My dear friend, Tat Erredge, passed away July, 2021. I wrote this essay in 2014, a few years after we had gone our separate ways. While it is certainly not my best work nor is it academically sound by any means, it does offer some insight into my life and a way to honor my... Continue Reading →

Please begin by asking yourself what the word Modern or Modernity means…how do you understand this notion? Is it a period of time? Is it clock? Is it a plane? A vaccine? A printing press? Is it progress? Is it capital? Take a moment and think about its meaning.  Now that you have some understanding... Continue Reading →

Emile Durkheim: A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them….So, at the bottom, it is the unity and diversity of social life... Continue Reading →

Scientology is arguably the quintessential modern American religion; however, there is a serious lack of discourse surrounding Scientology within religious studies, and the academic study of Scientology tends to be heavily biased for or against this religion. The primary question driving this paper is: why has this esoteric, modern, American religion been neglected in the... Continue Reading →

Introduction:  Imagine if a few idiosyncratic characters were able to participate in dialogue with one another. I propose the reader to imagine a dialogue between four fictional strangers. Two of these strangers are family; Rick is a super-scientist from earth dimension C-137, who takes his overly-anxious grandson, Morty, on adventures. Zarathustra, a prophet of the... Continue Reading →

Abstract:                  Within Camus’ absurdist framework, I examine more closely what I propose to be the coterminous claims of the two polemicists that Camus pits against one another, Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard.  In the process, I argue that, like Kierkegaard (whose work is distinctively theological), Nietzsche also... Continue Reading →

Though the United States contains about 5 percent of the world’s population, it contains nearly a quarter of the worlds prisoners. A number equaling nearly 2 million. This statistic ought to be jarring in itself, yet more disturbingly, despite those identifying as African America comprise only 10 percent of the United States population, half of... Continue Reading →

Abstract: This essay explores Spinoza's notion of Free Will. Although it may appear as though Spinoza is a hard-line determinist, I argue that upon closer inspection of Spinoza's substance-mode relations he does indeed leave room for both necessity and contingency. The question lies as to whether one interprets Spinoza's substance-mode relationship as de dicta or de re. I... Continue Reading →

Abstract: Nietzsche unsettles the reader by exposing accidents and mistakes which shape(d) particular institutions and/or categories that are(were) believed to be essential, true ,or natural. Nietzsche frequently asserts jarring, highly cynical comments concerning women through which he seems to treat these categories as if they were essential. These comments about women appear contrary to Nietzsche’s treatment... Continue Reading →