My daily life

A case for science

When I applied to graduate school, I was often asked what I was interested in studying. Initially, being naïve and uneducated about the nature of (graduate) education, I often answered the truth and began to enumerate the endless list of my interests: I am interested in studying humans, our psychology, our belief systems, how we operate, how we think, what we mean by soul, how religions affect our life, behavior, decisions, and actions, how compatible philosophy…
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A sketch on racial hysteria

Having attended U.S. educational programs for the past few years, it became clear to me that in racial issues, this nation is completely upside down at a system level. I have never seen as much artificial, unnatural, forced, and pathetic effort to love, respect, accept, and include minorities as in this country. As if Americans, troubled and ashamed by their racist history, today wanted to compensate for the past by pushing ethnic minorities into the…
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Beyond perfection

A few days ago, I stumbled into the live broadcasting of a traditional Catholic Latin mass on Facebook. Without specifics, let it suffice that this type of structured liturgy specifically stipulates when silence must be observed and when music is to be sung. The broadcasting choir director, however, did systematically stop singing before the music was supposed to end, causing long periods of awkward, liturgically inappropriate silence. As the show was publicly broadcast, I did…
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The best pizza place in town

Today a man stopped me in the street asking me whether I was from around here. I said I was. He then asked me where he could find a great pizza place. I had no idea what to recommend him. I wondered why he asked me about a good local pizza place knowing that I was from the area. The fact that I am from the area means that I have a home in the…
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Democratic doubts

Most people have serious difficulty paying attention to the detail and putting bits of information together into one coherent, meaningful train of thought. Rather, they fill the gaps with imaginary data that will lead to frustration and failure. One of my most recent, simple examples: – When can I meet you? – On Fridays at 4 p.m. in the office. (detail) – If I can’t make it, would the weekend work? – On Sundays at…
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The dangers of professionalism

What possible dangers may professionalism – this virtue that Americans so much admire, idealize, and yearn – have? Indeed, professionalism seems to be the most perfect way to deal with things in life. It is protective, unquestionable, safe, and impeccable. Professionalism, however, despite all of its strength and protective factors, can easily turn into an evil tool if not balanced with a sufficient does of humanism. Professionalism operates on the basis of blindness: it is…
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The Catholic Party

  Catholic Bishop Decrees Lawmakers Who Voted for Same-Sex Marriage Should Not Receive Communion   The bishop is right: those who voted for same-sex marriage should not receive holy communion in the Catholic Church because (1) the Catholic Church is a worldwide political party that has the right to define its own laws and rules; (2) these laws and rules must be strictly observed by those who decide to maintain affiliation with this political party; (3) the…
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Life as a process

The dramatic loss of tonality in the 20th-century music is not accidental. While tonality lends an understandable framework, a reliable context, belonging, and stability to music, the lack of it reflects a sense of instability, lostness, bewilderment, and incomprehensibility. The sweet familiarity of tonality comes from man’s familiarity with perfection. The loss of such familiarity demonstrates man’s understanding that in the world there is no room for perfection. The 20th century lost connection with the…
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Conservative progress

Debate in college once again. This time, the topic is whether in a democratic society, citizens ought to be required to vote. Argument and counter-argument. People’s emotions are stirred up. They feel very fond of the topic. Deep ideologies, emphatic terms, and noble ideas fill the air of the auditorium, yet I can’t catch any of them. I find it impossible to get identified with the loftiness of democracy. He who advocates for the mandatory voting system bases his argument…
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Human animal

Reading this college psychology textbook. In every single sentence, it pushes the idea that man is an animal. The book is abounding in sentences like “The key is the amount of time an animal, when free to do anything, engages in a specific behavior associated with the reinforcer. For instance, given freedom of choice, children more often eat ice cream than spinach.” Or: “nonhuman animals.” For some reason, the book’s authors feel the urge to…
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America Great Again

I usually do not consider politics worth writing about in my blog, but after extreme shocks, I feel compelled to react. Today is the second presidential debate that I am not able to watch from the beginning to the end. It would be a sinful waste of time. None of the two candidates can speak, none of the two has answers, none of the two respects those who ask them with exact, concrete answers. None…
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