Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

“True Sant Mat” blog: a fresh look at mystic teachings

Sant Mat gets discussed quite a bit here because I was a member of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (a contemporary Sant Mat movement) for many years, along with other regular Church of the Churchless commenters.I'm more familiar with Sant Mat than any other religion, spiritual system, or mystical path. So when Osho Robbins emailed me with news that he was starting a "True Sant Mat" blog, naturally I was curious.And, upon request, gave him some advice about how to set the blog up, since we're both using the TypePad blogging service. Osho's goal is to discuss the real teachings behind…
24
Posted inGod

Metaphors can’t prove God is real

Religious people are fond of metaphors. Which isn't surprising. A metaphor compares or describes one thing in terms of something else."God's love is like that of a mother for her child."OK, nice sentiment. But this is a different type of logical statement from the example Wikipedia cites for a metaphor, Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage..."We know the world exists. We also know what a stage is. We also know about mothers and children. "God's love," though, where the heck is it?Non-existent, at least in terms of any sort of objective reality supported by demonstrable evidence. So something unreal is…
3
Posted inReligions

Religion related to social dysfunction

Many religious people believe that faith in God (or some other divine entity) makes for a better society -- more moral, law-abiding, productive, and so on.Well, like lots of beliefs, this one is highly questionable. In a recent issue of Newsweek, Sharon Begley wrote in her "(Un)wired for God" article:In brief, the number of American non-believers has doubled since 1990, a 2008 Pew survey found, and increased even more in some other advanced democracies. What's curious is not so much the overall decline of belief (which has caused the Vatican to lament the de-Christianization of Europe) as the pattern. In…
No Comments
Posted inComments

Commenting policies

I've put together a page describing Church of the Churchless commenting policies. (Link also at left of top bar above). Please read, and have fun in the comment playground -- just obey the rules.
4
Posted inUncategorized

Commenting policies

You're welcome -- even more, encouraged -- to leave comments on Church of the Churchless posts. Some of the most interesting writing on this blog comes from other people, not me, Brian the Blogger. All I ask is that comments be in accord with the following policies. Otherwise a comment probably will be deleted or edited. (1) No personal attacks on me or other commenters. Challenge the message, not the messenger. Best: You're wrong, because... Semi-OK: You're a fool, because... Not-OK: You're a fool. (2) No extreme obscenity. Write as if you were in a congenial coffeehouse discussion group, not…
Posted inComments Religions

With religion and the Internet, be skeptical

Sometimes I wonder whether, as a churchless blogger, it makes sense for me to spend so much time in comment conversations about posts that I've written.Recently I came to a fuller realization that yes, it does make sense, and why this is so.There's an interesting correlation between religion and the Internet: both are full of often-anonymous sources making claims that lack persuasive supporting evidence.So when someone leaves a comment on a web site or blog -- such as this one -- it's an opportunity to practice bullshit detection skills that will come in handy when assessing the validity of a…
51
Posted inReality

Science is real — you are too (but in a different way)

Thanks to Pharyngula, I got turned on to a "Science is Real" video by They Might be Giants. l love it when cartoonish characters make so much sense -- more than a lot of real people. "What's real?" is a terrific question. There's no end to possible answers. It seems to me, though, that some things almost certainly are really real about reality.For us human beings -- every species is different in this regard -- there's a shared reality. If there wasn't you woudn't be able to read these words that I've written, and I wouldn't be sitting in a…
27
Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Erotic dream stimulates philosophical thoughts

In the almost-five-year history of this churchless blog, erotic dreams is a subject that hasn't come up for much discussion. Time to make up for the omission.I don't have erotic dreams very often. But last night featured an interesting and pleasurable brief one -- nicely PG rated for open sharing.I was walking down the side of a road. Glancing down, I saw an youngish attractive dark-haired woman lying on her back, arms by her sides, eyes open, completely relaxed. Moment of decision. In a flash my mind chose between (1) continuing on my way, and (2) stopping to kiss her.…
1
Posted inUncategorized

Open Thread 6

Here's another Open Thread (previous OTs are still open, of course). Leave a comment about anything you want to talk about. From now on comments on other posts need to be related to the subject of the post, or they will be candidates for deletion. So an Open Thread is the place for miscellany and whatever. Feel free. No personal attacks on other commenters (or me), please: criticize a message, not the messenger.
7
Posted inHumor

God will fuck you up…or maybe not

Hey, it's Labor Day. Which, rather paradoxically, is a national holiday in the United States where the goal for most people is to do as little as possible -- since the long hot lazy days of summer are coming to an end. So I'm going to take it easy on my churchless blogging today, simply sharing some multimedia that tackles in cartoonish and musical fashion an important question: WIll God fuck you up? One of my favorite comic strips, Pearls Before Swine, seems to argue in the negative in this August 30 offering (I say "seems" because it's tough to…
5
Posted inBooks

