By Augustine Wasef / Regardless of perspective, we appear to be experiencing a tipping point in the shifting concept of moral objectivity. It seems unthinkable to have self evident fact in a polarized world whose cultural boundaries are predicated on personal ideology. But the ever growing sense of moral unease comes close to being one. We are tempted to categorize this dysphoric effect as a deviation from the familiar rhythm of history. If history repeats, what are we repea

By Augustine Wasef In 1985 the musician Sting objected to the Cold War by asking the question: Do Russians love their children too? Forty years later, I ask Americans the same. For thousands of years we have tried to codify ethics into mathematical utilitarianism, as if we could find a formula for innate desire. The underlying issue is that human ethics fundamentally require a kind of logical inversion. It is not sane to enter a warzone only to deliver aid. We do it anyway. 

Image Credit: Evie S. By Augustine Wasef Medieval civilizations didn’t have an escape from the irresistible gravitational influence of materialism. Everything either existed physically or not at all. Light however is distinctly immaterial. Even from a subatomic basis, light is built with an inherently different structure than matter. Gothic cathedrals are built around this fundamental notion. Constructed around an ethereal visual landscape pierced by stained glass, they gave

Image credit: Unsplash/Mahdi Bafanda By Augustine Wasef A feather fell through my psyche like a lead brick. No imaginary ether propelled it forward, no ancient spell, and no spiritual awakening worthy of attention. And yet it punctuated the sonic landscape with a deafening cry. All else went dark.  We all feel despair. The words of a ancient Catholic chant “what we have done and what we have failed to do” illuminate this feeling with such a mathematical precision. We have all

By Augustine Wasef Objects have a sanctified quality, unlike thoughts which are abstract, or memories which appear as rock solid but instead are flawed. Objects are anchors for our consciousness.   The digital world grants the user the power to create almost anything they can imagine, see goat simulator . With this power we gradually lose our touch with reality. An infinite supply of free universes means our own becomes increasingly worthless. Without a tether to earth we bec

By Augustine Wasef The inexplicable handprints pictured above are from the Cueva de las Manos cave complex, which contains art dating from 7300 BC to 700 AD. The academic community has searched for more than a century for an explanation and has championed relatively utilitarian explanations for prehistoric cave paintings. But to claim that these handprints were merely just serving a ritual purpose is to ignore the actual intention. We do not create art to satisfy some imagina

Science has been, seemingly eternally, a group of disparate theories with only the weak unifying theme of the search for knowledge about the universe. Until the late 20th century when a ragtag group of scientists embarked on a seemingly absurd quest - to unify every branch of science, and by extension the entirety of our knowledge about the universe, into a united and coherent theory. They started a frenzy of research where a multitude of papers were released and increasingly

The most agonizing events a person experiences can fundamentally change their psyche. Arguably, the most traumatic event in human history created a sense of divine judgment that has carried into the modern era. It reshaped the meaning of being human. Roughly fifteen thousand years ago humans were scarred by a tragedy that was etched into the collective mind and ruminations of the subconscious: the sea level dramatically rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Over generat

By Augustine Wasef The Iliad  begins awkwardly lacking the sense of ambition that permeates its equals. It ends just as uncomfortably with Funeral Games. But between those two syncopated notes is one of the most remarkable books in human history. Homer takes unparalleled pleasure in the prevailing rhythms of life and the deviations of those beats. Its lofty sense of moral ambiguity limits the focus of our blinding contemporary moral absolutes.  The Iliad  dictates a notion th

By Augustine Wasef Image credit: Stephen Kalinin/Unsplash For those you have been trying to make sense of Gen Alpha, I feel you. We are expected to believe Gen Alpha will be a progressive Renaissance or a conservative tsunami, the end of organized religion or its phoenix. The self-contradictory headlines bear more of a resemblance to a dissonant piece by Schoenberg than the stable chord progression we secretly desire; in the mad stampede to hear what we want we lose sight of

Free will has been a long standing debate across various fields–from religion to quantum mechanics. In that regard it is unique, a singular touchstone connecting subjects that are involved in the contemplation of humanity's role in the universe. Consciously, we disavow free will. But we subconsciously accept it.  One of the dominant arguments against free will is that it is being replaced by modern neuroscience. Historically one's choices could not have been produced by the b