Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Churchless lesson: a tale of two fairs

What can fair-going teach us about churchlessness? Glad I asked. I'll answer my own question...Thursday I went to the Marion County Fair here in Salem to relieve my wife of crushing boredom -- a four hour shift on a slow day womaning a booth sponsored by an earth-friendly organization she belongs to. I chatted with her for a while, then explored the fair. At the other end of the exhibit hall I came across some sort of senior citizen "athletic" event, the quotation marks being justified by this bean bag toss nature of the activity. Apparently senior centers were competing…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Bruce Lee’s Taoist life lessons

Most people are familiar with Bruce Lee as a famous martial artist. Lee's philosophical accomplishments are less well known. But they are part and parcel of his Jeet Kune Do artistry.This morning I couldn't resist -- I jumped ahead and read the final chapter in Daniele Bolelli's "On the Warrior's Path: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology."  It's called "Epistemological Anarchism, The Philosophy of Jeet Kune Do."Bruce Lee's philosophy is rooted in Taoism. The past few days I've been enjoying some spirited discussion about Taoism in comment conversations on posts here and here.I've been arguing that philosophical Taoism (as contrasted…
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Posted inMystics

Mysticism good. Religion bad. So says Sam Harris.

My churchlessness was wonderfully energized by Sam Harris' "The End of Faith" when it came out in 2004 -- the same year I started this blog. Harris has a philosophy degree from Stanford and is working on a doctorate in neuroscience, so he's got a balanced perspective on soft beliefs and hard facts. This morning I picked up The End of Faith and reread the almost-final "Experiments in Consciousness" chapter. I'd remembered that he'd said positive things about mysticism after trashing religion, and was curious to revisit his thoughts after five years or so.My conclusion: right on, Mr. Harris. At…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Tai Chi doesn’t have much to do with “Qi”

George asked some good questions in a comment on this recent post. I responded briefly to the Tai Chi section of his query in a comment of my own, but wanted to reply more fully to these thoughts:Why do even the most churchless on here appear to follow a spiritual practice of some kind? If truly churchless, why not be wholly secular and skeptical, devoid of any and all spiritual belief. If on the other hand such spirituality is indeed practiced and tolerated, why not the same extended to other mystic traditions or religions? Christianity and RS [Radha Soami] have…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Get bodily wild this Fourth of July

It's Independence Day here in the United States. July 4 is a great time to remind yourself, no matter where you are in the world, "I'm free -- independent of religious fantasies."This afternoon I'm going to ride my newly-beloved Suzuki scooter through some beautiful countryside to nearby Independence, where a Fourth of July celebration is happening (seems appropriate to visit Independence, Oregon on Independence Day).A very bodily activity. As if any of us can do anything else, so long as we're alive. What isn't bodily? Meditation sure is. Ditto for every other form of supposed "spiritual" practice. Yesterday I started…
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Posted inGod

Confirmed: God is gay

Makes sense to me: In nature, homosexuality, bisexuality, and omni-sexuality are ubiquitous. God created nature, and is reflected in nature. Thus, as Mark Morford demonstrates, God is gay. Somewhat, at least.And gayness is entirely natural -- as is every other form of sexuality. Check off another instance where religions are wrong.
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Posted inScience

Right on, Richard Feynman

Thanks to Pharyngula, I was able to start my day off with an inspiring RIchard Feynman paean to reality, science, doubt, uncertainty, and godlessness.Feynman was an amazing physicist. And this short video shows that he also was an amazing person.
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Posted inScience

Science is divine if nature is God’s creation

OK, that's a big "if" in this blog post title. But let's assume for a non-churchless moment that God is real, and God created the physical universe.So here we are, in God's marvelous creation. Living, breathing, pondering what existence is all about.Part of that pondering is something called science. It studies the natural world -- including the portion we call "humanity." Science is the best means known to man (and woman) for sorting out what's true about the universe, and what isn't.Why, then, are so many believers in a personal God who created the universe so mistrustful of a discipline,…
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Posted inScience

Science-bashers, read this before you comment

Yeah, I admit it: I"ve been getting a bit testy lately, blog-wise. (Summer-wise, life is great, what with a new camera and scooter to play with in the Oregon sunshine.)If you read through some of the exchanges between Phil and me on my "Who cares if God exists?" post, you'll find a touch (well, maybe a slam) of irritation in my comments on Phil's comments.You see, what gripes my churchless non-soul as much as anything is when science-bashers resort to spurious, irrational, shape-shifting arguments that can briefly sound good on the surface, but quickly break apart into Huh? fragments of…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Faith — the embrace of mystery

"Faith." We use this word so often. Yet most of us haven't given much thought to what it means. I enjoyed browsing through a bunch of definitions of faith submitted by commenters to a New York Times online piece.This is the first submission.The suspension of reason and rationality for a dream.This is the second submission.Faith is knowing something should be true, being certain it is, and having no insight into one’s collisions with reality.Reality is wrong. Other people are wrong. Why can’t they see what I see? It’s all about failures to re-interpret one’s original misinterpretation of experience. Faith is…
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Posted inGod

Who cares if God exists?

