http://dickdeshaw.com By Dick DeShaw, MA, ABD Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:10:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ironically, when reason failed me, I could only find solace in the writings of a man who has been called a 'rationalist;' however, after making repeated and failed runs at being an academic and ending up in prison, what made me a kindred spirit with Baruch Spinoza was not reason, ... http://dickdeshaw.com/what-this-sites-about/ According to Baruch Spinoza, we think because thinking is a tool nature gave us. Just as early humans picked up rocks and used them as tools, ideas are the tools of the brain which give us our understanding of the world. Ideas are the building blocks of thinking. But what are ... http://dickdeshaw.com/how-do-we-think/ Richard Dawkins is not aware of it, but his latest book, The God Delusion, has driven the last nail into the coffin of Humanism. (1) By taking on the mantle of Nietzsche's madman (God is dead), and making it respectful, Dawkins has destroyed forever the link between religion and science ... http://dickdeshaw.com/the-dawkins-delusion/ We live in a complex word and it seems hard to make sense of it. Ancient Greek thinkers used the word, 'logic,' to describe the process of trying to make sense. These thinkers made up rules, like a game, for how to play logic. The rules got very complex. Today you can ... http://dickdeshaw.com/the-logic-of-the-universe/ This site is dedicated to my nephew, Scott Allen Haley Christensen, May 4, 1970 - September 11, 2005. Suffering from Duchane's Syndrome and unable to talk because of a trachea in his throat, Scott communicated with his spirit - and one finger, opening logic gates on his computer. I was ... http://dickdeshaw.com/dedication/ As a stress-damaged prison guard (retired), I found the answer to why the world is so f****ed up from a stress-damaged seventeenth century philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza. His answer is simple: stupid (or as he calls it, inadequate) thinking. Spinoza says the universe we live in makes sense. Our thinking ... http://dickdeshaw.com/why-is-the-world-so-up/ In 1992, a prisoner tried to stick a shiv in my gut. I caught the thrust with my hand. The cut, while superficial, went deep into my soul. The adrenalin addiction I had acquired as a guard, became Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. ... http://dickdeshaw.com/the-god-of-science/ Stress disease in soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, was recently addressed in a two-part CBS television series called, ‘Mind Battles.' . While well-intentioned, the program suffered from the two fallacies that usually occur in discussions on stress disease; 1) that it is a mental health issue and 2) ... http://dickdeshaw.com/mindbattles/