There are many ways to demonstrate the problems of logic, set theory, and Gödel’s incompleteness. They are all different ways to look at the problem, to become convinced that there is a problem. One such problem is the statement that “God has many names”. These names are not synonymous. By assigning various names to God, …
Moral Imperatives for Economists
Most people think that macroeconomics is a legitimate subject because its experts are employed by prestigious organizations like central banks, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, treasury departments, investment funds, and universities. They don’t know that macroeconomics is colonialism by another name. In this post, I will describe what macroeconomics is, and how it is used …
How Well Do You Know Vedic Philosophy?
A profound illusion of simplicity arises in studying Vedic theology when we speak of the whole without dwelling on its parts. In the elephant and the five blind men analogy, the elephant is the whole while the legs, ears, tail, trunk, and stomach are the parts. We can talk about the elephant without talking about …
Free Will vs. Willpower
I have earlier discussed the differences between two distinct ideas of free will: Self-control vs. other control. The central argument of that post was that the conception of free will in which we are free to control others is false, but the conception in which we can control ourselves is true. However, as anyone who …
What is Causal Closure?
Toward the end of a recent conversation, someone asked me: “Is the universe causally closed?” For a moment I was stumped because I realized that what the person is really asking is whether God intervenes in the universe. If God intervenes in the universe, then the universe is not causally closed. If He doesn’t, then …
The Drop in the Ocean Argument
All physical analogies fail to correctly describe Bhedābheda philosophy. One such analogy is a drop in an ocean. The Bhedābheda proponent says: The drop is distinct from the ocean and yet one with it. The reductionist’s counter to that claim is that if you remove all the drops, there will be no ocean; hence the …
Why So Much Emphasis on Logic?
Most people at present assume that religion is independent of logic. They insist that claims of religion must be “logical”—i.e., follow the principles of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle. This attitude is predominantly Western because alternative logical systems have either been formalized (e.g., in Buddhism and Jainism) or used informally (e.g., in Zen and Taoism) …
How Do You Know You Are Not Dreaming?
In a recent post, I discussed the four tiers of reality, called waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and transcendent. Each successive stage of reality is given greater importance, which means that dreaming is more important than waking. This surprises people—We dream when we sleep; how can sleeping be more important than waking? In this post, I …
Is Bhagavad-Gita Teaching Jihad?
Recently an Indian politician commented that Bhagavad-Gita also teaches Jihad (a religious war). This post lists the differences between what Lord Kṛṣṇa teaches in Bhagavad-Gita (and what happened during the Mahabharata war) and religious war. It is important to have detailed answers to such questions. We will go through the historical background, the events that …