Over on my "Nature is real, religion is illusion" post, today Phil asked a good question in a comment:Ending on a question note, would anyone on this blog significantly change the way they lived their lives, if it became proven, without shadow of doubt, that God existed? (or for that matter, proven without shadow of doubt that a God of any form did NOT exist?)I've been pondering along some similar lines recently, so was primed to offer up some answers. But first, the question needs quite a bit of work -- as others already have noted in their own comment…
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Posted inReligions

Faith-healing parents let child die: religion is guilty

Here's a passionate answer to those who ask, "What's wrong with letting religious people believe anything they want?"Because innocent children die! Religion is dangerous! It makes people act like idiots!Case closed. Religion is guilty.But there still will be a trial here in Oregon, where prosecutors have charged Carl and Raylene Worthington with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month old daughter, Ava.I hope they punish these horrible parents as harshly as the law allows. Which is more than six years in prison. Not enough, but hopefully that will discourage other religious fundamentalists from forcing innocent children to…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Taoism/Tai Chi

Tai Chi vs. Shabd Yoga — I name a winner

I love questions. Especially those I can answer. Here's one that Todd Chambers asked me a few days ago via a comment on a post about giving up Buddhism and Zen.So Brian, on the subject of Tai Chi, I wanted to ask you if you could say which practice has seemed more rewarding for you: Shabda Yoga or Tai Chi? Or do you have a preference?Interesting question. I diligently practiced the Radha Soami Satsang Beas version of Surat Shabd Yoga (a.k.a. Sant Mat) for over thirty years, including a whole lot of daily meditation. And for about five years I've…
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Posted inReality

Nature is real, religion is illusion

Here's one big change that churchlessness has produced in me: I no longer believe that this world -- where all of us are living now -- somehow is less real than an unseen theoretical heaven or higher realm of the cosmos.In fact, it's hard for me to accept that I ever believed this, because it doesn't make any sense. What would make someone turn away from what is right in front of them and try to embrace something imaginary that has no demonstrable evidence of its existence? Short answer: religion.Or, some sort of mental illness. In either case, the nature-denier…
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Posted inScience

No psychic abilities found in Twitter study

Darn, I was hoping that my occasional Twittering had some cosmic significance. But an article in New Scientist, "First Twitter experiment probes belief in the paranormal," describes a study that showed a lack of metaphysical ability among 7000 people who signed up for a scientific use of Twitter.The formal part of the study, which took place over four days, tested both whether the group as a whole was psychic and whether believers outperformed disbelievers. On each day I travelled to a randomly selected location and asked everyone to send tweets describing their thoughts and impressions about the location. In the…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Punjab “deras” point to continuing caste tensions

A friend, Randy, sent me a link to an article about "Deras, Caste Conflicts and Recent Violence in Punjab." It's interesting. Twice I've visited Dera Baba Jaimal Singh in the Punjab area of India. It's the headquarters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, an organization that practices a form of neo-Sikhism. Meaning, a living guru is worshipped, not the Adi Granth Sahib, a book (which traditional Sikhs revere in somewhat the same sense as Christians look upon the Bible, as God's word).I wasn't aware how many "deras" there are in the Punjab. The article says:In Punjab, the number of Deras are…
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Posted inBuddhism

Where Buddhism & science coincide — and divide

As noted before, I used to be a lot more attracted to Buddhism than I am now. My churchless scientific leanings cause me to shy away from faith-based religiosity, and I've learned that while Buddhism talks a pretty good "spiritual science" game, the actual playing is lacking.Owen Flanagan, a philosopher, explains why in his "The Really Hard Problem," a book I'm enjoying.The really hard problem is how meaning is possible in the material world. To me it's obvious how this is done: each of us makes our own meaning, right here and right now. No metaphysics required.However, religions want us…
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Posted inScience

Subjectivity is the experience of objectivity

Wow, this post title runs the risk of winning a blogosphere Yawn! award. But hang in there, reader -- this subject of subjectivity and objectivity actually is darn interesting.And as intimate to you and me as what we're doing at this very moment. Which, in my case, includes sipping coffee from a yellow cup and watching the letters I type on my laptop's keyboard appear on the screen. I'm experiencing those things, along with much more -- such as hearing my wife open a desk drawer and shuffle through some papers. Now, there seems to be a big difference between…
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