Posted inReality Science Universe

Universe may not be eternal, but existence is

Believers in God who follow modern science will be heartened by a recent article in New Scientist, "Why physicists can't avoid a creation event."  While many of us may be OK with the idea of the big bang simply starting everything, physicists, including Hawking, tend to shy away from cosmic genesis. "A point of creation would be a place where science broke down. One would have to appeal to religion and the hand of God," Hawking told the meeting, at the University of Cambridge, in a pre-recorded speech. For a while it looked like it might be possible to dodge this problem, by…
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Posted inFree will Morality Science

There’s no free will, so you’re unable to believe me

I gave it my best try last night -- arguing that we humans don't have free will, though it seems ever so obvious that we do. (Of course, it also seems obvious that the sun goes around the Earth, which demolishes the "obviousness" argument for anything.) My wife and I belong to a three-couple book/article discussion group. Yesterday the subject was the justice system. When it came time for me to share my thoughts, I started off by quoting from Jerry Coyne's column in USA Today, "Why you don't really have free will." The issue of whether we have of…
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Posted inBuddhism Death/Rebirth

Bad news: I’m going to die. Good news: I’ll be nirvana!

Oh, the unfairness of it all. I really like being alive. Yet one day I'll be dead. Gone. Nonexistent. Forever unconscious.  Damn it, damn it, damn it! Who the hell arranged the cosmos in this fucked-up fashion?! I want to live forever, or at least much longer than I'm going to, so where's the Complaint Department, Customer Service, Warranty Fulfillment? I need to talk to who's in charge, because this death deal is totally screwed-up. That's basically how I think in my least harmonious, accepting, live-and-let-die moments. Which are quite frequent, because such thoughts enter my mind a lot. I've…
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Posted inBuddhism

Buddhism says I’m a soul-less Heraclitean river. Cool!

Everybody wants to be something. That's so much better than being nothing. (Assuming "nothing" is something you can be.)

It seems like I'm some sort of self. After all, I'm fond of saying stuff like "Personally, I think…" and "When I look within myself, I feel…" But Buddhism, along with neuroscience, see here and here, deny that us humans have/are some sort of unchanging permanent self. 

Or soul. Which religions consider to be the same thing as a self, just spiritual, immaterial, divine, eternal.

Whatever we call it, self or soul, the big question is whether our essence is like a diamond, indestructible and unchanging, or like a river, flowing and everaltering. The scientific evidence points riverward. 

As does mainstream Buddhism, according to Owen Flanagan in his fascinating book, "The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized," where he seeks to understand what Buddhism is like without all the weird supernatural stuff.

I should explain what a personBuddha is and is not, and how a personBuddha is possible given that there are no selves. Although Buddhists are said to deny that there are persons and selves or persons with selves, this is not really so. Or better, it is so, but the devil is in the details.

When properly interpreted, Buddhists believe that there are persons, and that talk of persons and selves is harmless so long as we recognize that person and self refer to something, a pattern that is conventionally useful but that does not name anything "ultimate" or "really real."

Some kinds of persons, eternal persons, and some kind of selves, indestructible transcendental egos or immortal souls, do not exist at all, but Heraclitean selves do exist. Heraclitean selves are like Heraclitean rivers where both subsist in a Heraclitean universe.

So everything is changing. Including me, you, beliefs, brains, selves, Mt. Everest, ants, galaxies, subatomic particles, who is ahead in the latest presidential poll. Heraclitus sure seems to have gotten that right.

If we hope to base our happiness, our well-being, our satisfaction, on something immutable, unchanging, and eternal — that hope is going to be still unfulfilled on our death bed. Better to accept that we're all Heraclitean rivers in a Heraclitean universe. 

