Basics of our faithless faith

On November 23, 2004 I published my first posts on this Church of the Churchless blog. Over the succeeding 18+ years those posts in the "Basics of our faithless faith" category still ring true to me, by and large. I guess this shows that skepticism about dogmatic religious belief and being positive about open-minded spiritual inquiry rests on some pretty damn solid ground. But that's just my opinion. So I thought it'd be interesting to share what I said in the Our Creedless Creed post and see if anyone has a good reason to challenge any of the points made…

Note: to make this Creed more readable, some qualifiers have been omitted. So "God" signifies God/ultimate reality/final truth, not just a personal divinity. And "religion" signifies religion/spiritual path/philosophy, not just a mainstream theology. There is no objective proof that any religion knows the truth about God. If there were such proof, most people on Earth would have converted to that faith long ago and all scientists would be believers.Spirituality thus is an individual affair. Proof of any metaphysical realities that exist will be subjective, not demonstrable to others.Every person has the right to pursue their own spiritual quest without interference,…

[Note: This post refers to a previous Church of the Churchless symbol, shown below.] Our church's symbol is part of the Ten Oxherding Pictures that express the essence of Zen Buddhism. This picture is number eight in the series. In the words of Kakuan Zenji, it represents an evolved Zen realization: This "I" (person) which had been seeking, and the essential self (ox), which has been the object of our search, did not exist at all. Click on the link above to read the whole story of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. What I like about this stage, number eight, is…

We all want to belong. The Church of the Churchless welcomes those who feel like they don't belong, even if they are members of an organized religion or spiritual faith. You can be a member and not belong. You can sit through a communal service, sermon, celebration, or cermony, and still say to yourself: I don't belong here. You are going through the outward motions of what it means to be a member, but deep down you know that somewhere else is your real spiritual home. A lot of people feel this way. No one is alone in feeling alone.…

Faith is wonderful. Faith is all we need to be spiritual. Just faith. Faith alone. So we shouldn't have faith in anything other than pure, naked, empty faith. What is faith stripped of thought, emotion, perception, expectation, imagination? Whatever it is, that's what we are seeking. Such is the message at the mystical core of every deep spiritual teaching. A few examples: Christianity: "Be silent therefore, and do not chatter about God, for by chattering about him, you tell lies and commit a sin....Also you should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding....If you…

"Practice makes perfect." Usually a true slogan.But not when it comes to perfecting spirituality.Here at the Church of the Churchless we don't believe in spiritual practice.We believe in spiritual non-practice. Let me explain. Practicing basketball isn't going to make you a practiced piano player. You have to practice the activity you want to become good at, not some other activity. But is this what most members of religions and supposedly spiritual paths do? No, they assiduously practice worldliness, not spirituality. Don't be deceived by the outward appearance of religiosity; a bank robber wearing a nun's habit as a disguise isn't…