Posted inGod

Anti-Pascal’s wager bets on life

Pascal's Wager frequently is held up as a reason to believe in God. As I noted in a previous post ("You're religious, but are you right?"), Pascal argued that it's best to gamble on belief. There are four possible outcomes to the wager: (1) You believe in God and God exists, (2) You believe in God and God doesn't exist, (3) You don't believe in God and God exists, (4) You don't believe in God and God doesn't exist. Pascal held that the best and worst outcomes are (1) and (3) in which God exists. Then, a belief in God…
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Posted inReality

Reality offers plenty of mystery

It's baffling why people feel the need to fantasize about God and the supernatural when here-and-now reality is so full of bedazzlement. This is one of the reasons why I liked Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God" so much. I resonated with her embracing science after discarding traditional religions and New Agey speculation. My morning meditation corner usually has a selection of books near at hand. I bounce back and forth between mystical/spiritual and scientific themes, because I find just as much inspiration in a down to earth discussion of material reality as in a soaring paean to soulful wonders.…
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Posted inBooks

“Letting go of God” – great churchless inspiration

After learning about Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God" monologue several years ago, I wrote a post about her evolution from Christian believer to scientific skeptic – without having heard her entire take on the God thing. "Letting Go of God" has been sitting on my iPod, but until yesterday I'd hadn't gotten around to listening to all of it. A long car trip to central Oregon and back was the perfect opportunity to fill my questioning psyche with Sweeney's words. Which, it turned out, described a spiritual journey that bore considerable resemblance to mine. And, I'm sure, that of…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

The strange side of guru devotion

Today I got an email about the recent visit of an Indian guru, Gurinder Singh, to Petaluma, California. The guru's organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), has built a large center there. It's mainly used for gatherings of devotees during Gurinder Singh's periodic, and often unscheduled, visits. I found the following tale interesting, not least because I was an active member of RSSB for many years. Since most people who read this post won't be familiar with the group, or with a few Indian words, here's some background. "Seva" means service, volunteering. It takes on a special cast when done…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Churchless have more faith than believers

When you don't believe in religion or dogma any more, most people think you've become less spiritual – not as committed to fathoming the mystery of God. Actually, the opposite is true. Jack Haas says it well in his "The Way of Wonder." Faith, absolute faith, is the acceptance of walking with eyes fully open into the infinite darkness; faith is without expectation, hope, petition, or piety, or it is not faith, it is merely belief. Belief is a characteristic of concept, faith is a characteristic of mystery; for 'belief' is the acceptance of something we do not know, whereas…
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Posted inWu Project

Meaning of the universe may be meaninglessness

If a movie ever is made of my life, this coffee house moment has to be in it. In an intuitive flash, I got a glimpse into what the universe is all about. Nothing. None of the above. No answer. Nobody home. No way to know. A bunch of negatives. But the feeling I had was wonderfully positive. Unfortunately, it didn't last. While it did, though, I felt lighter, more joyful, the weight of a gigantic question mark having been lifted off of my inquiring psyche. Reading the first few pages of a book, "The Way of Wonder," preceded my…
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Posted inMiracles

Miracles are just the law of large numbers

If enough things happen, some will be "miraculous." That's a given, if a miracle is taken to mean something way out of the ordinary. Every time somebody wins a gigantic lottery prize, that's a miracle. What are the odds!? Hundreds of millions or more against those numbers being picked. Yet, some set of numbers necessarily had to be chosen. So the winner feels it was utterly unlikely he or she got the prize, while it was completely predictable that eventually the money would be won by somebody. In "Folk Numeracy and Middle Land" Michael Shermer discusses our inability to comprehend…
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Posted inPolitics

God rejects prayers for rain on Obama

Excellent news for those of us who want Obama to win in November: God is on his side! You want proof? Easy. Anti-Obama Christians have been praying for rain in Denver tomorrow, to wash out his outdoor acceptance speech. Here's the forecast. 0% chance of precipitation. Will a miracle happen? Odds aren't zero, but close to it.
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

“Shut up” video has a lot to say

Thanks to a comment from Dvorah-gee! on my "Hey, God, shut up! No more conversations" post, I've been able to enjoy a music video made by disciples of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not the musician). It made me smile. And I appreciated the message. Shut up! indeed is a fine response…to ourselves, when our minds chatter away unnecessarily about ridiculous bullshit. Be happy. Love. Hard to argue with those sentiments. I also liked another video from Dvorah-gee! that puts forth the utterly reasonable proposition that the meaning of life is meaninglessness. I'd never heard of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (guess…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

My response to offer of eternal life

Sometimes the notion of dying scares me to death. Like I said in "Who has the best deal on death?" it isn't the dying that bothers me so much, it's the not existing. Forever. A few days ago "Teacher" left a comment on that post, offering me a darn good deal. (I apologize for not replying sooner, Teacher; I've been busy dealing with some neighborhood land use issues.) As I have taught others, it would not be impossible to teach You how you may transform yourself into a Neo Being with eternal life and preserved consciousness, as in "Brian will…
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Posted inHumor

