Posted inBooks Reality

Reality is real, but brains construct knowledge

When Amazon delivered Paul Thagard's "The Brain and the Meaning of Life," I knew I was going to enjoy the book after I perused some chapter titles -- the first four being We All Need Wisdom, Evidence Beats Faith, Minds are Brains, and How Brains Know Reality.  Ah, inspiration for my churchless non-soul. I'm one chapter away from finishing the book. Probably I'll write another post about it after I read Making Sense of It All. (I can only hope; that's a pretty confident claim for a chapter.)Here I'll focus on some key concepts in How Brains Know Reality. This subject…
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Posted inReality Science

Divinity isn’t necessary to make life meaningful

I was planning to write about another subject today, but a commenter on this post (Brian from Colorado) pushed my meaning-of-life button when he wrote:If I have this right, Blogger Brian, you're hope is that others will hear your message of hopelessness, and deem it worthy of belief?You would characterize the whole of existence as an accidental soup of random particles bouncing about in meaningless fashion, and then seek some modicum of consolation in having mastered the one true way of unblinking, tough-minded knowledge about "The Way Things Really Are." (or, at least that's what I seem to be getting…
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Posted inGod Science

100% proof isn’t possible, plausibility is

Nice offering on the Atheist Meme front from Greta Christina today.Very few claims can be proven or disproven with 100% certainty. But we can still assess whether those claims are more or less likely to be true. And that includes religion. Atheism doesn't mean 100% certainty that there is no God: it's the conclusion that the God hypothesis is not plausible. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.We can only hope.
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Posted inReality Science

Can you be spiritual without being scientific?

Short answer to my blog post title: No. Absolutely not. Especially in these 21st century times. Maybe back in the Dark Ages, when accurate scientific knowledge was extremely limited.Today we know with considerable certainty that the universe is some 13.7 billion years old, having begun in a big bang that is still banging (and indeed, accelerating). And that life has evolved on Earth from humble unicellular beginnings to we Homo sapiens who are able to contemplate our origins. And that the "mind" is a product of the "brain," an amazingly complex agglomeration of neural processes which enable us to perceive,…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Cirque du Soleil reflects great philosophy of life: openness

Usually I don't come away from a theatrical performance feeling that I've just been exposed to a marvelous philosophy of life. But usual and Cirque du Soleil aren't words that belong next to each other. Last Friday my wife and I journeyed up to Portland (Oregon) to see Kooza. It was our first Cirque du Soleil experience. And surely not the last. We loved the show, including the Tapis Rouge pampering that we ended up getting at no additional cost. I found Kooza deeply moving. Always eager to fire up my philosophical neurons, I've spent the past few days musing…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Radha Soami Satsang Beas rakes in cash (and a river bank)

Thanks to David Lane (a.k.a "Neural Surfer") I came across a link to a news story about a big real estate deal involving land owned by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a Indian religious/spiritual organization headquartered in the Punjab. A commenter points out that the sale is for about $108 million, with houses on the property slated to sell for around $2 million. Wow. Parts of India must be imitating Beverly Hills.I also was emailed a link to another story about RSSB: "Dera raising embankment to change course of river; farmers complain." Hundred million dollar deals and questionably legal construction…
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Posted inReality Science

How to tell science from pseudoscience

Since religious believers often put down science as an inadequate means of knowing reality, it's interesting that science pops up so often in the names of metaphysical belief systems. For example, there's Science of the Soul, Christian Science, Religious Science, and Scientology.How, then, can we tell the difference between genuine science and pseudoscience? Last night I read a review in New Scientist of "Nonsense on Stilts: How to tell science from bunk," by Massimo Pigliucci.Naturally I had to fire up Amazon and order the book. It sounds right up my churchless alley. The review by Amanda Gefter says:Pigliucci, a philosopher…
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Posted inBuddhism

Nice simple description of Zen

I've read lots of books about Buddhism and Zen. Often the core teachings get submerged under a bunch of confusing verbiage. So it was refreshing to pick up "The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi" and find a wonderfully clear introduction by the translator, Burton Watson.Of all the world's "spiritual" faiths (using that term loosely), Zen Buddhism and it's iconoclastic cousin, Taoism, strike me as being the least religious'y. Burton makes this clear. I'm not endorsing what he says as the gospel truth -- that'd be opposed to what he says, even if I heartily believed in it. I just wanted…
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Posted inReligions

Crazy or religious? Tough to tell the difference.

After putting up my post about Muslims in Pakistan going batshit crazy over a Facebook page that celebrates Everybody Draw Muhammed Day!, I got to thinking about how religious believers would be considered certifiably insane (or at least seriously out of touch with reality) if society didn't look upon collective delusions more favorably than individual wacked-out'ness.I mean, let's imagine that there aren't any religions on Earth. So...no unproven metaphysical dogmas. No faith-based theologies. No imagined heavens/hells, astral planes, or soul-traveling destinations. No hypothesized divine beings with miraculous powers. No hidden system of godly rewards and punishments. But people still have…
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Posted inFundamentalism Humor

Draw Mohammed Day freaks out fundamentalist Muslims

Example #[infinity] of why religions are so ridiculous: Pakistan shuts down Facebook over a page that promotes "Draw Mohammed Day."The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority issued the order a day before "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," scheduled by a Facebook group with the same name. "Obviously it (the blocking of Facebook) is related to the objectionable material that was placed on Facebook. That is why it is blocked," said Khoram Ali Mehran of the telecommunication authority.Check out Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! on Facebook. No reason not to -- aside from defying the will of Allah and being damned for eternity, along with having…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Cool new sharing/search bar

