Posted inPolitics

Presidential candidates should be quizzed about religion

To me, there's no place for religion in politics. Sure, virtually every politician in the United States who occupies a high office will be religious, because this is a highly religious country and voters are biased against atheists. But political decisions should be based on evidence, reasoning, values -- not blind faith in some supernatural force. (See some previous blog thoughts on this subject here, here, here, and here.) Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the New York Times, who is about to step down and become a full-time writer, wrote a great piece: Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith. Which…
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Posted inReligions Science

Null hypothesis makes God a nothing

It's been a while since "null hypothesis" passed through my brain. Probably a college statistics class was the last time those words were thought about. So I felt like I was saying hello to an old acquaintance when I came across references to the null hypothesis in the final chapter of Michael Shermer's latest book, The Believing Brain. Science begins with something called a null hypothesis, Although statisticians mean something very specific about this (having to do with comparing different sets of data), I am using this term null hypothesis in its more general sense: the hypothesis under investigation is…
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Posted inHumor Religions

Two Portlanders go to church so you don’t have to

I like "Year of Sundays." Especially the tag line under the blog's name: we go to church so you don't have to Thanks, Joel Gunz and Amanda Westmont, who are fellow Oregonians. I've taken you up on your offer. You're both terrific writers (after each visit to a church or other spiritual gathering, Joel and Amanda compose separate descriptions of their experience). Portland, Oregon's alternative newspaper, Willamette Week, gave them a 2011 "Best Divine Dilettantes" award. If you’re in the market for a religious experience, Amanda Westmont and Joel Gunz might be able to lend you some wisdom. The pair…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

Religious Naturalism: sound science with a topping of awe

Thanks to a comment by Alex on a recent post about the wonders of the universe, I learned about Religious Naturalism -- which I wasn't very familiar with before. (Alex is with the Unitarian Universalists Hong Kong, UUHK.) May I introduce the philosophical/religious position which explores the religious depth (feelings of wonder, awe, inspiration, reverence, and humility; and contemplation of life and death) of the Universe as understood by science: Religious Naturalism More information: http://faculty.uml.edu/rinnis/2000_stone_2_1.pdf http://www.religiousnaturalism.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_naturalism In my opinion, your article is a wonderful exposition of Religious Naturalism (if you don't mind being so described). No, Alex, I don't…
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Posted inScience Universe

No need for God with “Wonders of the Universe”

I felt awe, inspiration, reverence, humility. Not from a religious ritual, holy book, or spiritual sage -- from the first episode I've watched of a BBC science program, "Wonders of the Universe." Youthful-looking physicist Brian Cox explained in Children of the Stars how the same 92 naturally occurring elements are found everywhere in the universe. So what we are, the universe is.I've heard this before, many times. But the way Cox put it seemed new and fresh. In the clip below he says that the building blocks of the universe -- protons and neutrons -- formed within the first few…
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Posted inReality

Life is as absurd as we make it

Is life absurd? Sometimes it seems to be. I ponder how large the universe is (a hundred billion or so galaxies, each with a hundred billion or so stars) and how old it is (about 13.7 billion years), and compare this with my puny earthly existence. How insignificant I am compared to the cosmos! How absurd it is that I consider my life to mean anything in light of my miniscule'ness! And yet... If you want to know how a philosopher persuasively addresses that and yet, give Thomas Nagel's "The Absurd" a read. I did so yesterday, finding it pleasingly…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

“Spiritual bypassing” is an inhuman religious affliction

Whether you've belonged to a Western or Eastern variety of religion -- Christianity or Buddhism, say -- almost certainly you know the sort of person Robert Masters is talking about in his book "Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters." When I'd come across one of them, I'd think, "Good god, just act like a normal human being instead of a pseudo-saint!" They'd be irritatingly self-righteous, emotionally detached, and uncaring about how they treated other people. Masters says: Signs of spiritual bypassing at work are perhaps most commonly seen in the minimizing, superficializing, or outright negation of…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

“Satsangi” is a seeker of truth, not a religious devotee

The literal meaning of the Indian word, "satsangi," is someone who associates with truth. However, various religious groups have hijacked the term to mean something else: a devotee of some particular dogma. Unless all of those dogmas are equally true, some of those "satsangis" are more genuinely associated with truth than others are. Going further, a real satsangi is open to truth in whatever form, shape, or manner it manifests. Thus a true satsangi can't allow himself or herself to be limited by any dogmatic religious barrier. Truth has to be followed wherever it leads. These thoughts were stimulated by…
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Posted inScience

“Why?” is a tricky question

Yesterday Jim, a long-time friend, sent me a link to a video of physicist Richard Feynman responding to a question about why two magnets repel/attract each other. Simple question. But the answer isn't. At least, not if we consider "why?" in the depth that this word deserves. Feynman, a brilliant guy, talks about how difficult it is to isolate anything from what really is an virtually endless chain of interrelationships that extend through much vaster reaches of space and time than we normally envison when we ask "why?" Science understands this. Religions don't. They like to offer up ridiculously simplistic…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Cutting through Buddhist and other mystical crap

OK, the title of this blog post is blunter than David Chapman's "Effing the ineffable," but what I said is pretty much the point of his well-written and entertaining essay. A few months ago I talked about discovering Chapman's web sites, which offer a pleasingly dizzying perspective on matters philosophical, scientific, spiritual, and mystical. His take on ineffability, plus related subjects, was equally interesting reading. Chapman said stuff that I've vaguely understood in a roughly similar fashion, but hadn't been able to pin down so clearly. Here's some excerpts from his piece, which deserves to be read in its entirety.…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

Pure awareness: beyond subjective and objective?