Spiritual portents in Beijing Olympics

I've been spending so much hours watching the Olympics every evening, I figure I might as well try to suck some cosmic significance out of my TV time. Some spiritual (and profane) observations: …How come godless China has way more gold medals than the godly United States? Our president ends every speech with "God bless America." What's gone wrong with our blessing? …While watching the opening ceremonies that were choreographed for marvelously disciplined thousands, I wanted to move to China and become part of an egoless society where the individual is a cog in a societal machine. But then I…
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Posted inWu Project

Real and false faith

"Faith" is one of those words that people use a lot, but sloppily. That is, the meaning is assumed rather than being clearly defined. So I enjoyed reading a message ("why argue faith?") over on the Church of the Churchless Google Groups discussion forum, which is rarely used – except by spammers. Jptxs (probably not a real name) has some interesting things to say about faith. So you can take the definition of faith and now use some substitution and come up with this: Faith is an opinion or conviction not based on proof. If that is true, then one…
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Posted inPolitics

Obama outshines McCain in faith forum

I doubt that Barack Obama will be using a Church of the Churchless endorsement in his presidential campaign, but I'll offer it anyway: he got more kudos from me than John McCain did as I watched yesterdays' "Civil Forum" sponsored by Rick Warren's Camelback Church. Still, neither candidate impressed me from a churchless perspective. No big surprise. Heck, they were speaking in a church. And trying to appeal to evangelical voters. Both Obama and McCain struck me as sincere. Each has deeply felt religious convictions, so far as I could tell. I expected McCain to be less comfortable in the…
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Posted inWu Project

Really empty your spiritual cup

The "empty your cup" story is a favorite in spiritual circles. Most commonly, it's told from a Zen perspective. A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted. "You are like this cup," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup." I'm attracted to emptiness.…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Spirituality is as simple as 1, 2, 3

It might not be apparent from my wordiness, but I really do like to keep things simple. And the basics of spirituality, philosophy, religion, the meaning of life – whatever you want to call it – can be as simple as 1, 2, 3. There's no magic in a trinity, of course. Plus, there's any number of different 1, 2, 3's. That's one of the principles of my 1, 2, 3, which yesterday I described in a comment addressed to Brad. My questions, of course, could be directed to anybody. Including myself. Here they are. (1) Brad, do you believe…
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Posted inBuddhism

Life is just what it is

How's this for a sign of how close I'm coming to Buddha-hood? This afternoon Laurel and I, plus another couple, visited the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery in central Oregon. Feeling boundless compassion for all the small trout stuck in boring concrete tanks, I took out two quarters and bought some fish food. Tossing it into the tanks, I enjoyed watching all the thrashing about – the fish obviously much desiring the pellets, not recognizing that desire is the root of suffering (along with biting into a sharp hook). Then we walked past some decorative ponds that I hadn't noticed before.…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Who has the best deal on death?

I'm not religious (obviously), but I still could sign up on the faith dotted line if I was assured of getting a good deal on death. Which would be, basically: living forever. That's the worst part about death for me, not existing. I can handle the dying part. It's the likelihood of an eternal non-afterlife that sort of bugs me. (Actually, quite a bit more than "sort of.") So I decided to read "How Different Religions View Death and Afterlife" to get a better idea of what sorts of salvation bargains are out there. I've only read five chapters so…
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Posted inGod

Why God loves the churchless so much

When I'm not being grandiose and am feeling my normal humble self, I like to imagine how God sees things. This isn't difficult for me to do – it's easy really – because after almost forty years of daily meditation my ego loss is so nearly complete, I'm in touch with the highest realms of reality. (Just don't ask my wife to confirm this. Unfortunately, she still denies my divinity. But isn't there some sort of saying about a prophet not being recognized in his own land? Or…home?) Anyway, I've been pondering why God would love me and other churchless…
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Posted inReality

Ten undeniable metaphysical truths

OK. Before getting into the meat (or tofu) of this Moses-like blog post, let's break down the title. Ten. Just seems the right number. The Ten Commandments should be cast aside in favor of my revelation. Plus, I haven't come up with my truths yet, but intuitively I'm pretty sure that, given the amount of red wine I just poured and my sipping speed, I can come up with ten before the glass is empty. Undeniable. Yeah, I wish. None of the brilliant stuff I write on this blog has received the unquestioning acceptance that it deserves, so I've got…
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Posted inHumor

On knowing less than nothing

If one person knows nothing, is it possible for two people in the same state to know less than nothing? This marvelous philosophical question was resolved yesterday on PBS' Car Talk, which features the always entertaining Magliozzi brothers, Tom and Ray (a.k.a Click and Clack, or Clack and Click; I don't know what goes with each brother). They read a letter from listener Andy Reischman, who thanked them profusely for answering that question – which he said had deviled him for twenty years. Me too. I'd just never phrased it in such a clear fashion. After all, this really is…
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