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Who’ll win, Al Gore or George W. Bush? Let me explain why my statistical model proves Al Gore is gonna be Mr. 43. Oh, wait– the election was a decade ago, argh. So much for my 10,000 word essay! When it comes to politics, the longer you hold off, the better the return you get [...]

Abraham Lincoln once remarked that a man isn’t well-read until he’s read the Bible; if Lincoln were born and raised in Muslim country, he would have said this about the Qu’ran instead. On the advice of this Arab-ham Lincoln, I’ve started reading through an English translation of the Qur’an. I bring a unique perspective to [...]

A Buddhist Koan is a short tale used to nudge people closer toward Zen enlightenment. Since I really appreciate and love these witty little verses, I decided I’d share some of my favorites here. At first, I thought I’d garnish them with some detailed commentary and analysis. Then I realized, the verses are like works [...]

What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object? The answer is, it depends whether you’re an orthodox objectolic or a born-again forcestant. Belief is the most powerful agent in the natural universe. It can out-move the unstoppable force and dislodge the immovable object. This is because of the Universal Law of Belief, which [...]

A common argument invoked by critics of an all-powerful deity is: “Why does God let bad things happen?” The idea is that if the universe were run by a super-god with infinite power, then surely He wouldn’t let kids starve to death in Africa. It’s very interesting and illuminating to look at this question using [...]

Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament. Chapter 1 tells the Judeo-Christian creation myth. Below is a modernized version. In my modernized version, the first book of the bible is written to appeal to a solipsistic viewpoint. Solipsism is the philosophical belief that you’re the only conscious being in the universe, or, more [...]

One of the most beautiful artifacts of Judaism is Psalm 23, a song composed 3000 years ago by David, second king of ancient Israel. As is so often the case in the Bible, the deep profound truth in this passage is muddied by over-anthropomorphism of the collective wonder of the universe, refered to by David [...]

I grew up in a family where prayer was a daily thing. We prayed every evening around the supper table, holding hands and everything. My parents were wise to teach me about the power of gratitude, making a habit of being grateful for every morsel of food, in good times and bad. However, I never [...]

Growing up in a Christian family, I was exposed to a lot of Christian literature. Very little of it really struck a chord with me. But one author really stood out and had a profound influence on me. Merlin R Carothers, the pastor with the most unique philosophy in the world. This is a man [...]

Early in my Japan trip, I experienced something almost no tourists experience, in part because I speak a ton more Japanese than most tourists, but more importantly because I got lucky as hell. I was on a train somewhere around the Ōmiya area, and I started a conversation with an older Japanese woman. Of course, [...]