Posted inGod

If God punishes people with earthquakes, to hell with God

When I heard Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson say that the Haitians "have been cursed by one thing after another" after they made a pact with the devil (actually voodoo), at first I vowed to ignore his idiocy -- not wanting to give him any publicity even in criticizing him.But Lisa Miller's recent interesting article in Newsweek, "Why God Hates Haiti: the frustrating theology of suffering" brought me to change my mind.In his narrow, malicious way, Robertson is making a First Commandment argument: when the God of Israel thunders from his mountaintop that "you shall have no other gods before me,"…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Gurinder Singh’s remarks on Sam Busa’s death

Sam Busa, the South African representative of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (an Indian spiritual group) for some 55 years died recently. The current guru of the organization, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, sent this message to Busa's family.Dear ______, I was informed about Sam's passing. Rest assured Sam is in a much better place now, free from all suffering and concerns.  His guidance and help which he gave tirelessly to the sangat in South Africa for so many years will be greatly missed. He lived a full and complete life.  He is once again united with his beloved Master. Though you will all…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Float gently on a stream of consciousness

Since I've become churchless -- a convert to no-religion -- one of the more ridiculous things I hear from true believers is: So you've given up on finding the truth.No! That's entirely untrue. I've simply realized that the most fundamental questions about life, reality, and what, if anything, lies beyond the physical can't be answered via blind faith, dogma, preconceived ideas, or rigid ritualistic practices.Here's some questions that I find fascinating:What is the essence of consciousness?Does a "soul" exist separate, or separable, from the body?Are humans part of a larger whole, or just a part?Is our usual view of reality…
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Posted inBooks Science

“Natural Reflections” shows how science is superior

I've finished reading Barbara Herrnstein Smith's "Natural Reflections," which I blogged about before on the basis of a New York Times review.Smith's main thesis is that science and religion are, well, natural reflections of each other. This is a seriously scholarly book and I'm not crystal clear about what she means by this. But her final two paragraphs summarize her case in an agreeable fashion.Scientists share cognitive tendencies, achievements, and limits with nonscientists; religious believers share them with nonbelievers. Although each may put the world together and conduct his or her life in ways that are at odds with or…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

The spirituality of “Avatar” (the movie)

My wife and I saw "Avatar" last night in all of its 3-D, Dolby Digital glory. I loved the movie. It inspired me politically, but Avatar's spiritual message is even more powerful -- and more universal.I mean, right-wingers don't like the movie's anti-corporate, pro-environmentalism theme. But who doesn't resonate with the all is one philosophy of the Na'vi, the indigenous people of Pandora whose beautiful earth-like moon is threatened by human invaders seeking a precious mineral, Unobtainium. Even a Christian minister could get behind the Na'vi nature-based spirituality.The Na'vi (per Indigenous tradition) are incredibly spiritual, sharing a connectedness hard to describe.…
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Posted inMystics

There’s no “Perfect living master” or “God man”

Most religions believe that it's possible for a perfect human being to walk the Earth who is intimately connected with divinity, if not identical with it. (Almost always they're male, so this is why I said God man in the title to this post.)As noted in a previous post, there are numerous candidates for this supremely elevated GIHF (god in human form) position. As some Vedanta folks point out, there are quite a few historical contenders for a GIHF appellation. Jesus, Buddha, Rama, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna are cited, though some of these names are questionable candidates. (Buddha didn't…
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Posted inHumor

Non-dual cartoons point way to enlightenment (or, not)

One of the favorite people crazed cartoon characters I follow on Twitter is MonkMojo. I've learned a lot about non-dualism and Zen from reading his clever tweets. Saying that, of course, means that I haven't learned a thing. But who gives a shit? A smile is close to enlightenment, which is one of the idiotic cliches that MonkMojo enjoys demolishing. Here's some sample MonkMojo tweets. (RT means a re-tweet; what follows the || is MonkMojo's add-on).RT @Yojinbo: wasn't impressed w/ the response I got from Houston Zen Center when I was in prison: no response. || Sounds pretty Zen 2…
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Posted inGod

The Last Bread: how to find God

A. Mohit emailed me a link to his short essay, "The Last Bread." Nicely said. I agree with most of the "live now and reject religion" sentiment. Mohit has written "One God in You and Me: Freedom from Religion."
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Posted inReligions Science

Science and religion are so different, they aren’t at odds

Who worries about reconciling the deep philosophical meaning of rap music and bird watching? Or professional basketball and quantum physics? Or motorcycle maintenance and ballet dancing?Maybe science and religion are similar to these examples, because they are so different. Not only that, perhaps all the vigorous debates over the centuries about whether science or religion is closer to ultimate truth misses the point:There isn't any #1, alpha dog, primo, unsurpassed approach to knowing reality. All we have are various ways of dealing with reality. This is, more or less, what the central theme of Barbara Herrnstein Smith's recently released book,…
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Posted inReligions