When you scroll down the page, you'll see an Apture site bar appear. It's pretty cool. Highlight a word or words. Click on "search." You'll get results from my blogs, Wikipedia, Google, You Tube, Amazon, and more. Web sites found via a search can be browsed from within this blog (though other blog posts on the subject open in a new tab; also in Firefox for some reason). Close the browsing window by clicking the "x" and return to the post you were reading. Share a post via Facebook, Twitter, or email by clicking on the site bar icons. Enjoy.
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Posted inReality

Take baby steps into “spiritual” mystery

There's nothing inherently wrong with grandiosity. Dreaming big can lead to significant realities: art, literature, money, political power, athletic accomplishment, whatever.But a large part of wisdom is distinguishing between what is less and more possible. This is a subject of more than academic or abstract interest to me, because for much of my life I've been way out there on a grandiosity branch when it comes to knowing the mysteries of the cosmos. Maybe I can blame, or thank, my mother. She was a woman who loved learning. We were able to move into a new house when I was about…
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Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Great logical argument for not believing in God

Why should someone believe in God? Any god. Or gods. Going further: why should someone believe in any metaphysical, spiritual, mystical, or other-worldly hypothesis?Usually people don't give much thought to these questions. Most of humanity is religious in one way or another. They've fallen into some faith by virtue of birth, culture, conversion, or a leap that was taken without much (or any) of a logical underpinning.Yesterday I started reading a book by Greg Craven, "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" It's subtitled A rational response to the climate change debate. Which it is, judging from the four chapters that…
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Posted inReality Religions

Religious believers: Drop the similes and state the facts

The first job I had when I left graduate school was research associate at a medical school's Family Practice Department. I used to sit in on some training sessions for the residents who were on their way to becoming family doctors.One of the faculty members had a favorite saying: "Say it so your grandmother could understand it." Meaning, talk to your patients simply and directly. Don't use big words. No jargon.That was good advice -- leaving aside the mildly sexist grandmother reference. (Hey, it was 1973; we weren't so culturally correct back then.)I wish religious believers, including those who leave…
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Posted inMystics

Let’s put the mystery back into mysticism

I love mystery. It's something that can't be explained and isn't understood. I also love mysteries, books that center on a mystery which -- almost always -- is explained. But until it is, it isn't. A mystery remains mysterious until it is understood."Mysticism" sort of sounds like "mystery." However, according to the Great God Wikipedia, it's more about communing with or being aware of an ultimate reality/truth. So a mystic supposedly understands a mystery of some cosmic significance. Like...Whether metaphysical realities exist. What happens after we die. If consciousness is possible without a physical body. How the universe began. Whether…
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Posted inReality Religions Science

Eastern brains are different from Western brains

The differences between Eastern and Western philosophy -- which includes religions with a corresponding bent -- are clear. Most people tilt one way or the other philosophically. I certainly have many more Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu/Vedanta books in my library than titles with a Western bent.However, I did write a book about a Greek philosopher, Plotinus. He didn't believe in a personal God, though, viewing reality in a rather "Eastern" fashion, yet generally expressing himself in an analytical "Western" manner.In an introductory chapter I talked about what I saw as the difference between a Western and an Eastern mind. Eight…
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Posted inReality Religions

Atheists and agnostics are open-minded

I'm open to the possibility that god or some other manifestation of the supernatural exists. I just don't see any convincing evidence of this. Being open-minded isn't the same as being gullible, as Greta Christina says in a great blog post, "Are Atheists Open-Minded?"For starters: "You have to have an open mind" is not the same as "Here's some good evidence for why my idea is right." Yes, it's good to have an open mind. How is that an argument for religion or spirituality being correct? I mean, if someone insisted that they had a three- inch- tall pink pony…
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Posted inBuddhism Science Taoism/Tai Chi

If there’s no “me,” I don’t have any problems

Following up on "My best guess about God" musings, I wanted to take another crack of getting down to the core of a whole lot of religiosity, spirituality, mysticism, and philosophy.My inspiration is Wei Wu Wei's "Open Secret," which I finished today. Like many books with a Zen, Buddhist, Taoist, Advaita, or non-dual slant, I passed through many stages of literary emotion while reading it.Interest. Irritation. Confusion. Agreement. Contentment. Bewilderment. To name a few.What kept me turning the pages were the glimpses of something intriguingly simple that the author, a.k.a. Terence Gray, was trying to communicate. It isn't an original…
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Posted inGod Reality

My best guess about God

Nobody knows what ultimate reality is, which religious believers call "God." All we have are guesses, some more defensible than others. Here's mine -- after some forty years of delving into mysticism, spirituality, religiosity, and philosophy. Subject to change, of course. If I've learned anything, it's that there's always more to learn. Or guess about.I'll be as pithy as possible, a shift from my usual wordiness.(1) God doesn't exist. Not in the sense of an all-knowing, all-powerful personal or individual consciousness. Or even a universal consciousness, though this is more likely than an anthropomorphic God.(2) The cosmos is, always has…
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Posted inGod Reality

Truth is greater than God

What should we choose, reality or belief? This was the theme of one of my first Church of the Churchless posts almost six years ago, "Just have faith."Here's how to tell the difference between true faith and false faith: Imagine that you are standing in the middle of a bare windowless room. Two doors lead out of the room. Both are closed, but can be opened with a turn of the doorknob. The doors are marked with signs that describe what awaits on the other side: (A) Reality, (B) BeliefAfter you open a door, you have to walk through it.…
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