Monthly Archives: November 2020

Wonders, Not Miracles

Galileo Galilei, regarded as the father of modern science

by Lawrence Rifkin MD

As a pediatrician, I have a seemingly endless collection of hilarious stories. A toddler came in for a visit carrying along his security object—a spatula. Later that day, an otherwise perfectly well-adjusted mother admitted to me that she is terrified of cantaloupes. Then I treated a teenage patient who had been camping and made the fateful and unenviable decision to use poison ivy as toilet paper. Continue reading Wonders, Not Miracles

Why Non-Falsifiable Beliefs Are Vacuous

Pair of black swans swimmingThe observation of a black swan falsifies the hypothesis “All swans are white”.

In a recent post, Professor Darrell Arnold introduced the idea of a non-falsifiable belief or hypothesis. I would like to briefly and simply explain this important concept. Continue reading Why Non-Falsifiable Beliefs Are Vacuous

Frankl: Tragic Optimism

Viktor Frankl2.jpg

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D. (1905–1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. He was the founder of logotherapy, a form of Existential Analysis, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, which has sold over 12 million copies. Continue reading Frankl: Tragic Optimism

What about Hope?

by Lawrence Rifkin MD

The middle-aged woman in a dark red sweater looked withdrawn and forlorn. I had been answering questions from the audience after presenting a talk called “Humanism As a Source of Inspiration and Meaning.” She raised her forearm just slightly to indicate she had a question. Her question—and my inability to satisfy her with an answer—haunted me for weeks. Continue reading What about Hope?

The Time of Our Lives: Human Awareness in the Context of Cosmic Time

A model of the expanding universe opening up from the viewer's left, facing the viewer in a 3/4 pose.

by Lawrence Rifkin MD

I am about to turn 50 years old, a mark of time that perhaps triggered the impetus to try to understand human life in the context of the largest possible backdrop — cosmic time. Continue reading The Time of Our Lives: Human Awareness in the Context of Cosmic Time