Memorial service shows sad side of religion

Recently I attended a memorial service for my sister. She died about a month ago. I was sad the day I learned the news, but had largely come to terms with her death. I didn't expect the service to be a laugh-fest, but its rather gloomy nature surprised me. Religion seemingly was to blame. My sister wasn't at all religious, but the memorial service was held at a funeral chapel that reeked of religiosity. Walking in with my wife and brother-in-law, we were met by the black-suited proprietor who gravely, so to speak, said: "I'm so sorry for the pain…
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Posted inMorality

Obeying God is immoral

When we were little children, we had to obey our parents. Conversations like this are common:Child: "Why do I have to clean my room?"Parent: "Because! Now go clean your room!"Religious fundamentalists haven't progressed out of this child-like authoritarian morality. If God or a representative of the Big Man Upstairs (such as a guru, preacher, or whoever) says to do such-and-such, that's the end of the story.Obedience is valued above ethics. And that's weird, as evangelist turned atheist Dan Barker says in his book, "Godless."When someone tells you to do something it is natural to ask, "Why?" Why remember the Sabbath?…
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Posted inReligions

Religious craziness is like drunk driving

Daniel Dennett has a nice piece in the Washington Post about not allowing religious believers to be a protected class — immune from the consequences of their bizarre beliefs.

When I was young, drunk drivers tended to be excused because, after all, they were drunk! Today, happily, we hold them doubly culpable for any misdeeds they commit while under the influence.

I look forward to the day when violence done under the influence of religious passion is considered more dishonorable, more shameful, than crimes of avarice, and is punished accordingly, and religious leaders who incite such acts are regarded with the same contempt that we reserve for bartenders who send dangerously disabled people out onto the highways.

I also liked how Dennett wants pastors who spout unscientific crap from the pulpit to be held accountable for their dishonesty.

(I'm unsure if the Post allows access to the piece for those who haven't registered on their site, so I'll copy it into a continuation to this post.)

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Posted inReality Universe

The cosmos doesn’t have a cause

Often it's said that the biggest, grandest, most profound philosophical question of all time is... (drum roll, please) Why is there something rather than nothing?I used to be entranced by this question. Now, I'm not. It doesn't make any sense to me. I've got some pretty impressive philosophical company in this regard: Bertrand Russell.Here's what this agnostic philosopher said in his 1948 debate with Father Frederick C. Copleston (Jesuit Catholic priest).I should say that the universe is just there, and that's all... I can illustrate what seems to me your fallacy. Every man who exists has a mother, and it…
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Posted inBooks Christianity/Jesus Religions

Talking about religion is good, preaching is bad

A friend of mine has a great way of dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses who knock on his door, proselytizing pamphlets in hand. He tells them enthusiastically, "Great to see you! Come on in! I want to tell you about how wonderful my religion is. It'll just take a couple of hours."I don't think he's gotten any takers. It's funny how religious true believers are really eager to talk about the marvelousness of their own faith, yet usually shy away from learning about other points of view or philosophies of life.So I think Ross Douhat made some good points in his…
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Posted inReality

Agnosticism’s profound respect for reality

Thanks to commenter George, who posted a quote from Thomas Huxley about how he came up with the term "agnosticism," I've been able to appreciate more deeply this faithless approach to life.Here's the quotation:When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last.…
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Posted inReligions

Saying “there is no God” isn’t a religion

Over on my other blog, HinesSight, I wrote a 2008 post that chastised a Portland talk show host: "Atheism isn't a religion, Thom Hartmann."Usually I agree with Portland's Thom Hartmann, Air America's progressive talk show host. But this morning he kept saying that atheism is a religion – that not believing in God is a belief system. That's ridiculous. It shows that no matter how smart and articulate Hartmann is, he's got some blind spots. Those logic-obscurers likely stem from his Christianity. I approvingly quoted from a right on piece cleverly titled "Religion of Atheism: if atheism is religion, 'albino'…
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Posted inBuddhism

Brit Hume blasts Tiger Woods’ Buddhism

Ooh, I'm so excited! It's just what we needed to spice up the New Year -- a new front in the religious wars. Brit Hume of Fox News has dissed the 350 to 500 million Buddhists in the world by saying Tiger Woods needs to ditch Buddhism and embrace Christianity in order to recover from his infidelity scandal and be a great example to the world.Not surprisingly, this has irked Buddhists, who usually are pretty darn mild-mannered. I'm not sure what a Buddhist "jihad" or "crusade" would be called, but the Progressive Buddhism blog has started one against Brit Hume.Could…
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Posted inBooks Religions Science

“The Quotable Atheist” is well worth quoting

My daughter, a chip off of her dad's churchless block, gave me The Quotable Atheist for Christmas. Organized alphabetically, I'm all the way up to "B." Lots of more great quotes to enjoy.I could tell I was going to enjoy the book as soon as I started reading the Introduction by Jack Huberman. He's got an engaging "take no prisoners in the war against religion" attitude. Here's some Huberman quotes.The world (not just America) is deeply divided. The main fault line is where the tectonic plates of religion and of reason/ secularism/ modernity/ science/ Enlightenment meet and grind against each…
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