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Agnostic
A Spirited Manifesto
Available April 4, 2016

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Coming In The New Year!

Posted December 31st, 2015 by Lesley Hazleton

April 5, 2016 publication.  Riverhead Books.
And already available for pre-order here, here, and here!

ag final cover

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File under: agnosticism, existence, light, sanity | Tagged: Tags: Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, agnosticism, belief, doubt, faith, infinity, life, meaning, mystery, soul | 2 Comments
  1. Nuzhat says:
    December 31, 2015 at 7:16 pm

    Countdown has begun for the opening of this Pandora’s box of ‘revelation’….pun intended! It’s high, as well as the right time to understand this ‘hazy to the world’ scripture….excited!!
    All the best Lesley. Reviews are making it more enthusing….
    Nuzhat.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      January 1, 2016 at 7:27 pm

      Good puns always make me smile! Thanks, Nuzhat.

Infinity Comix!

Posted October 23rd, 2015 by Lesley Hazleton

Here’s a great two-page record of my infinity talk at the Goodship Academy of Higher Education the other night, and the discussion that followed.  It was made by artist Jed Dunkerley, whose extraordinary talents range from animation design to musical theater.

(The talk, based on the next-to-last chapter of Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, ended up on the front page of the Seattle Times.  It began with the pianist playing Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ and yes, that’s me inviting people to come sit on the floor.  The book’s due out in April, and I’d show you the cover except… well, infinity means it’s not yet finalized).

JED-DUNKERLY-1

JED-DUNKERLY-2

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File under: agnosticism, art, existence | Tagged: Tags: Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, Goodship Academy of Higher Education, infinity, Jed Dunkerley, Pink Floyd | 2 Comments
  1. terrycapuano says:
    October 23, 2015 at 11:39 am

    Zezwzeeeeezezei..je m

  2. chakaoc says:
    October 26, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    love it!

Infinity, In Brief

Posted February 21st, 2014 by Lesley Hazleton

There’s a great short intro to infinity from BBC’s Horizon (hey, what’s one hour compared to forever?).

The BBC un-YouTubed it since I originally posted, so here’s a different link, courtesy of AT reader ‘whizmd’:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1kab09_bbc-horizon-2010-to-infinity-and-beyond-pdtv-xvid_tech.

I love these eager, brilliant Brits shaking their heads and giggling in helpless amazement at how their calculations turn out.  Yes, it’s heady stuff.  Could mathematicians be the new theologists?

 

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File under: agnosticism, existence | Tagged: Tags: distance, eternity, infinity, mathematics, time, universe | 7 Comments
  1. dggraham says:
    February 21, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    May one hope for that?

  2. delarsea says:
    February 23, 2014 at 2:55 am

    Reblogged this on How and Why?.

  3. whizmd says:
    July 20, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    Your infinity video is not working. However BBC video on infinity can be found on youtube.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      July 20, 2014 at 1:23 pm

      Damn, looks like it’s been taken down. I can only find a two-minute promo on YouTube. If you find the whole hour-long program, please do send me the link. Thanks — L.

      • whizmd says:
        July 20, 2014 at 1:37 pm

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQlg86lsy-o

        https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bbc+infinity+documentary

        Check the above

  4. whizmd says:
    July 20, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1kab09_bbc-horizon-2010-to-infinity-and-beyond-pdtv-xvid_tech

    Maybe this is the one for 59 minutes

  5. Lesley Hazleton says:
    July 20, 2014 at 2:15 pm

    Infinite thanks!

An Alternative Me

Posted February 11th, 2014 by Lesley Hazleton

sim me2I’ve been wandering recently in the unreal estate of mathematical infinity, where ‘recently’ has zero meaning. In fact infinity may be an alternate way of thinking about God. Among other things, it’s a conceptual space where multiple mirror universes are not only possible, but inevitable. So it seemed rather perfect when I surfaced for a gulp of air this week to find that Adit, a reader in Indonesia, honored me last year by putting me into The Sims. Or rather, an alternative representation of me: an avatar.

virginiaThe Sims, says Wikipedia, is “a strategic life simulation video game series.” Since I had to go to Wikipedia, it’s clear I’m no gamer, but I’m guessing you might think of it as an alternative universe which may or may not be related to this one.  Which might mean that I may or may not be related in an alternative kind of way to Virginia Woolf, looking all cool and austere and maybe just a little bit fey.

