Why I Care About Sleep at MIT

Posted on April 13, 2016 by adam1

from sleepingmitstudents.tumblr.com

Sleep deprivation is often part of the MIT student experience. One of my dreams (pun intended) is that MIT can come to have a healthier sleep culture.

In this week’s Tuesday’s in the Chapel, I talk about why I see this as such an important issue—both based on my personal experience as an MIT student and from a spiritual perspective.

There’s no transcript this time because this was talk was completely unscripted—which is very unlike me. In addition to the audio, the text selections¹usually in these selections I like to include some connection to non-religious stuff for the sake of inclusivity, but since I did this one with virtually no prep, I defaulted to Bible verses that were top of the mind. I used are below.

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Notes: [ + ]

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usually in these selections I like to include some connection to non-religious stuff for the sake of inclusivity, but since I did this one with virtually no prep, I defaulted to Bible verses that were top of the mind.

Making Room for God in your Emotional World

Posted on February 2, 2016 by adam1

Another talk that I gave at my church. This one was focused on the wonderfully simplistic yet deeply powerful ancient spiritual exercise called “the Examen” that uses emotional awareness to integrate self-reflection and prayer.

Making Room for God in Your Emotional World

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What’s at the Center? – Centered Sets Part 2

Posted on August 14, 2015 by adam1

theGoodLife In my previous post about centered sets, I proposed the idea that there is some “Good Life” that serves as the center of the human set. To reiterate, even if all of us would have very different ideas about what that good life is, the idea is still that there’s one center. Now, I have no idea if this is true and I’ll make no attempt to prove it. But I wanted to talk a little bit about how I personally think about this idea of a “center”. Continue reading →

Sinai and Synapses / Spirituality and Science

Posted on July 31, 2015 by adam1

I’ve applied to participate in the very cool-sounding Sinai and Synapses Fellowship. My answer for one of the application questions felt blog worthy.

Question: Please share a story – either personal or professional – that exemplifies how you grapple with the relationship between religion and science. (300 words max)

Adam’s answer:
Loosely speaking, the enterprise of science seeks to interpret evidence to draw conclusions about the universe. But, of course, “speaking loosely” is not a helpful practice in science. So we must systematize this process of inquiry and interpretation and carefully define what “evidence” is. We make observations of the physical world and count them as evidence if they meet our standards of reproducibility and scientific controls.

Outspoken scientist atheists emphasize that there is no evidence for a divine creator and say that it is misguided to have faith. They’re probably right about the lack of evidence, especially if we’re using scientific standards for what constitutes “evidence”. Continue reading →

IHTFParadise

Posted on February 10, 2015 by adam1

I read this incredible blog post in the MIT Admissions Blogs. It’s a wonderful example of how spiritual engagement can transform our experience of MIT. This is what we need more of! Mens et Manus… et Spiritus!

IHTFParadise – A Journey of Depression at MIT

Why I put a sperm and egg diagram on my business card – Centered Sets Part 1

Posted on February 15, 2013 by adam1

Shoot! Clearly I am not cut out for blogging! It’s been months since my last post. Sadly, I think my dreams of having one of those blogs that people actually read are down the drain. And yet, I put the link to this thing on my business cards and I’m too cheap to get new ones before I use these up.

And speaking of my business card, what’s up with the backside of that thing? I gave one to a young woman and she giggled when she looked at the back. When I asked her what was funny, she said “well, you know what this looks like!” But I didn’t. And she didn’t want to clue me in for some reason and then she changed the subject.

I kept trying to figure it out though. I had just ordered a fresh box of these business cards so I wanted to be in on the joke too. The demure tone of her snickering made me wonder if it was something sexual. And then I had my answer. Well, here’s what’s on the back and you’ll probably pick up on it much faster than I did.

Well, if I wasn’t meaning to depict a bunch of sperm cells bombarding the egg, what is the deal with this image? Continue reading →

My Complicated Love Affair with MIT… and That Special Somethin’ That Was Missing

Posted on November 25, 2012 by adam1

It was my dream to come to MIT since I was in 5th grade. When I visited MIT for the first time as junior in high school, I just fell even deeper in love. And I very much still remember the day when I got my acceptance letter (though it wasn’t nearly as cool as the ones used today). So when I showed up to start classes here, I was a little surprised to find that not everyone loved MIT as much as me.

In fact, it seemed the longer somebody had been here the more they strongly disliked MIT. The place was nicknamed “Hell” and the acronym we used to express how much we hated it got five letters when most only got three. Upperclassmen told me that “MIT teaches you to hate the things you love” and it was taken for granted that the primary emotion of seniors (if not juniors) was bitterness. What on earth was going on? This was supposed to be the greatest place on earth for us nerds! Continue reading →

…et Spiritus!

Conversations on spirituality at MIT

Category Archives: Spirituality