(Scholarly analysis follows)

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Posted inBuddhism Death/Rebirth

Karmic causality — believable and unbelievable

Karma... a word that both is eminently scientific, and also annoyingly religious. I've spent a lot of time exploring both meanings of karma.  Ever since I was a kid I've enjoyed learning about science. In my childhood room I set up a card table that fit oh-so-perfectly inside a corner of my closet. I'd sit down at the table, slide the closet door shut, turn on a light that I'd strung over the clothes rod, and spend many happy hours performing experiments with science kits. Then, as now, the essence of science for me was cause and effect. Do this,…
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Posted inHumor

Puppetji on meaning of life

Via an email, someone just reminded me about a source of ageless wisdom that I'd tapped into some years ago, but had forgotten about: Puppetji. His socksang on "Why Are We Here?" pretty much says it all. Certainly more entertainingly than my recent blog post about finding meaning in life.    l can also recommend "What is Sacred?" as providing a meaningful answer to this oh-so-important question.  
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Posted inBooks Morality

Finding meaning in the midst of life (not in God, not in “I”)

What gives life meaning? Why do we get out of bed in the morning rather than pulling the covers over our head and curling up in existential despair? Where are we to look for purposes, goals, things to do? God or the supernatural is one answer. Deeply religious people believe that meaning flows down from a divine above. The purpose of life isn't made; it is discovered -- via a holy book, holy person, holy revelation.  The source doesn't have to be a personal higher power. In Eastern religions, karma is considered to be the guiding force which leads us…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Are all religions essentially the same?

I used to believe that underneath all the obvious differences between religions, there was a difficult-to-discern common core. Mysticism was what united Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, and other faiths. God is One. Humans have, or rather are, a soul. It is possible for this soul-drop to merge into the One god-ocean. There. Three simple sentences. Forget all the complex divisive theologies. That's the oft-forgotten genuine essence of every religion: realizing that our true Self is, basically, the same as God.  It was a nice belief. Warm and fuzzy. The Indian spiritual organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, that…
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Posted inBooks Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Is my “Life is Fair” book really crap?

A few days ago I got an email from someone who pointed out that, in a recent blog post comment, I'd said: "Karma, reincarnation, rebirth -- no, not solid at all, as evidence is lacking for these ideas." My correspondent thought that a retraction of sorts was in order, given that in 1998 I'd written a book for an Indian spiritual organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, called Life is Fair. The book is a karmic justification for vegetarianism (complete with cartoons!). I replied to the emailer by saying that, hey, minds change. Today, I don't look upon karma and reincarnation as…
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Posted inReligions

More “Apatheists” and “So what’s?” saying no to God

Here's some encouraging churchless news: USA Today reports "For many, 'Losing my religion' isn't just a song: it's life."  Helton, 28, and Dohm, 54, aren't atheists, either. They simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as "So what?" "The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal," says Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. ...Only now, however, are they turning up in the statistical stream.…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Reality

Why isn’t a movie as appealing in HD?

Last night I took advantage of my wife being out of town to stream, through Amazon, an action movie that I've wanted to see for a long time: The Bourne Identity (2002). My wife isn't big on action flicks and wouldn't have appreciated the way-cool Mini chase through the streets, alleys, and walkways of Paris nearly as much as I did. But what irritated me through the entire two-hour movie experience was watching it on our television in HD (high definition). I paid an extra dollar to get the HD version. Then, almost as soon as I started watching amnesiac Matt…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Humor

Atheists, pray for the Patriots to beat Tim Tebow

Today is apocalyptic. God-loving quarterback Tim Tebow and his Denver Broncos play Tom Brady's New England Patriots in an important NFL playoff game.  This isn't only a football game. It's a battle with cosmic significance. Will in-your-face, obnoxious, Christian "Tebowing" win out, leading fundamentalists to believe that, indeed, God is on the Nuggets' side? Will a quarterback who says he's still a virgin (Tebow) triumph over a guy (Brady) who fathered a love child with another woman and now is married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen? God, I hope not! Like some of the Patriots, I'm tired of Tebow talk. So…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sant Mat and Sikhism basically are the same

