El Filósofo

Notes from a Zenned-Out Catholic

Blog

  • The Only Free Psychiatrist

    Why do people pray? I don’t mean whether we should pray or whether prayer is effective, but why do people pray? What’s the logic? Prayer is something that sometimes doesn’t make sense in an immediate way. We often hear things like, “I’ll pray for you,” or, “I’ll pray for such and such a thing.” Maybe… Keep reading

  • Unorthodoxy

    I’m a bit of a perfectionist. For those who know me, this might come as a surprise. I can imagine them asking, “How can you justifiably call yourself a perfectionist when your room looks like that?” It’s a fair point, well made, so perhaps I should be a little more specific. While I’m not the… Keep reading

  • The Banality of Evil

    When I first learned who Hitler was (at a rather young age), I pictured him looking something like a cartoon villain. I imagined someone who looked disheveled and unkept, with violent facial features and crazy eyes. Maybe even with an evil moustache. (If you’ve seen Harry Potter, I imagined him looking something like Sirius Black… Keep reading

  • I Live in a Mansion

    I live in a mansion. That’s what I tell people, anyway. Technically, it’s the truth. I do live in a mansion, but it’s not actually my mansion. To be completely honest, I have a room in a mansion, and I share the place with something like 24 other people. The mansion itself is actually a… Keep reading

  • Kids Ask Stupid Questions

    What’s the stereotpical question that a child would ask? For me, when I think of kids asking questions, the first one that comes to mind is this: “Why is the sky blue?” Kids are stereotypically curious about the world and the way it works, sometimes to the point of annoyance. But that’s alright. Though we… Keep reading

  • I’m a Gambling Man

    I owe perhaps more to one philosopher than any other: René Descartes. When I read his first two meditations on philosophy, I was an 18 year old freshly committed to getting his life on track after all of his antics from the high school years prior. I had no idea what I was going to… Keep reading

  • Everybody Loves Waymond

    I want to revisit perhaps my favourite movie of all time: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Previously, I’ve described the film as grappling with absurdism, defeatism, and nihilism. (You can read my original post here.) In trying to overcome them, I thought it did a great job. The film both validated those difficult philosophical questions,… Keep reading

  • The Wave

    I once imagined what it would be like to near the end of my life. (This is very in-character for me.) What would be on my mind? When I thought about what lies ahead and everything that has passed, what would I see? What would I like to see? One of the things I’ve imagined… Keep reading

  • Zen and the Art of Being Out of Your F*cking Mind

    I had a professor who pretended to be a Zen master, and asked our class what 2+2 is. Of course, some genius said that the answer is “4”, and instead of a gold star, he got five “whacks” with a stick, since Zen masters have been known to whack their disciples with sticks for giving… Keep reading

  • Writing & Instagram Filters

    I’ve always loved writing, ever since I was a boy. I remember I used to write short stories all the time. (It’s safe to say that my genre has changed.) I would print them off, and make little books with them. Once, I even got in trouble for this: my second-grade teacher was fed up… Keep reading