Earth As Common Ground

Music and Humanist Spirituality (Part 2)

There’s a long history of music as a healing agent. As Confucius taught, “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” But it’s more than pleasure. It’s like medicine. One of the founders of western medicine, Hippocrates, treated mentally troubled folks he called “frenetic” by bringing them to temples to listen to healing symphonia. According to Chad Woodford, who writes on music technology, “When we listen to harmonious music, we are attuning our entire being to something beyond itself: our minds, our hearts, our bodies, + our souls. He calls this energetic chiropractic adjustment in the sense that it is restoring order and wholeness to a system out of alignment. SOME SOURCES Listening To Music As Spiritual Practice, Chad J Woodford - July 6, 2023 https://medium.com/atha-yog%C4%81nu%C5%9B%C4%81sanam/listening-to-music-as-spiritual-practice-d373ecbb0be [https://medium.com/atha-yog%C4%81nu%C5%9B%C4%81sanam/listening-to-music-as-spiritual-practice-d373ecbb0be] Music As Medicine by Daniel Levitin review – musician, heal thyself https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/14/music-as-medicine-by-daniel-levitin-review-musician-heal-thyself [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jan/14/music-as-medicine-by-daniel-levitin-review-musician-heal-thyself] Howard Gardner https://www.howardgardner.com/howards-blog/the-intelligences-of-making-music-a-personal-exploration [https://www.howardgardner.com/howards-blog/the-intelligences-of-making-music-a-personal-exploration] https://www.simplypsychology.org/musical-intelligence.html [https://www.simplypsychology.org/musical-intelligence.html] Why I love Music, Spiritual Experiences, J. C. King https://medium.com/real-stories/why-i-love-music-1d4f14896e3b [https://medium.com/real-stories/why-i-love-music-1d4f14896e3b] Music as Spiritual Practice - September 2, 2021, Judi Neal https://edgewalkers.org/music-as-spiritual-practice/ [https://edgewalkers.org/music-as-spiritual-practice/] Listening To Music As Spiritual Practice, Chad J Woodford - July 6, 2023 https://medium.com/atha-yog%C4%81nu%C5%9B%C4%81sanam/listening-to-music-as-spiritual-practice-d373ecbb0be [https://medium.com/atha-yog%C4%81nu%C5%9B%C4%81sanam/listening-to-music-as-spiritual-practice-d373ecbb0be] Spirituality and Humanism, Jeremy Rodell https://humanists.uk/humanistlife/spirituality-and-humanism/ [https://humanists.uk/humanistlife/spirituality-and-humanism/]

The Universality of Music (Part 1)

Music seems to be everywhere - in the origins of the cosmos, the sounds non-human animals produce, and the habits and hearts of homo sapiens. Why is it so universal? Hugh Taft-Morales explores some of the sociological and evolutionary impact of music.

Earth As Common Ground

Let’s share the image of earth however we can this Earth Day. We must find more common ground - our time is running short. President John Kennedy artfully blended idealism with pragmatism, saying, "If we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." The earth is our most basic common link - it is the common ground we share.

Evolution & The Darwins (Part 2 of 2)

Charles Darwin yearned to unify both human understanding and human beings. As Marek Kohn, a British scientist, explains, “Evolutionary thinking enabled [Darwin] him to rescue the idea of human unity, taking it over from a religion that no longer provided it with adequate support, and put the idea of common descent on a rational foundation.” Evolution connected our insignificant, subjective lives into a grand narrative. But as I shared in my last podcast, Charles correctly anticipated the resistance his work would foster, and the anguish it would cause Emma who believed in a heaven where they would both reunite after death.

Evidence, Reason, Science, and Understanding (Part 1 of 2)

Critics of evolution ridicule it as being "just a theory." But it's so much more than that. It includes a vast collection of test results, gathered over decades and analyzed publicly by thousands of researchers. It’s the best our collective community of inquiry offers. Charles Darwin’s voyage around the world that led to his theory took nearly five years of painstaking collection, rough seas, bouts of seasickness, and stretches of monotony. The scientific process is arduous and humbling. It is a human creation, so it must involve human limitation. It offers us refreshing humility.