Category Archives: Religion

Oil and the Devil

Posted on March 8, 2015 by gymnosperm

  The concept of the devil in the Judeo-Christian/Muslim tradition seems to have its roots in an older Persian and possibly Indo-European notion of opposing forces of good and evil. The Christian conception developed into the elaborate scheme described by  Dante which was integrated into … Continue reading →

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Ecology Now!

Posted on August 10, 2014 by gymnosperm

This exhortation has a strange ring to it now, and it is likely that no one under the age of fifty ever heard it, but  the image above is a poster of an actual flag created by the activist organization … Continue reading →

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Cold is the New Hot

Posted on March 4, 2014 by gymnosperm

Once it was that everything was getting hotter and hotter and pretty soon we would be frying eggs by just putting the pan outside. This was to have been because a certain trace gas was invested with magical powers far … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Climate, Climate Change, Cold is the New Hot, Global Warming, Religion, Shamanism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Revenge of Gaia (and the Origional Sin)

Posted on November 9, 2013 by gymnosperm

Our brains are layered in the same way sedimentary rocks are. In our lower brains lie the basic functions: breathe, eat and drink, thermoregulate, and reproduce. These are Archean functions we share with all living things. All beautiful, non-predictive analogies can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Biology, Carbon Theology, History, Metaphor, Religion | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

I Deny

Posted on August 16, 2013 by gymnosperm

“Denier!”, in the tone of apostasy. Well, call me the apostate, because I deny. I deny that there is any reasonable scientific evidence that Carbon dioxide will cause catastrophic global warming. I deny this as a naturalist and serious student … Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Carbon Cycle, Carbon Dioxide Loves to Swim, Carbon Prohibitionists, Carbon Theology, Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming, Global Warming Denial, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Carbon Theology

Posted on October 16, 2012 by gymnosperm

A while back I wrote a post “On Carbon and Sodium” where I pointed out that in spite of the fact that researchers have known for forty years that it is the Chlorine (Chloride) in table salt that causes hypertension … Continue reading →

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Spreadsheet of Human History

Posted on May 24, 2012 by gymnosperm

Spreadsheet of human history Spreadsheets are really graphs. This one has time on one axis and space on the other. The space geography is arbitrary but intended to sequence human dispersion from Africa. I have lots of Teaching Company timelines … Continue reading →

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Skepticism

Posted on March 22, 2012 by gymnosperm

You know what skepticism is? Skepticism is doing yoga in your socks because it is cold and you didn’t start the fire soon enough. You know darned well it will be fine, you’ve even done it before when it was … Continue reading →

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