Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Religious obedience: pros and (mostly) cons

When it comes to the subject of obedience, South Park's Eric Cartman pops naturally into my mind. I'm a big fan of his classic Respect my authoritah! (authority, pronounced au-thor-i-TAH) For quite a while I used that line a lot with my wife and dog, until I realized that it wasn't having any effect. Still, it worked for Cartman in the scene below. And religions are able to get people to believe it. (Click on the video to start it playing.) ChickenloverTags: SOUTHPARKmore...   In a synchronistic moment this morning, shortly after I finished reading the Just Following Orders chapter…
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Posted inReligions Science

Behold the glorious mystery of your brain

Traditionally, people have looked outward toward mystery. For a long time maps of the world had large sections labeled "terra incognita" (unknown land). Now Earth is almost entirely explored, but the vast universe beyond attracts those who are lured by the unknown (witness the popularity of Star Trek and other forms of science fiction). Religions have capitalized upon our human fascination for mystery. God often is viewed as unknowable, unfathomable, beyond being -- leading apophatic theology and mysticism to emphasize what God is not, rather than what God is. Searching the (almost) omniscient Google for what I've written about mystery…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Judgment precedes reason — in religion and elsewhere

Most of us like to think of ourselves as being reasonable creatures. Our decisions, choices, beliefs, values, morality, philosophy of life, political orientation, and such make great good sense. It's the other guy who is whacked-out, irrational, out of touch with reality, a nut job. Of course, for him or her, we're the one who has embraced some far-out crazy shit. How to make sense of all this? After all, people manage to get around in the world just fine together. Almost always we agree to obey the same traffic laws, stopping on red and going on green. We courteously…
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Posted inMystics Reality Science

Physicists are becoming mystics (sort of)

Unseen dimensions of reality. Trillion year cycles of cosmic birth and rebirth. Laws of nature utterly unlike ours. Mysterious connections between the physical universe and other realms. These sound like the airy-fairy notions of mystics who have been smoking something stronger than tobacco in their hookas. But they're all serious hypotheses of modern physics. Their cosmological implications are described by noted physicist Brian Greene, author of "The Hidden Reality," in a Hovering Universes in Nearby Dimensions chapter I read this morning before meditating. Inspirational stuff for my churchless non-soul. Having written (plug alert!) a book about mysticism and the new…
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Posted inGod Religions

Since love is blind, so is love for God and gurus

Shakespeare may have been the first to say it: "love is blind." Everyone who has fallen in love knows what this means. When we're infatuated with someone, we focus on what we like about them, ignoring their faults. Speaking from experience (I've been married twice, once for 18 years and currently for almost 21 years, giving me 39 years of marital knowledge), this honeymoon period starts to fade not too long after the "I do's" are said. Then traits that previously seemed endearing -- he's so wonderfully casual and carefree! -- start to be annoying: why doesn't he put the…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Keith Moon’s spontaneity vs. George Bush’s certainty

I don't know whether The New Yorker does this on purpose (probably not), but sometimes an issue has a marvelous juxtaposition of articles that casts a spotlight on a Big Important Question. Like, how best to live one's life. After belatedly reading the November 29, 2010 issue, one approach to charting our general life course is to ask, "Would I rather be like Keith Moon or George W. Bush?" Moon was the drummer for the Who. Bush was the president of the United States. Wildly different professions. Also, wildly different personalities -- which is my focus. Moon, as befits his…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

“How are you?” stimulates a blog post reply

It's dangerous to ask a blogger a simple question. Four words, "How are you, Brian?," can lead to a much longer reply. Not only can: they are. A few days ago Suzanne ended her comment on a post with: How are you, Brian? It's lovely to see you continue to blog so enthusiastically! Apparently, you are thriving. Suzanne (and anyone else who cares), you're right. I am indeed thriving. Each and every day I prove to myself that believing in God or any other form of religiosity is absolutely unnecessary for living a happy, meaningful, satisfying, and productive life. I…
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Posted inPolitics

Prayer is Republican plan for deficit reduction

Call me skeptical -- "You're skeptical, Brian!" (thanks) -- but somehow I doubt that praying is going to reduce the federal deficit. Better come up with a better plan, Republicans. The national debt is a “moral threat” to the United States, House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday, an impending peril about which some people are realizing they “better start praying."
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Be your own sunlight, not a religious reflection

Thanks to an email from Alex, a regular Church of the Churchless visitor, I learned about Don Cupitt's book, "Above Us Only Sky." It's short and inspiring, a paean to finding meaning through "solar" living of our everyday life. By solar, Cupitt means... We accept and we joyfully affirm life and its limits, traditionally described as Time, Chance, and Death. We no longer wish to veil the truth about life, nor do we dream of somehow being able to transcend its limits. Instead, our religion is now our joyful and immediate engagement with life, just as it is. Right on.…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Reality Universe

If the universe is infinite, we’re immortal (sort of)

Wow, I got some great news after reading only two chapters in physicist Brian Greene's new book, "The Hidden Reality." I'm immortal! Only catch is, the "me" who exists forever isn't really the same me who is typing out these words. Though maybe it is. Just depends on how I look upon myself: (1) as a being with a unique essence peculiar to myself (I don't mean a smell, but a non-physical identity), or (2) as a configuration of atoms which could be almost exactly duplicated in another corner of the cosmos. I've read Greene's previous books, enjoying them, but…
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Posted inReality

Does “Being” exist?

