Tag Archives: Saadia Gaon

How to Handle Talking About God

Posted on August 12, 2018 by N.S. Palmer

“We can talk about God because the word ‘God’ serves as a handle, connecting us to what we can’t know or understand.” Continue reading →

Prophetic Brains in a Vat

Posted on April 7, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: “Brains in a vat”? It sounds like the plot of a bad science fiction movie. But it might hold a key to understanding prophetic insight. The basic idea was around even before … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Allegory of the Cave, Bible, Brain in a vat, Cosmic Microwave Background, Epistemology, Hilary Putnam, Jewish Philosophy, Maimonides, Plato, Saadia Gaon, The Republic | Leave a comment

How to Think About Transgenderism

Posted on March 20, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: In a scene from an old Monty Python movie, a mother has just given birth. She asks the doctor, “Is it a boy or a girl?” He replies, “I think it’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Differences between male and female, Neuroscience, Psychology, Saadia Gaon, Sex change, TG, Transgender, Transgenderism, Transsexual | Leave a comment

Will Judaism Disintegrate?

Posted on February 14, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: A popular California rabbi’s forecast seems gloomy until you think about it. Then you realize it’s absolutely catastrophic. He says that Judaism is: “… a platform [that] rests on a mountain of dynamite. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Authority, Autonomy, Eliyahu Fink, Fink or Swim, Halacha, Hedonism, Jewish tradition, Maimonides, Millennials, Modern Orthodoxy, Moses Mendelssohn, Nihilism, Open Orthodoxy, Saadia Gaon, Spinoza, Zeitgeist | 22 Comments

Creation But Not Ex Nihilo

Posted on January 16, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: How did the world get here? That question didn’t start with the ancient Israelites and it probably won’t end with us. Our scientific attempts to explain the origin of the universe are … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Bereshit, Bible, Cosmology, Creation ex nihilo, creation myth, Enuma Elish, Genesis, In the beginning, Jewish Study Bible, Marduk, Robert Alter, Saadia Gaon, Tanakh, Tiamat | 4 Comments

You’re Doing It Backward

Posted on July 7, 2015 by N.S. Palmer

By N.S. Palmer You’re doing it backward. Well, maybe not you, but a lot of people. They’re doing it backward, according to Saadia Gaon (882 – 942 CE), the Jewish philosopher who updated Aristotle for the 10th century. Most people … Continue reading →