense of morality that we see in human animals. De Waal is clearly frustrated that people consider only human aggression to be "animalistic," but not human empathy. De Waal describes studies clearly demonstrating empathy in many animals, ranging from rats to the great apes. Children as young as one year of age naturally reach out to comfort others. Household pets such as cats and dogs can become upset (just like children do) when family members feign distress. Empathy therefore develops even before language. This would seem to demonstrate that top-down rule-based (therefore language-based) versions of morality don't capture the essence of what it means to be moral. [More . . . ]

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Warning: having more choices can be detrimental to your happiness

I recently spoke with a friend who was having difficulty making a major decision in his life. I suggested to him that he might be struggling because he is a talented fellow who might therefore have too many options.

After we concluded our conversation, I recalled reading a well-written book called the Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (2004), by Barry Schwartz. This delightful book incorporates many findings of cognitive science and the psychology of decision-making.  His main point is, indeed, paradoxical:

As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive.  But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear.  As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded.  At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitated.  It might even be said to tyrannize. 

When Schwartz speaks of tyranny, he reminds us that we live in a society in which you can find paralyzing members of choices even at the supermarket.  Why is it that we need 16 types of instant mashed potatoes, 75 types of instant gravies, 120 different types of pastas sauce 16 versions of Italian dressing, 275 types of serial and 64 formulas of barbecue sauce?  We face similar numbers of choices when we choose retirement plans, medical care, careers, where to live and who to be.

Modern society has done this to …

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Video Interview of Richard Dawkins discussing his new book: The God Delusion

In this lively 9-minute interview, Dawkins discusses his new book, The God Delusion. The interviewer, Jeremy Paxman, asked Dawkins what he intended to accomplish with his book.  Here’s Dawkins’ answer: I hope to persuade . . . a substantial number of middle of the road people that there’s nothing wrong…

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