I suspect that churchless skeptics who are drawn to question traditional belief systems also enjoy the feeling of an elevator suddenly descending, when it seems like the floor has fallen away from under your feet. At least, this is a sensation I frequently have now that I've stopped being a True Believer. It isn't disconcerting, because after an initial jolt of finding that one more unquestioned assumption needs to be closely examined, it feels good to have discarded an additional piece of conceptual junk which doesn't deserve the prominent positioning it used to have in my Philosophical Display Case. For…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Somali pirates kill couple distributing Bibles

It's a tragedy when four Americans on a yacht are killed by Somali pirates. But when I heard about them being taken hostage, I thought, "Who would be crazy enough to sail by themselves into such a dangerous area, given all the other well-publicized hijackings in that part of the Indian Ocean?" Then I learned that one of the couples had been distributing Bibles around the world. My suspicion is that they felt they were under God's protection. Mistaken feeling, obviously. However, I've little doubt that countless Christians are now saying, "It was God's will that they were killed." I…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Science

Finding enlightenment through a colonoscopy (and propofol)

I want to get as much philosophical mileage as possible out of the colonoscopy I had a few days ago. After all, I had to sacrifice eating solid food for almost two days. That isn't exactly a major ascetic accomplishment -- certainly not Gandhi'an -- but since I'm a vegetarian habituated to frequent food browsing, the colonoscopy prep period was a shock to my culinary system. This wasn't the most interesting part of the procedure, though. Just as with the colonoscopy I had two years ago (a benign polyp was found, and the prep wasn't perfect, so the doctor wanted…
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Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

The “self” is culturally determined

We in the West (not the wild west, but Western culture) are obsessed with ourselves. "I've got to find my true self," people say. Self-development is a big industry, featuring countless workshops, books, lectures, and such. We're big on autonomy, independence, finding our own way in life, not marching to the beat of someone else's drummer. Other cultures, such as those in East Asia, are quite different. To a much greater degree than self-absorbed Americans and Europeans, they view the self as including family, community, and societal relationships. Such is the message of an interesting Philosophy Talk podcast that I…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Science

Will Kurzweil’s “singularity” let us become immortal?

Shit! Along with a lot of other baby boomers, I bet, that was my instant reaction to the TIME magazine cover that shouted out "2045 The Year Man Becomes Immortal" at me when I opened the mailbox a few days ago. Those of us who were born a few years after the end of World War II would be pushing 100 by the time immortality could be ours. Even before I read the cover story, I figured that (1) almost certainly I'll be dead by 2045, and (2) even if I wasn't, living forever in a worn out body/brain wouldn't…
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Posted inBooks Reality Spiritual practice/meditation

A religious or spiritual path is a metaphor — not reality

Metaphors are fun to play around with. Over on my other blog, I recently called the Oregon city where I live "a blandburger sandwiched between spicy Portland and Eugene." But Salem isn't really food. It's what it is: people, places, buildings, roads, parks, culture (and the lack thereof), plus so much else immediately cognizable stuff. Metaphors are a big step removed from the sort of reality that doesn't depend upon mentally connecting this, such as Salem, with that, such as the innards of a sandwich. I'm plugging away on reading a big thick book, "Philosophy in the Flesh," that I've…
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Posted inWu Project

How “Nothing” is the key to a meaningful life

I've never watched an episode of Seinfeld, but the theme of the show -- "nothing" -- appeals to me. In one way or another, this is what attracted me to my Wu Project, which is still bubbling along in its nothing-much fashion. Here's the thing, though: "nothing" still is something, when this notion is viewed as something special, something to be attained, something waiting around a meaning-of-life corner. Zen folks have a lot to say, via words or silently, on this subject. But I don't think there's any unique understanding of "nothing" here either, since Zen (and Buddhism in general)…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Science

Near-death experiences are physical, as is meditation

I've finished reading Kevin Nelson's intriguing book, "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist's Search for the God Experience." His focus is on near-death experiences. (I've previously blogged about the book here, here, and here.) The bottom line is that Nelson cites lots of research, which he combines with his extensive knowledge of how the brain works, to come up with a compelling explanation for the seemingly spiritual nature of what often happens to people on the edge of death. It's all physical. Natural. Brain-based. As is meditation. As is everything, so long as we are alive in a…
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Posted inBooks Christianity/Jesus

“Jesus Potter, Harry Christ” relates Hogwarts and Heaven

Who comes to mind when you think...? Magic father, human motherMiraculous birth, foretold by prophecyThreatened by an evil ruler, had to go into hiding as a babyPower over animals, time, and matterSymbolized by a lion, enemy symbolized by a snakeDescended into the underworldBroke seven magical sealsWent willingly to his deathSuffered and died (or appeared to die) willingly, was mournedCame back to lifeDefeated his enemy in a glorious final battle I'm no Biblical scholar. And I've never read the Harry Potter series. But I believe Derek Murphy when he says, early on in his book "Jesus Potter, Harry Christ," that there…
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