This morning I picked up "The Mystical Mind," a book I've read several times. With every re-reading I get something more out of it. It's a terrific blend of neuroscience, philosophy, and mysticism. I was planning to write something new about stimulating ideas I came across in the Consciousness and Reality chapter. Then I decided to check blog posts about the book that I'd shared back in 2007. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Reading them over, I saw that just about everything I was planning to say, I'd already said. So if you're looking for some non-religious "spiritual"…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Just because religion works for you, doesn’t mean it’s for me

Every time someone leaves a comment on one of my blog posts about how their religious practice, meditation approach, or whatever, is just absolutely wonderful, how it's benefited them so much, and that I'm a fool for not jumping into the spiritual pool they they find marvelously refreshing, I think... OK. It's great that you enjoy what you're doing. But what does this have to do with me? Or anyone else? Some people really like to drink whiskey. Others, wine. Still others, beer. Then there's teetotalers who won't touch a drop of anything alcoholic. Each person could eloquently praise the…
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Posted inGod Humor

God responds to Rick Perry

Well, that didn't take long. God has already reacted to Texas Governor Rick Perry's prayer rally. The Supreme Being isn't pleased. Turns out he isn't even supreme. Read the revelation. Here's part of God's blunt message. Let me tell you something else,  Rick: I didn’t give you those commandments and I didn’t send my only begotten son to help you out.  I don’t care whose ox gores a foreigner or what you do with your neighbour’s ass.  And I certainly never had an interest in first century Palestinian virgins.  They’re all stories Rick, stories.The fact is, I’ve never really done…
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Posted inGod Science

Is consciousness a “president” or “press secretary”?

Yesterday my Tai Chi instructor asked a question after about twenty minutes of class, during which we'd repeated the short Five Animal form several times. "Did the Five Animal feel differently the first time you did it, compared to the last time?" I was one of the first to answer. "At first," I said, "I was thinking about how to open and close my rear foot, among other things. But eventually it seemed like my body was doing what it need to do by itself, naturally, no thinking required." Other people made similar comments. By and large, with one exception,…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Rick Perry’s prayer rally reeks of fanaticism

Reading about Texas Governor Rick Perry's prayer rally, which likely is a kickoff to him becoming a Republican candidate for president of the United States, I wonder how his religious fanaticism would be viewed if he were a Muslim speaking of the need for people to embrace Allah and the Koran in order to return our nation to greatness. "Father, our heart breaks for America. We see discord at home. We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government, and as a nation we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us,…
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Posted inScience

Isaac Asimov: some wrongs are wronger than others

One of the more ridiculous criticisms of science by religious believers is "Scientific facts often turn out to be proven wrong." Well, in a narrow sense that's true, but American author and biochemist Isaac Asimov shows how it's also broadly false in an interesting essay, "The Relativity of Wrong." His basic point is that there are gradations of wrongness. In response to someone who wrote him a letter praising Socrates' proposition that the wisest man knows he knows nothing, Asimov said: My answer to him was, "John, when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought…
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Posted inGod Science

Religion’s bad arguments against the big bang

The day after I wrote my previous blog post, "Mystery of existence eludes both religion and science," I returned to reading Michael Shermer's new book, The Believing  Brain. I came across a section in his "Belief in God" chapter that reminded me of points made in my post -- which isn't surprising, given that (1) Shermer's arguments are fairly obvious, and (2) almost certainly Shermer and I have read the same ungodly books by Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and other religious skeptics. Have a read: The problem we face with the God question is that certainty is not possible when we…
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Posted inReality Science Universe

Mystery of existence eludes both religion and science

"Why is there something rather than nothing?" This is the ultimate question. So ultimate'y, it shouldn't be viewed as a question, because questions imply answers. I prefer, "There is something rather than nothing." Leave out the "why." Embrace the stark, unarguable reality of existence. Forget God. Something must exist or God couldn't exist. So my awe is directed toward existence, not God. Existence is everlasting, eternal, omnipresent, unfathomable. Wild! If I want to feel a tingle up my psyche's spine before I fall into sleep, I ponder there is something rather than nothing as I doze off. (Some reflections of…
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Posted inReality Science

The three wisest words in the world: “I don’t know”

I've got some affirmations for you that will change your life. Repeat them over and over in your mind until they seem to be part and parcel of you. Because in truth, they already are. "I don't know." "I'm clueless.""I have no idea what's going on.""It's all a mystery to me." None of us knows how we know. That's a neuroscientific fact. I talked about this a few years ago in Knowing that you know: impossible. This blog post was based on a terrific book by Robert Burton, "On Being Certain." One of Burton's central points, which seems as certain…
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