It’s heady stuff, this simulation business. As is infinity. But it looks like my avatar just made a safe landing in a Virginia-Woolf-era plane — thanks, Adit! — so I’m hoping real life simulates the simulation:

sim me3

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File under: existence, technology | Tagged: Tags: avatar, God, infinity, The Sims, Virginia Woolf | 10 Comments
  1. Anne Davison says:
    February 12, 2014 at 12:31 am

    Thank you Lesley. I really like this post and I have to say that you have a wonderful way of expressing the ‘inexpressible’. I’m a new following of yours by the way. I got ‘hitched’ by your book ‘After the Prophet’ which I have read a couple of times and use as a resource for my own writing/lecturing. Anne

  2. Rehan Afzal says:
    February 12, 2014 at 1:04 am

    Hi Leslie,
    The Zero is an interesting concept. Mathematically it is defined by the “inverse” (not the opposite) of infinity. A very interesting graph is that of a hyperbola y=1/x, where the asymptotes never touch the axes; except off course at infinity. Ever since my childhood I had been fascinated with visualizing in 3-D what that graph would look like; where I predicted (actually wished) that somehow the infinity point would somehow be convoluted into zero…..Zero and infinity being the same point….that one point would be all encompassing; It would be nothing…yet have everything in it.
    On a larger scale of things, when we look at “Existence”, that’s what there is….all amounting to nothing…unless off course you are a hopeless romantic and want it to be much more than it.

    So it doesn’t really matter if your existence is real or virtual…how do you differentiate the two ?

    Cheers
    Rehan

    P.S. I so do hope you’ve seen “the Matrix”.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 12, 2014 at 9:33 am

      Neo lives!

  3. Mary Johnson (@_MaryJohnson) says:
    February 12, 2014 at 4:54 am

    Lesley, I love you as Virginia (and you as you). This is so cool! And who are we in an infinite number of worlds?

  4. Linda Williams says:
    February 12, 2014 at 5:24 am

    Love this You are the perfect game rep. What fun.!

  5. pah says:
    February 12, 2014 at 7:11 am

    …the mathematical infinity… a bit mystical if you ask me……the game thing, well congratulations, not sure about Virginia, you would know more….fey??

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      February 12, 2014 at 9:36 am

      Like I said, heady stuff. Who needs drugs?

  6. Lux Ferous says:
    February 12, 2014 at 11:35 am

    Hi Leslie,

    Now, here’s food for thought. What if life is a simulation? May be your SIM avatar thinks she’s real!

    Cheers

  7. Lesley Hazleton says:
    February 13, 2014 at 9:35 am

    Love all these responses! Thank you — L.

  8. Nancy McClelland says:
    February 16, 2014 at 5:18 pm

    I can’t believe you’re a Sims character. That’s mind-blowing. How in the world did that happen? Mark used to be an avid player, and he still whistles the “shopping music” when we have to make a major purchase decision. He’ll be delighted to no end. As in, to infinity.

Naked Infinity

Posted March 31st, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

Sometimes you need a break from war and politics and religion.  Sometimes you just need to be very still and think about being human, or not even think about it, just contemplate it.  This photo made me do that:

It’s from a performance piece by the Japanese-American duo Eiko and Koma, reviewed in today’s NYT under the headline Poetry of Stillness, Stretched to Infinity:

A man and woman moving with glacial slowness on a mound of earth, feathers, sticks and vegetation doesn’t sound at all like an enthralling theatrical experience. But such is the almost inexplicable magic of “Naked: A Living Installation,” that watching two bodies inch toward and away from each other in infinitely tiny increments is an utterly absorbing, potent drama of time and space — endless in the moment, over before you know it.

Sounds like life to me.

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File under: art, existence | Tagged: Tags: Eiko and Koma, infinity, Japanese-American, performance art | 2 Comments
  1. Freind says:
    April 2, 2011 at 5:09 am

    ………… YOU CAN DELETE THIS COMMENT …………

    O Dear Lesley please, how you still didn’t got what religion means?
    Religion means being human, you can not break from religion. when we forgot god war happen. Religion means Prosperous life, it means peace, Trust. its means break from World problems when you start to talk to god in the middle of night when all of people sleep and When you’re connected to the infinite mercy of God this is Religion.
    Dear Lesley You have an unique and important difference between most people, that is you think and search (deeply) about what you see and hear and you are searching about the truth. This trait is excellent.
    Best

  2. Lesley Hazleton says:
    April 2, 2011 at 9:34 am

    Well, I might have deleted this comment if I wasn’t totally puzzled by why it was posted as a response to this photo of Eiko and Koma. And if I wasn’t horribly aware that religion is also used as a major rationale for war and hatred. And if I wasn’t far more concerned with the terrifying finiteness of human mercy than with any concept of infinite divine mercy.

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