Maya Bohnhoff

Author's details

Name: Maya Bohnhoff
Date registered: June 23, 2010
URL: http://www.mayabohnhoff.com
AIM: kaath09

Biography

... is a professional writer, editor, recording / performing artist, and Baha'i. She lives in San Jose, CA.

Latest posts

  1. If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another — May 14, 2013
  2. The Scientific Spirit #4: Russell on Time — May 8, 2013
  3. The Science of Adulthood — April 24, 2013
  4. The Scientific Spirit #3: Russell on Unity and Plurality — April 10, 2013
  5. The Spirit of Science #2: Russell, Reason and Intuition — April 3, 2013

Most commented posts

  1. It’s All About Light — 116 comments
  2. The Scientific Spirit #3: Russell on Unity and Plurality — 57 comments
  3. Your Faith is a Joke — 28 comments
  4. Questions from an Atheist #3: God’s Address — 18 comments
  5. Where the Rubber Meets the Road — 18 comments

Author's posts listings

May 14

If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

by

Gold yin-yang

Human beings seem to like to think in binary. “If not A, then B.” “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” (A statement that, ironically, has multiple meanings.) “It’s an either/or situation.” We answer “yes/no” questions. We decide if we want this or that. We think in ones and zeroes—literally, if we program computers down …

Continue reading »


Leave comment

May 08

The Scientific Spirit #4: Russell on Time

by

steampunk1

“The belief that what is ultimately real must be immutable is a very common one: it gave rise to the metaphysical notion of substance, and finds, even now, a wholly illegitimate satisfaction in such scientific doctrines as the conservation of energy and mass.” This commentary of Bertrand Russell, with which he begins his Mysticism and …

Continue reading »


Leave comment

Apr 24

The Science of Adulthood

by

IMG_0845

As I often seem to do these days, I have once again started a blog series, then found cause to interrupt it for a moment of introspection that only tangentially relates to science and religion. But in the spirit of inclusiveness evinced by my one‑time editor at Analog magazine (Stan Schmidt, who retired this past …

Continue reading »


7 comments

Apr 10

The Scientific Spirit #3: Russell on Unity and Plurality

by

blindmenandelephant1

One of the most convincing aspects of the mystic illumination is the apparent revelation of the oneness of all things, giving rise to pantheism in religion and to monism in philosophy. — Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, “Unity and Plurality” Thus Bertrand Russell begins a chapter on Unity and Plurality in which he explores …

Continue reading »


57 comments

Apr 03

The Spirit of Science #2: Russell, Reason and Intuition

by

Bertrand Russell

Of the reality or unreality of the mystic’s world I know nothing. I have no wish to deny it, nor even to declare that the insight which reveals it is not a genuine insight. What I do wish to maintain—and it is here that the scientific attitude becomes imperative—is that insight, untested and unsupported, is …

Continue reading »


Leave comment

Mar 27

The Human Face of Ballistics

by

Henry

Today’s blog is a departure in a number of ways. First, though it has to do with faith and reason, it is not a matter of science—unless one considers the science of ballistics or perhaps the divine science of building union between human beings. Second, it is not part of the series I started last week. …

Continue reading »


2 comments

Mar 20

The Scientific Spirit #1: Bertrand Russell & Mysticism

by

Bertrand Russell

Ways of Knowing I meant to blog about Ian Hutchinson’s book Monopolizing Knowledge, in which he explores the proposition that science is the only valid tool for acquiring knowledge and knowing what is worth knowing about ourselves and our world. Somehow, in the process of researching the article, I found my thoughts about the subject widening to …

Continue reading »


3 comments

Mar 06

Intelligence Squared 8: Stirring the Particles

by

200px-Asa_Gray_by_John_Whipple,_1864

This is the last installment of my exploration of the Intelligence Squared debate between four stars in the firmament of science and commentary (scientists Ian Hutchinson and Lawrence Krauss and writers Dinesh D’Souza and Michael Shermer). I’d like to close by taking a look at one of the central ideas that was addressed (though unsatisfactorily, …

Continue reading »


1 comment

Feb 27

Intelligence Squared 7: Purpose, Meaning and Determinism—Going to the Cows

by

iq2-logo

If you’ll recall, during the last episode of our exploration of the Intelligence Squared debate on the proposition that “science refutes God”, Lawrence Krauss summed up his position by saying that: “…human beings are also inevitably programmed to ask, “Why?” as we’ve heard it.  But the “Why?” question is ill-posed, because it presumes purpose; it …

Continue reading »


1 comment

Feb 20

Intelligence Squared 6: Evolutionary Programming & the “Need” for God

by

A Marriage Made in Heaven

The setting for the conversation is an Intelligence Squared debate in which we have two teams: Team A, composed of physicist Lawrence Krauss and writer Michael Shermer, arguing the motion that “science refutes God” and Team B, composed of political commentator Dinesh D’Souza and physicist Ian Hutchinson, arguing against the motion. During his promotion of …

Continue reading »


2 comments

Older posts «