Miscellaneous

UPDATE: Because some of the comments on this post are wildly inaccurate, here's some additional context. I still feel bound by confidentiality to not state explicitly why the person who provided me with information about the Sabnanis asked me to remove the previous post. So I'll simply state some general observations about my experience with other religious "whistleblowers." After I started this blog in 2004, I've heard from many people disillusioned either with the teachings of their religious organization (usually, but not always, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, because I belonged to the group for 35 years) or with the behavior…

Last night my wife and I engaged in our annual ritual of watching every bit of the Oscars show where Academy Awards are presented to film winners in 43 categories, if I recall that number correctly. We like movies. So we like the Oscars. This year, per usual, the show ran long, so I spent 3 1/2 hours of my remaining life span in front of our TV. Given that expenditure of vital energy, I'm going to do my best to conjure a Church of the Churchless blog post out of the more philosophical/political aspects of the Oscars. A primary…

It was meant to be, I guess. Being guided by a higher power, the Soccer God, referred to as the Football God by parts of the world other than the United States who don't recognize that if God wanted everyone to worship her as the patron saint of football, she wouldn't have created the genuine sport of football in my country. Anyway, I must be viewed with special favor by the Soccer God, since just before turning our television off last night after watching the 11 pm news from Portland, a thought burst unbidden into my mind: "Thou shalt record…

Typepad, my blogging service, is having major problems following a failed data migration to new servers. It takes forever (more or less) for my three blogs to load, including this one. I wrote about this mess and published the post both on HinesSight and also on my rarely used Blogger blog to make it more accessible. So you can read about what's going on with Typepad there.

OK, got to update my previous post about other-worldly dance performances.  My wife and I just finished watching the second hour of Sunday's World of Dance show that we'd recorded. Wow! The Kings, a group from India (Mumbai), won the senior team division and made it into the World of Dance finals next week with an amazingly powerful performance. It was inspiring that one member of The Kings was injured in practice, yet resolved to compete in the performance. I believe he was the one who ended up in a wheelchair after the Kings performed. They said the theme was…

I don't really believe there is a God of Dance. But after watching these other-worldly performances on recent episodes of World of Dance, I'm open to that possibility.  Here's Briar Nolet, The Kings (from India), and Poppin John. I find Nolet the most amazing. She's a gymnast turned dancer who does moves that seem impossible. But they're real.  

Hey, it's almost the end of 2015. New Year's is coming. Seemed like a good time to try out a new look for Church of the Churchless. I've been wanting a design that was mobile friendly, since lots of people nowadays read blogs and such on their smart phones, tablets, and such. I deleted a bunch of extraneous content, which makes for a cleaner look in my utterly personal opinion. I'll probably make some adjustments to the design, but it seems appealing to me. 

I came across a poem, "Probability," by Lisa Purpura in the January 19, 2015 issue of The New Yorker while reading in bed before I went to sleep. I read it four times that night. More, since.  I like it a lot. Not because I understand exactly what Purpura is trying to say. That's not how poetry works. Rather, it made me feel something about myself, and life, that rang true. Something about how I place myself at The Center of Reality, viewing events from this oh-so-privileged perspective.  The never-ending series of causes and effects that is this world comes…

A few days ago a regular Church of the Churchless visitor from South Africa emailed me, saying that she wasn't able to access this blog anymore.  She's been looking into possible reasons. Today I got another message from her: Hi Brian. So far I have ascertained that the site is blocked by 3 [Internet] service providers. My daughter who is with Telcom, our national telephone provider, government owned, is open. Would you know if anyone else in South Africa is having the same problem? I'm still investigating but I'm finding it very disturbing. I really miss going on to the…

If you've been frustrated by not being able to access this blog during the past five days or so, join the club. Me too. Typepad, my blogging service, was hit with a full-force DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack. It took them a long time to get their web site and associated blogs back up and running. I don't believe in hell, but this would be a great place to send the jerks responsible for the attack. Reportedly they made a ransom demand to Typepad, which spurred an FBI investigation.  Sorry to disappoint any religious believers who thought the Church…

Take three minutes and watch this video. It does a great job of explaining why, if you want to be happy, shunning religious dogma and embracing your own experience is the way to go.  

Almost 65 million people have watched the "Let It Go" song-scene from the animated movie Frozen. I came late to the You Tube party. I'm sure glad I did. Found the video inspiring and uplifting, even though I didn't understand all of the lyrics. I suggest reading them before you watch the video, which I'll share after the lyrics. The snow glows white on the mountain tonight,not a footprint to be seen.A kingdom of isolation and it looks like I'm the queen.The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside. Couldn't keep it in, Heaven knows I tried.Don't let them…

Most of the time I do feel totally fucking awesome. Now I know why. I'm into almost all of the awesome-feeling ways listed by Chris McCombs on his Hardcore Happiness site. Some, though, I suck at. Like #20, Sleep. Chris advises 8-9 hours a night. My owl'ish wife and I usually only get about seven, often less.  I'm also not so great at #17, Minimize. I've got too much crap. But I enjoy buying more. Books. Longboards. Crazy Shirts apparel. Sandals. I figure it's better than buying crystal meth, hookers, or fast food. Here's some of my favorite tips for…

Worth reading, even if you don't follow American football: "Behind Manti Te'o hoax about girlfriend lies a deep desire to believe." Quite a few parallels to religiosity here. At its root, this was a story about the deep need to believe. What complicates that is that it’s not clear whether Manti Te’o wanted to believe in a beautiful, fake girlfriend or whether we wanted to believe in him. The impulse obviously isn’t unique to the Internet — the rundown of never-was frauds sweeps back decades, including “Tony Godby Johnson,” whose middle-aged creator hoodwinked legions into believing she was an AIDS-stricken little boy. But…