Posted inFundamentalism Politics

Amazing! I agree with William Bennett.

Over on my HinesSight blog I’ve shared the astounding news that right-wing moral pundit William Bennett and I agree about something: the Muhammad cartoons that are freaking out the Muslim world. In my post, “State Dept. wrong about Muhammad cartoons,” I agree with Bennett that when terrorists use Islam to justify their actions, then that religion becomes fair game. For cartoonists, lampooners, comics, politicians, ranters and ravers, editorialists, whoever. (Oh, I almost forgot: bloggers too.) Actually, religion should be fair game under any circumstances. There’s nothing special about religious belief that makes the First Amendment inapplicable to it. Freedom of…
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Posted inFundamentalism

Cartoons of Muhammad create huge uproar

If you’re a devout Muslim, read no further. For below you’ll see drawings of Muhammad, as published in a Danish newspaper, that have caused true Islamic believers to cry “Blasphemy!” (click on image to enlarge the blasphemy) And more. There have been boycotts of Danish products, ambassadors recalled, bomb threats, and demonstrations. Today, as the BBC reported, the “Muhammad cartoon row intensifies.” Newspapers across Europe reprinted the cartoons that were originally published last September in Jyllands-Posten as part of an article about self-censorship and freedom of speech. I’m pleased to support this effort to keep fundamentalism from infecting the health…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

On becoming the person you warned yourself about

Have you ever done something that you said you’d never do? I certainly have. I bet you have too. Such is a mark of flexibility, open-mindedness, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Only astoundingly rigid people continue to live their lives in the same fashion for many years or decades, doing the same old things, holding the same old beliefs, projecting the same old personalities. Today I was reminded of a post that I wrote on my HinesSight weblog almost two years ago, “I’ve become the person that I warned myself about.” It’s one of my favorites. Still…
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Posted inUniversism

Herding cats, Universism’s challenge

It’s not easy to herd cats, as a memorable Super Bowl commercial showed us. Similarly, I’m wondering how the Universist movement (a “faithless” alternative to traditional religion) is going to be able to organize hard-to-corral freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, deists, and the like. Here in Salem, Oregon I’ve organized a Universist discussion group. I’ve also helped Ford Vox, the founder of Universism, rewrite the movement’s FAQs (frequently asked questions). So my observations are from a friendly perspective, in contrast to those who see the rise of Universism as work of the Devil and the Anti-Christ. In our Salem Universist meetings we…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Religions

The greatest heretic of all

If you’ve ever been called a heretic, take heart. You’re in good company. Really good company. ------------------------------ “Prisoner at the bar, said the Grand Inquisitor, “you are charged with encouraging people to break the laws, traditions, and customs of our holy religion. How do you plead?” “Guilty, Your Honor.” “And with frequenting the company of heretics, prostitutes, public sinners, the extortionist tax collectors, the colonial conquerors of our nation—in short, the excommunicated. How do you plead?” “Guilty, Your Honor.” “Also with publicly criticizing and denouncing those who have been placed in authority within the Church of God. How do you…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sant Mat, version 2.0

I’m wondering if there’s been a new release of Sant Mat, a north Indian spiritual philosophy centered around the need to follow a God-realized guru. It certainly seems that way from the remarks of several Church of the Churchless commenters. Maybe version 2.0 has superceded the original Sant Mat that I was initiated into thirty-five years ago, and which I’ve written about in two books distributed or published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Though now I’ve been called “Beas’ most articulate critic” (and not only by myself), I still have a genuine fondness for Sant Mat, a.k.a. Radha Soami…
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Posted inMorality

Revel in your selfishness

Everybody is selfish. Meaning, we all do what makes us happy. You, me, Jesus, Buddha, Mother Teresa, the Pope, everybody. No exceptions. All that distinguishes us is how directly selfish we are. This is the big aha! I got this morning while reading another Anthony de Mello book, “Awareness,” that the great god Amazon recently delivered to my door. As I noted in my “Be a spiritual rebel!” post, I love de Mello. The love affair is deepening as I dig into this new writing. He writes: I’m saying that ordinarily everything we do is in our self-interest. Everything. When…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Become spiritually stronger, not weaker

If spirituality doesn’t make you stronger, what good is it? Not much. Yet often people lean upon religion as if it were a crutch. Instead of walking on their own they hobble along, dragging the weight of dogma, ritual, and slavish dependence with them. Yesterday I got an email message from “Joe.” He said that I could share his thoughts if I cleaned up his syntax, English being his second language. I’ve done just that below. Joe makes some important points. He’s addressing himself to members of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), the group that both he and I have…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Politics

Assisted suicide is moral, Scalia isn’t

Most of us here in Oregon were thrilled when the Supreme Court upheld our state’s assisted suicide law. Tuesday’s decision was a victory both for state’s rights and common sense. Twice, Oregon voters have affirmed their belief that terminally ill people with six months or less to live have the right to end their life if they come to feel that it isn’t worth living. I can’t understand how anybody could argue with this. Who else should be in control of the life of an adult who is capable of making his or her own decisions but that person? No…
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Posted inMiracles

Atheists in foxholes do exist

Recently a couple of people have asked me, “What’s wrong with believing?” after listening to one of my rants about the power and glory of Faithlessness. It’s a question that is akin to the more basic query: “What’s wrong with feeling good?” Because religious belief does make many people feel better. Yesterday on a cable news channel I saw an interview with a female doctor about the power of prayer. She said that she had a patient who now was almost totally paralyzed. He told her that prayer and a belief in God’s goodness—that there was a divine reason or…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

The boots at the top of the stairs

Last night my wife and I spent several hours engaged in stimulating conversation with six friends. The eight of us covered many topics. When we turned to miracles and psychic phenomena, our discussion got passionate. Usually it’s considered that religious/spiritual people have the most passion about their beliefs. For example, “The Passion of the Christ.” But scientific sorts can be equally passionate. Our group included a Ph.D. chemist, a Ph.D. computer scientist, and a scientifically-minded attorney—each of whom forcefully argued for the primacy of reason, well-designed experiments, and laws of nature that aren’t arbitrary or capricious. They didn’t put much…
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Posted inReligions

Throwing stones at the devil–idiotic!

