Posted inDeath/Rebirth Radha Soami Satsang Beas

The astounding egotism of believing in an afterlife

Religious believers like to claim that they're more humble than us atheists. Their devotion to God supposedly is a reflection of a selflessness lacking in spiritual skeptics.  Actually, the reverse is true. It's taken me a while to realize this, in no small part because I brainwashed myself into believing otherwise during my 30+ years of religiosity. For a long time I was deeply proud of my humility. Now I understand how deluded I was. (See here and here.) The most astounding display of religious egotism is belief in an afterlife.  Think about it: it is obvious that all living…
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Posted inBooks Science

“I Am a Strange Loop” — a book that beautifully explains consciousness, soul, and I-ness

When I decluttered some bookshelves recently, and gave a bunch of books away, one of the titles in the Absolutely Must Keep pile was Douglas Hofstadter's "I Am a Strange Loop."  This is one of my favorite books. It does a marvelous job of explaining the nature of mind, soul, consciousness, I-ness, and such. Hofstadter's approach is based on modern neuroscience, but he doesn't focus on brain minutia. Rather, he takes a broad perspective that ties together science, philosophy, and everyday experience in a highly convincing fashion. I've blogged about "I Am a Strange Loop" before: If I'm not an…
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Posted inHumor Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Secret of happiness revealed (but my wife disagrees)

In the course of de-cluttering my office yesterday, I came across a long-forgotten piece I'd written for RS Greetings, a spiritual magazine published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas, back in the days when I was a member of this India-based guru-led organization. As I said in a 2004 post about the article, "Sadly, ego-loss didn't arrive in the mail," I'd argued with the editor of the magazine about their policy of not including the author's name.  So I told the editor that their Anonymous policy prevented readers from offering valuable feedback, and from authors learning from those readers. That’s the…
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Posted inBooks

Empty bookshelves reflect my religious deconversion

I love books. I learn a lot from books that I've bought.  But yesterday I also learned a lot from deciding which books to give away (to the Friends of Salem Library, who sell them to support the library). Two large bookshelves and a small bookshelf no longer fit our living room's decor. So my home decorating guru, a.k.a. My Wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed, let it be known that it was time to move the bookshelves into my office. Which meant, I had to remove all of the books. Then decide which ones I wanted to keep. Most…
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Posted inPolitics

Donald Trump’s “spirituality” makes a mockery of that word

I used to think that I knew what it meant to be "spiritual." Now, I don't. (See here and here.)  But whatever the word means, I'm pretty damn sure that Donald Trump doesn't have any sort of genuine spirituality -- unless we twist the definition of that term to include incessant lying, habitual displays of egotism, and insults directed at minorities, women, political opponents, and anybody else who incurs the Wrath of Trump. So when I came across a story in TIME magazine, "Meet the Pastor Who Prays With Donald Trump," I was curious to learn more about Trump's personal…
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