I used to think that the Sant Mat spirituality I followed for many years (in the guise of Radha Soami Satsang Beas) was truly a "science of the soul." Sure, I knew that Sant Mat and Sikhism were similar, but I attributed that more to culture than to religion. For example, the Sant Mat gurus let their hair grow and wear turbans, just as Sikhs do. However, the party line of Sant Mat was that it's a universal spiritual practice, a way back to God which transcends geography, nationality, historical religiosity, and such. Not really. In fact, not at all. As this…
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Posted inReality Spiritual practice/meditation

Mindfulness 101: separate your senses from your stories

Oh, the stories I tell myself. As do you. As does everybody. We wouldn't be human if we weren't story tellers.  I wake up in the morning. Almost immediately I recollect the basic narrative of my life. I live in Oregon. I'm married to the woman in bed next to me. I need to get up, raise the thermostat to 69 degrees, and let our dog out of the downstairs room where she spends the night. Then... make coffee, take the dog outside, get the newspapers. If I simply was aware of what my senses were telling me, I'd be…
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Posted inReligions Science

What would a new scientific religion look like?

The world needs a new religion. The ones we have are outdated. Every major religion -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism -- dates from prescientific days. Apple comes up with a new and improved iPhone every year or so. Why should we be content with ancient forms of spirituality concocted by people who didn't even know that the Earth revolves around the Sun, much less about quantum theory, relativity, the big bang, and evolution? Our old religions are deeply problematic. A short piece from the National Academy of Sciences on "Compatibility of Science and Religion" pinpoints the problem. Science and religion are…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Tim Tebow’s “Tebowing” is religious obnoxiousness

I like Tim Tebow. Never met the Denver Bronco's quarterback, but when I've seen him interviewed on TV (Jon Stewart talked with him on The Daily Show fairly recently) Tebow comes across as humble and unassuming. But that's when he isn't "Tebowing," an irritating in-your-face display of his Christianity, where Tebow gets down on one knee, with his elbow resting on his other knee, head bowed in a prayerful stance. This has become a craze, with a web site devoted to Tebowing (including a Top Ten, naturally; the dog doing a modified version of the posture was the only photo…
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Posted inGod

Utterly unconvincing God experience

Wow, I've just wasted ten minutes of my life watching this ridiculousness. It's called Man dies, comes back to life, what he saw. Watch it at your peril. Somehow 2,931,978 people have, likely being sucked into doing so by a "check out this youtube video of a man who had what seems to be an NDE" like I got. No, he didn't have a near-death-experience. I didn't hear any mention of that. The guy suffered horrible injuries in a plane accident. He's lying in a hospital bed, probably drugged out of his mind, after going through a hugely traumatic event. So…
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Posted inScience

Brian Greene shows why science surpasses religion

Physicist Brian Greene has ably taken on Carl Sagan's role as TV's best popularizer of science. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed his recent "Fabric of the Cosmos" series on PBS. I've read his book by the same name, as well as his recent "The Hidden Reality."  This afternoon, while exercising at an athletic club, I listened to an interview with Greene on a Point of Inquiry podcast. (I've discovered a bunch of interesting new podcasts to supplement my Philosophy Talk listening after spending $1.99 on the terrific Instacast iPhone app; highly recommended.) Listening to Greene talk with Chris Mooney,…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

“Nothing” is my spiritual resolution for the New Year

Yesterday some friends and I talked about our New Year's resolutions. The conversation didn't last long. We agreed there wasn't any point to making resolutions, since we never followed them.  That partly explains why my resolution for making spiritual progress in 2012 is pithy: nothing. No resolution, guaranteed success. I'm really great at doing nothing. Some days that's my primary accomplishment. But I also have some semi-serious reasons for recommending nothing as a spiritual goal. See here and here. As quoted in the first-linked "here," this saying on a Japanese Zen scroll makes a lot of non-sensical sense. There is…
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