“The Untethered Soul” gets a 3/4 churchless thumbs up

Let's start mildly negative with this book review so I can end up strongly positive. I can understand why the author, Michael A. Singer, wanted this blurb prominently displayed on the cover, but I was turned off by it:"Read this book carefully and you will get more than a glimpse of eternity."     --Deepak ChopraI haven't been impressed by Chopra's own writings, though some of what he says resonates with me. So I was afraid that "The Untethered Soul" was going to be as New Age'y as Chopra's blurb implied.More than a glimpse of eternity? Gag me with a skeptical spoon.…
5
Posted inReligions Science

Ex-Mormon blasts blind faith…wonderfully

Proving that my ego loss has quite a ways to go, one of my greatest compliments is "Hey, that guy is brilliant. He sounds just like me!" Or, in this case, even more me that I am.Because I aspire to some of the great writing and thinking that Jonathan Montgomery churns out as the "Salt Lake City Freethinking Examiner," but I've got to bow down before some of the posts that I just read.Example: in Why praying for confirmation of truth cannot work, he throws in a flowchart of faith-based belief. Two big churchless thumbs-up, Jonathan! You moved away from…
40
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

I answer questions about the once-churched me

I was planning to write a blog post about another subject tonight. But, hey, when someone leaves a comment on an Open Thread that focuses on me, wanting me to answer some questions about me, suddenly I found this topic a lot more interesting.I'll put "Cell's" words in italics and my response in normal type.------------------------------ Brian, may I ask a few questions of you? I would just send you an email, but I think that some external input could be helpful, too.No problem. I love questions. Especially ones I can answer. Since they're about me, that's a subject I have…
11
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

A dialogue about Radha Soami Satsang Beas

A few days ago I posted a message from Shiloh, "The anguish of losing a loved one to exotic religion." That was part of my communications with her. Here's the other part: a question and answer dialogue we had about Radha Soami Satsang Beas, the India-based spiritual organization that is the exotic religion Shiloh was concerned about.We exchanged several email messages after Shiloh wrote to me, asking if I'd help her better understand the organization that I was an active member of for many years. Here's our Q & A exchange, starting with some introductory remarks and moving to eight…
309
Posted inComments

Open Thread 5

Here's another Open Thread (previous OTs are still open, of course). Leave a comment about anything you want to talk about. From now on comments on other posts need to be related to the subject of the post, or they will be candidates for deletion. So an Open Thread is the place for miscellany and whatever. Feel free. No personal attacks on other commenters (or me), please: criticize a message, not the messenger.
46
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

The anguish of losing a loved one to exotic religion

Here's a well-written, thoughtful message from a woman who is disturbed that her sister has joined the spiritual group that I was a member of for many years, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Shiloh emailed me a while back, asking some questions about RSSB that I answered. I'll share those Q & A in another post soon. I asked Shiloh if she'd be OK with me sharing her thoughts in a blog post. She was. And chose the title for this post.Shiloh expresses herself well. She's a great example of how someone can be churchless, yet godly. As I often say…
6
Posted inBooks Morality

Without God, how can religion be divine?

I thought I'd just thrown twenty bucks down a non-fiction hole. A few scant hours after buying Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God" (at 25% off!) my wife, who was reading the Sunday Oregonian, said: "You're not going to like this review of the book you just got." She was right. Thumbing through the first few pages of the book while considering whether to buy it, I'd focused on Wright's first hand.On the one hand, I think gods arose as illusions, and the subsequent history of the idea of god is, in some sense, the evolution of an illusion.That elicited a…
9
Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Churchless folks have revelations also

When I used to give talks (a.k.a. satsangs) at gatherings of the India-based spiritual group that I was a long time member of, one of my stock lines was "The easiest vow for most of us to follow is the injunction not to disclose our inner experiences."Ha-ha. Laughter would follow. Because people knew that I was speaking the truth: meditation resulted in almost precisely zilch, nada, zero enlightenment or ensoundenment experiences (the practices of this organization were intended to bring about contact with divine light and sound).So when the guru enjoined his disciples not to speak about their grand mystical…
43
Posted inComments

Open Thread 4

Here's another Open Thread (previous OTs are still open, of course). Leave a comment about anything you want to talk about. From now on comments on other posts need to be related to the subject of the post, or they will be candidates for deletion. So an Open Thread is the place for miscellany and whatever. Feel free.
44
Posted inWu Project

Know yourself first, God second (if at all)

Often it's said, "God is mystery." People love mysteries. They're interesting, intriguing, and, well, mysterious. So religious believers, rather strangely, somehow combine an acceptance of well-defined dogmas, teachings, commandments, and such with an embrace of a Great Unknown.Mysticism, to which I'm considerably more attracted than religion, dumps the "acceptance" stuff and jumps right into the "embrace." Mystics say, I want mystery (that's why they're called mystics).So does science. The known is appealing to scientists. But it's the unknown that really gets their truth-seeking juices flowing. The central thing that differentiates my churched self from my churchless self is this: now I've…
3