Free Republic

Carl Teichrib gives a detailed account on the rise of global spirituality and the search for personhood. This lecture is part of the “Stolen Identity: The Theft of the Binary” symposium.

Of all the moving goal posts in the COVID-19 pandemic, herd immunity may be the most difficult to pin down — and it may even be the wrong metric to track. Herd immunity is the concept that once a majority of the population has been vaccinated or has natural immunity to an infectious disease, in this case SARS-CoV-2, life will shift back to normal. But to listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is to hear him downplay the focus on this “elusive” concept...

Don’t Think, Look! A Meditation on the Need for the Mystical Msgr. Charles Pope • July 17, 2016 • Our intellect is our greatest strength and one of our greatest blessings, yet almost nothing gets us into as much trouble. Our strength is also our struggle. We think we know a few things, and indeed we do—a very few things.The greatest intellects, if they have wisdom and humility, know this. St. Thomas Aquinas famously said,In finem nostrae cognitionis Deum tamquam ignotum cognoscimus. (At the end of our knowledge we know God as unknown.) (In Boetium de Trinitate, q. 1,...

Most religious traditions begin with or develop a mystical tradition—a tradition given to the study and direct encounter with the divine, the ineffable, or the transcendent. Somewhat surprisingly, the theme of the mystical has in recent centuries been as prevalent outside of the religious sphere as inside, suggesting that it may be fundamental to the human experience generally. Mysticism leaves its traces in the arts and cultures studied by the humanities. We also might ask what role mysticism plays in Mormonism. Is there a mystical tradition per se in Mormonism? Are mystical texts present in Mormon scripture? Are there mystical...

Oh My! What choreography! Pee-ew. Anti-war Protesters flash peace signs as they peform yoga in downtown San Francisco on Friday, March 19, 2004. Demonstrations in several U.S. cities are taking place Friday on the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) This one is just plain scary!