<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Toward the Mystery</title>
	<atom:link href="http://williamedelen.org/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://williamedelen.org</link>
	<description>The virtual home of the William Edelen Symposium</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:00:59 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>My heroes</title>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1923</link>
		<comments>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1923#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weekly Column]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Albert Einstein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ignorance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religious literacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Steven Weinberg]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://williamedelen.org/?p=1923</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two men, my heroes, who had a driving passion to free human beings from religious superstition, are Steven Weinberg and Albert Einstein.

Dr. Steven Weinberg is one of the true, authentic Renaissance men of our time. He has been called the “Einstein” of our day. He won the Nobel Prize for uniting the electro-magnetic and the weak nuclear forces into a single force. He is a founding director of the Jerusalem Winter School of Theoretical Physics, is on the Council of Scholars - the Library of Congress, he holds honorary doctoral degrees from major universities all over the world. He taught at MIT and Harvard. Nobody since Loren Eiseley and Lewis Thomas has written so beautifully, turning science into poetry.

He recently was awarded the Lewis Thomas prize, given to the scholar who “best embodies the scientist as poet.” He prefaced his acceptance speech by saying, “what a joy to be at a meeting that does not start with an invocation.” He went on to say that the great passion of his life, with science, was to free human beings from the superstition of religion, and he continued:

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Science should be taught ignoring religion. One of the social functions of science is to free humans from superstition.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1923/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Phony heroes</title>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1897</link>
		<comments>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1897#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weekly Column]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[authenticity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[excellence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heroism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mediocrity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://williamedelen.org/?p=1897</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Three Army enlisted men got lost and were captured. The three soldiers came home to receive FIVE medals each by an Army General. They were called “real heroes,” got a Purple Heart, and practically a ticker tape parade. Now is the time for you to gag. I already have. Army veterans around this nation flooded the Defense department with furious outrage. Knowing the Marine Corps as well as I do, I am sure they would have been given nothing had they been Marines. The real heroes of Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Korea, and Iraq would be horrified.

We have become a nation filled with phony heroes. Jocks and movie stars are called “heroes.”

An Air Force pilot was shot down a number of years ago, ate bugs and hid out. Anyone with an I.Q. above 5 would have done the same thing. He survived, period. He came home to be “congratulated” by the President of the United States. The media went berserk over this “hero.” We live in an age of the phony heroes of the “common man.” Lesser men and women flinch before real heroes.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1897/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>2000 years of disbelief</title>
		<link>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1892</link>
		<comments>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1892#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Weekly Column]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biblical history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christianity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dogma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ignorance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life lessons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://williamedelen.org/?p=1892</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I ask this question raised by Carl Jung: “Why are so many millions of people willing and eager to turn their lives over to outside authorities?” Why are so many today willing to turn their mind/brain…soul/spirit over to outside individuals, institutions and ideologies, whether it be Jewish, Muslim or Christian “authorities” of dogma? Or whatever the outside authority might be that is telling you what to think, what to believe and how to live your life.

I ask then, how do we withdraw from such a childish dependency if we want to reclaim our mind/brain and our very own life. I answered this by saying that first you must begin by taking a long, hard critical look at all so called religious authorities wanting to control your life, and be willing to accept the risk that goes with such courage and independence.

Our first six presidents had the courage to do that. American history scholars, writing for the Encyclopedia Britannica, have stated that our first six presidents were Deists and not Christian. I quote: “One of the most embarrassing problems for the nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was the fact that not one of the first six presidents of the United States was a Christian. They were Deists.” (1968, vol 2 p.420, Mortimer J. Adler, editor in chief. The Annals of America: Great issues in American Life: A Conspectus)  Thomas Jefferson used these words to express his view: “On the dogmas of religion, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. (Jefferson to Carey in 1816, ms 1V)]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://williamedelen.org/archives/1892/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
