Welcome

WELCOME TO THE GREEN PEN!

It's my personal soapbox, a place for me to express thoughts and feelings, musings and rants, reflections and recollections; to have fun with words -- about things spiritual, environmental, social, political, economic, and, from time to time, personal. And of course about peace. Soapboxes are in public places (as London's legendary Hyde Park) on purpose, and so I invite conversations with you, for it is through civil discourse that we can gain some perspective on the seeming chaos of these changing times and learn together how to shape a positive future for ourselves, our communities, and the generations to come.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

On Richard Dawkins, Liberals, and Islamophobia

Last week, the Commonwealth Club of California hosted a discussion with British scientist Richard Dawkins. Moderated by journalist and Stanford media fellow Mary Ellen Hannibal, the main focus of the conversation was Dawkins’ new book, Science in the Soul. Dawkins, a famously devout pooh-pooh-er of all things religious and/or spiritual, was quick to point out that the title of the book did not signal a miraculous conversion of some sort from his own religious beliefs, i.e., atheism, reason, and observation-based evidence.

In the course of an hour-long conversation that touched deeply on many topics relating to science, the scientific method, evolutionary biology, and the future of humanity, one questioner from the audience asked him, “Are liberals afraid of Islam?” 

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Of Business, Law, and Love



Upon occasion I reread some of my past journal entries. The following thoughts are extracted and adapted from the entry for September 29, 1998. I’d totally forgotten about it until seeing it again just now...

While meditating, the concept of lawyers and law kept running through my mind. I was thinking about an idea paper I’d recently written and daydreaming that a prominent thinker, teacher, and philosopher (who shall remain nameless here) was adopting my idea for a new project of his and making money with it. We were in discussions about what if any royalty or recognition I would want for having originated the idea.