Lives on Earth

3.8 Billion Years

  • The Purpose Problem

    Years ago I heard about a book on the purpose-driven life. I rushed to a bookstore (ah, bookstores), only to find that it was mostly about God. But I realized then that I had uncertainties that had snuck up on… Continue reading

  • The Homely Truth About the Shortest Day

    Last week we passed this year’s shortest day of the year. (It varies by a day or two in different years.) December 21st takes center stage in the annual drama of encroaching darkness turning to growing light, the grand rebirth,… Continue reading

  • In the Men’s Locker Room

    Standing at his locker, an older man says hi how’re you doing to the middle-aged man coming in. “Above ground and breathing,” answers the younger man cheerfully. I laughed even though the quip seemed to be coming from the wrong… Continue reading

  • Steven Pinker on Emotions and Genes

    Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works might well be subtitled “And the emotions too.” This terrific book offers a barrage of insights and connections about humans and evolution that can feel intoxicating. It stirs up the nature-nurture controversy with a… Continue reading

  • Who Were Homo Sapiens’ Parents?

    Let’s imagine that you don’t know who your parents were. No records of them have been found yet. And because you don’t know your parents, you also don’t know for sure who your grandparents, great-grandparents or other direct ancestors were.… Continue reading

  • The Spiritual and the Sentimental

    The word sentimental doesn’t get good press. “Having or arousing feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia, typically in an exaggerated and self-indulgent way” is how the usual definitions run. “Exaggerated and self-indulgent” emotion does sound pretty unwholesome. But I see… Continue reading

  • Emergent Phenomena: More Than the Sum of the Parts

    I’ve been seeing the word emergence more and more in the last few years. But apart from the obvious sense that something arises, the meaning of the term—and what the excitement is all about—haven’t  been clear to me. So a… Continue reading