Eroding Democracy By Whitney A. Bauman In the state of Florida, we have what is called “the sunshine law.” This law was initially meant to curtail corruption at the state level government. As a state employee at Florida International University, for instance, under these laws my salary and all salaries Read more
Change Comes from the Arts By Kocku von Stuckrad The relational turn is in full swing. More and more people realize that thinking in strict categories, or even binaries, lies at the roots of the planetary crisis we’re finding ourselves in. It is particularly the European heritage of toxic binaries Read more
Esotericism and Indigenous Knowledge By Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz Reflective natural scientists have known it for a long time: “. . . the existing scientific concepts each fit only a very limited part of reality, and the other part, which is not yet understood, remains infinite” (Werner Heisenberg; German quote from Bewusstseinswissenschaften, Read more
Shallow Pluralism and Indigenous Communities in Indonesia By Jear Nenohai Since the passing of Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture Regulation no. 27 of 2016, concerning “Education Services for Belief in God Almighty in Education Units,” indigenous communities and adherents to (or community local beliefs and practices not understood as religion) Read more
We Should All Learn kōkua and kāko‘o By Lina Aschenbrenner On Wednesday, 9 August 2023, Hawai‘i wakes up to devastating videos of Lahaina going up in flames and images of complete annihilation—houses, cars, and people—from uncontrollable flames driven by strong winds on dry land. The power and phone network is Read more
The Strangeness of the Planetary Future By Whitney A. Bauman Wicked problems call for puzzling solutions. Wicked, here, is of course not the slang skater/surfer/stoner complement when something is amazing. Rather, it is a technical term that identifies what the nature of problems that result from the complex situations, and Read more
“J” is for Nothing: Oppenheimer’s, Nolan’s, and My Enchantments By Lisa H. Sideris In the Land of Enchantment My interest in J. Robert Oppenheimer began in earnest around 1990 when, as a graduate student in History and Philosophy of Science, I enrolled in a seminar intriguingly titled “Big Science.” Historians Read more
Religious Naturalism, Emergence, and Science: A Counterpoint Conversation Conversation Partners: Ursula Goodenough and Terrence Deacon Biologist Ursula Goodenough published the first edition of The Sacred Depths of Nature in 1998. The second edition, published in 2023 by Oxford University Press, is extensively revised to incorporate the many changes in science, Read more
Divide and Rule: How the Growing Rift between Peace, Climate, and Social Justice Movements Is Cementing a Ruinous Status Quo By Fabian Scheidler Environmental and peace movements are profoundly divided in many countries today. The Covid crisis and the Ukraine war have further deepened these divisions. Since the Russian invasion Read more