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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Posted inReality Spiritual practice/meditation

Get loopy! Feel better fast with feedback loops

Old religious habits can take a long time to die. As churchless as I am these days, sometimes I long for a "revival." The faith to which I previously subscribed was Eastern rather than Western, so my notion of a revival was to attend a weekend meeting where speakers (maybe even the guru himself) would urge devotees to apply themselves to meditation and other spiritual practices/vows more assiduously. I enjoyed feeling that I had a clear-cut spiritual goal, and that if I did this-and-that, such-and-such results could be expected. Maybe not soon; maybe not even in this lifetime; but someday…
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Posted inGod

Brilliant academics talk about God

Thanks to Pharyngula, I just made a start on watching an interesting You Tube video that features fifty super-smart people talking about why they don't believe in God. So far I've only listened to ten of the fifty academics. I like what I've heard. Some Pharyngula commenters noted that almost all of the people in the video are older white guys. For some reason I'm not offended by this at all. Anyway, they make great good sense. There's so much religious crap being spread around the world these days, it's nice to be exposed to some intelligent, reasonable, rational talk…
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Posted inReality Religions

For me, “getting real” means getting rid of religion

What are you doing when you feel the most real? What makes you exclaim, "Wow, that was real!" What circumstances lead you to feel, If I were to die now, I'd die content? Obviously only you can answer those questions. All I want to do is raise them,  because I think they're well worth pondering. If life isn't filled with really real moments, are we truly living? For me, reality seems most vibrant, clear, energetic, and alluring when I'm engaged in a physical activity that has an edgy aspect to it. "Edgy" is a term that's hard to pin down.…
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Posted inReality Science

Mathematics is both invented and discovered

I'm fascinated by the question of whether the laws of nature are "out there" in an objective external world, or "in here" within the subjective confines of the human brain. A recent post on my other blog about male/female conversation styles mentions how I'd talk about this topic with another philosophically-minded man. When men talk, most of the time they aren't trying to either reveal, or gain access to, inner feelings. My wife and I used to get another with another couple. The other guy and I would converse in one corner of our living room, while the wives huddled…
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Posted inBuddhism

How Zen’s nonduality is confirmed by neuroscience

Every morning I experience in a concrete fashion the tension between science and spirituality. In my meditation area I always have several books available for my morning caffeinated reading. Some are scientific -- about neuroscience, evolution, global warming. Others are spiritual -- mostly books on Buddhism, Taoism, mindfulness. There are days when I start reading a science book and it seems too dryly factual. Others days I'll pick up a spiritual book and find it annoyingly airy-fairy, dogmatic, or preachy. So often I'll bounce back and forth between several titles, searching for science with a poetic soul and for spirituality…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Touching is sacred, in an ungodly sense

Religious believers often are distrustful of getting too touchie-feelie. Ooh, bodies meeting, melding, melting into each other! That's so, um, bodily. God is all ethereal, otherworldly, spiritual. Bodies, bad. God, good. That's a thoroughly dualistic attitude, of course. Which is more than a little strange, since most religions spout stuff like "God is one," "All is God," and "God is everywhere." I've known true believers who said they couldn't wait to be rid of their body. They imagined that life in a heavenly realm would be so much better than existence in this crude physical world. Even when I was deep…
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Posted inMystics Radha Soami Satsang Beas

India’s “godmen” face questions about their wealth

Interesting story in the Washington Post about how spirituality has become a lucrative profession for Indian gurus and yogis.  For centuries, their image was as barefoot ascetics who spent their lives in solitary Himalayan meditation. But now India’s gurus, “miracle workers” and spiritual leaders, often collectively known as “godmen,” have become savvy, powerful figures who control vast philanthropic and business empires, dabble in politics and manipulate the media. There's no mention of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. But he's another good example of the trend toward making lots of money while preaching detachment from material pursuits.…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Atheism promotes human dignity and truth-seeking

While exercising today I listened to a podcast of the Philosophy Talk program, "Atheism and the Well-Lived Life." The guest philosopher was Louise Antony, who edited Philosophers Without Gods -- one of whom is Ken Taylor, a regular host of the program. For me the most interesting comment of the program came from Antony. She was asked a question by a woman in the audience that went something like this: As an atheist, what would you say to someone who is suffering, who has serious problems? Excellent question. Religion offers consolations for people who aren't having a pleasant life. Most…
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