I think it’s obvious from today’s news that God is sending humanity a clear and powerful message: religions are idiotic. Even more, they can kill you. At least 345 Muslim Hajj pilgrims have been killed while throwing stones at the devil. They were caught up in one of the stampedes that happen with disturbing regularity: 1,426 pilgrims were trampled to death in 1990. More recently, 35 were killed in 2001, 36 in 2003, and 251 in 2004. A rational person would say, “This is absurd. The devil-stoning ritual has to stop. When people are being killed in a devilish fashion…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Limbo on the way out

This is big news. The design of the cosmos is about to change: the Catholic Church is dismantling limbo. Theologically speaking, of course. In David Van Biema’s TIME essay that I read last night, “Life After Limbo,” there’s no hint the Vatican believes that its theological ponderings have any effect on reality, per se. Whatever limbo actually is or isn’t, Papal pronouncements have no causal connection with its state of existence. The whole debate over whether there is a half-baked afterlife in between heaven and hell further proves the ridiculousness of religion. Nobody knows! Most likely, there is no limbo.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Meditation isn’t dog training

In a comment to my “Be a spiritual rebel!” post, Stephen asked if anyone who reads this blog had been successful in meditating for 2 ½ hours daily over a two-year stretch. He wondered what happens after engaging in this much meditation. My initial response to him was: not much. Stephen, now that I have more time to reply to your query, here’s an elaboration based on not just two, but about twenty years of meditating for 2 ½ hours a day (following the mantra-based technique taught by Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB). For the other sixteen years I’ve…
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Posted inBooks Christianity/Jesus Spiritual practice/meditation

Be a spiritual rebel!

Here are some inspirational quotations about spiritual independence from Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest who was born in India and wonderfully melded the best of East and West. In 1998, after his death, his writings were condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the current Pope. To me that’s a high recommendation of de Mello. If you’re condemned by the Catholic Church, you must be doing something right spiritually. I have two of his books. The quotations below are from “The Way to Love.” This is an official-looking de Mello website. More…
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Posted inGod Religions

Mine disaster shows absurdity of prayer

“Just a few minutes before they were praising God, and now they were cursing.” That’s how a relative of one of the men trapped in the West Virginia mine described the abrupt mood change when the crowd gathered in a church learned that all but one of the miners actually were dead—not alive, as they had been mistakenly told several hours earlier. It shows the absurdity of prayer. The belief that God listens to pleas such as “Save the trapped miners, Lord” and decides whether or not to intervene in human affairs almost certainly is superstition. If prayer has any…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Tell yourself your spiritual secrets

It’s a new year. Time to tell yourself your secrets. Especially, your spiritual secrets. I’m sure you have them. Almost all of us do. You’re sitting in church, temple, mosque, meeting hall, your own living room. Praying, meditating, singing, listening to a sermon, reading your holy book. And from your psyche’s secret chamber a barely audible whisper comes. It’s your own voice. But you don’t want to listen to what it is saying. The voice is telling you a secret. Something that is true but rarely spoken to yourself. Not openly. Not directly. Only in whispers. Which usually are met…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Another soul says “RSSB not for me”

It’s always a pleasure to hear from a like-minded soul: someone who approaches spirituality with a scientific bent and isn’t shy about questioning dogmas that don’t seem to make sense. Yesterday I got an email from Cynthia, who is, like me, an initiate of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). She shared what brought her to this spiritual path and also what has caused her to draw away from it. Below is the core of her message, mildly edited for clarity and readability. When Cynthia told me that it was fine to post her words, she asked me to make sure…
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Posted inReality

Something’s happening here: Existence

With our electricity off for a reason known only to God and Portland General Electric, my laptop’s battery is showing a quasi-ominous (given my normal weblog verbosity) “87% remaining.” So this is an excellent time to share some thoughts from Will and keep my writing relatively brief tonight. Will, a new cyberspace acquaintance, said in an email that he had just stumbled across the Church of the Churchless. I’m glad he did. For his relatively brief message was sufficient for me to recognize a kindred spirit—both of us being fascinated by Existence. Not the existence of things that exist, but…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

Meditation and space-time diagrams

Yesterday Scientific Santa brought me a book by physicist Leonard Susskind, “The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design.” Proving that I can get spiritual inspiration from seemingly unlikely sources, I read the first few chapters before meditating this morning. Susskind begins his overview of particle physics with the best layman-friendly description of Feynman diagrams that I’ve ever come across. You can see an animated Feynman diagram here. It shows two electrons and a photon traveling through space and time. Time is the vertical axis, and space (with three dimensions necessarily condensed into one) is the horizontal…
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