The Torch Magazine,
The Journal and Magazine of the
International Association of Torch Clubs
A Peer-Reviewed
Quality Controlled
Publication
ISSN Print 0040-9440
ISSN Online 2330-9261
Fall 2013
Volume 87, Issue 1
Articles in the
Fall 2013 Issue
The Self:
Perspectives from East and West
by Leland W. Robinson
Most
organisms successfully maintain life
without the aid of a self, but the
evolution of the human self is one of
nature’s very finest accomplishments.
As used here, the term “self” refers
to the mental processes that allow
people, and a few other species, to
think about themselves. It is only
because we possess a self that we can
form images of what we are like,
evaluate ourselves, and talk to
ourselves in our own minds.
A Novel American
Life: Lew Wallace and the
Writing ofBen -Hur
by Deborah
Stevens
He was inspired by a
conversation with a famous
atheist to author Ben -Hur: A
Tale of the Christ, a
bestseller that was turned into
a film twice. He was a
Civil War general, an arms
trader with a foreign
government, a territorial
governor and an
ambassador. He personally
touched so many 19th century
events and people that Lew
Wallace could be characterized
as the "Forrest Gump" of the
19th century.
Shame on You
by John F. Fockler,
Jr.
When I was a kid, one of
the most popular shows on television
was Leave It to Beaver.
The show was about a suburban family
of Dad, Mom, and two sons. I
was never much of a fan of the show,
but for years, I did not know
why. Finally, as an adult, it
dawned on me; I am, in fact, a child
of
Leave-It-to-Beaverland.
I failed to warm to the show simply
because it was much too close to my
real life.
An Introduction
to Kabbalah
by Michael R. Leavitt
In recent
years, Kabbalah—the primary
variety of Jewish mysticism—has
become a focus of popular culture.
As so often happens in such cases,
misunderstandings have ensued,
which perhaps some history can
dispel. Kabbalah is Jewish
religious mysticism. Knowledge of
God can be as simple as a feeling
of closeness to a supernal
presence, or an attempt to
experience that presence through
our senses. In Judaism, this is
supplemented by the intellectual
approach of trying to fathom God’s
being; to understand the "mind" of
God is to know God. For some
Jewish mystics, this knowledge is
far more important than the
ineffable feelings one gets.
Kabbalah has come to include all
of these aspects.
Bolshevik
Love: Beyond the Icon
by Richard B. Schoenbohm
One figure stands out in
Russia’s Bolshevik
Revolution—Lenin. Like a
Russian icon, Lenin has become a
one-dimensional, mystic figure: a
movement’s godhead. Maxim
Gorky’s tribute takes the tone of a
hagiography: “His was that
heroism which Russia knows well –
the unassuming, austere life of
self-sacrifice of the true Russian
revolutionary intellectual who, in
his unshakable belief in the
possibility of social justice on the
earth, renounces all the pleasures
of life in order to toil for the
happiness of mankind.” But
behind the icon was a man who loved
things and people besides the cause.
Looking at Lenin’s love life, rather
than being a purely prurient
pursuit, gives fresh insight into a
man who operated the levers of
history. Our knowing these loves
gives us a human perspective,
demythologizing history.
Autism:
Recent Research and a Brief Personal
Story
by Randy Martin
This
paper will provide you with both
“awareness” and a greater
understanding of autism, as seen
through the eyes of a parent of an
autistic son.
Wikipedia: Is it
the Library of Babel?
by John P. Lewis
This article discusses the
origins of Wikipedia.
But, some may ask, is Wikipedia as
reliable and authoritative as the
old Britannica? Academia sometimes
treats Wikipedia as if it were the
Library of Babel. My
granddaughter says that she could
not use Wikipedia citations in high
school or college papers.
Speaking about itself, Wikipedia
says it “…is increasingly used by
people in the academic community,
from freshman students to
professors, as an easily accessible
tertiary source for information
about anything and everything.
However, citation of Wikipedia in
research papers may be considered
unacceptable, because Wikipedia is
not considered a credible or
authoritative source.”
Wondrous Physics:
The Higgs Field
by
Edward N. Clarke
On
the 4th of July of 2012, physicists
from all over the world celebrated the
experimental finding of a small
particle called the Higgs boson, which
enables something called the Higgs
field to interact with the fundamental
electrons and quarks that compose
matter. The interaction creates the
mass of the electron and the quark,
and hence the mass of us and of the
entire universe.
This finding also brings close to
completion what physicists have called
the "Standard Model," a not very
glitzy name for a very important
concept. This model explains how the
universe works through its fundamental
particles and forces (one force,
gravity, remains unaccounted for by
the Standard Model).
