Posted inReligions

Unreligious “Nones” are growing fast in United States

Great news. The Nones are on the march in the United States. Don't be scared. They aren't zombies, or soulless creatures from the underground (though religious believers might think so).  Unbelief is on the uptick. People who check "None" for their religious affiliation are now nearly one in five Americans (19%), the highest ever documented, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press. The rapid rise of Nones — including atheists, agnostics and those who say they believe "nothing in particular" — defies the usually glacial rate of change in spiritual identity. Barry Kosmin, co-author of three American Religious…
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Posted inFundamentalism Religions

Irritating putdowns of pseudo-spiritual wannabes

Even when I was a religious true believer, Eastern mysticism variety, I tried to avoid being irritatingly sanctimonious. People who consider themselves holier-than-thou are difficult to be around. And I necessarily associated with quite a few people who didn't believe in what I did. Such as my first wife, who early on deconverted from the India-based Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) faith that I held on to for about thirty-five years. And my second wife, who always has been an "infidel" from the standpoint of RSSB. When I gave talks at RSSB meetings, I often used her as an example,…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

I’m not bitter toward religion — just fed up with false claims

Fairly frequently true believers leave comments on this blog saying, "Brian, you're so bitter toward religion." This surprises me.  I don't feel bitter toward any religion or spiritual organization, including Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), the India-based group I was an active member of for about thirty-five years. Rather, I'm disappointed about the false claims RSSB promotes in its teachings. If I buy a car, or a computer, I expect it will function as advertised. If it doesn't, I don't feel bitterness. Just irritation, disappointment, let-down. Now, how do I know that RSSB, or any religion, makes false claims? I…
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Posted inReality Religions Science

Morality has nothing to do with scientific truth

Einstein revealed some amazing truths about the cosmos through his theory of relativity and other research. Einstein also spent time with six girlfriends while he was married.  Is there any connection between these two facts? Should we question the validity of the theory of relativity because Einstein engaged in behavior that would seem morally questionable to many people?  No, of course not.  Universal scientific truths have no connection with individual, or even societal, moral norms. The cosmos doesn't care what we do with our bodies and minds. Laws of nature aren't dependent on human thou shalt's and thou shalt not's.…
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Posted inReligions

Religion and politics: where lies triumph over facts

Fascinating. Reading Leonards Pitts' column in today's Oregonian opinion page, it almost seemed as if he was talking about religion in "When lies triumph over facts, we're done." All I had to do was mentally substitute a few words in key passages. Which I've done non-mentally below. Not long ago, if you told a whopper like Palin’s a holy book's and it was as thoroughly debunked as hers it's was, that would have ended the discussion. These days, it is barely even part of the discussion. These days, facts seem overmatched by falsehood, too slow to catch them, too weak to stop them. Indeed,…
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Posted inReality Religions

Matt Thornton, mixed martial artist, kicks religion’s butt

I love how the World Wide Web leads in so many interesting unexpected directions. Like, from a brief Sam Harris twitter tweet to the blog of a guy who is both physically and intellectually capable of twisting religious believers into knots. I started off listening to an interview Bobby Nelson, "The Paranormal Skeptic," conducted with Matt Thornton, a mixed martial artist and coach from Portland, Oregon -- just a short ways up I-5 from Salem, the much less cool city where I live. You can listen to it here. Great stuff. I've been involved with martial arts for almost twenty…
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Posted inReality Religions

Are humans capable of fully comprehending the cosmos?

It's a marvelous quest, our oh-so-human desire to fully understand the mysteries of the cosmos. Dogs don't do this. Chimpanzees don't do this. Dolphins don't do this. (So far as we know.) Science and religion are alike in this regard: each seeks knowledge, as much as possible. Scientists aspire to the discovery of a Theory of Everything which encompasses the core laws of nature. Prophets, mystics, gurus, yogis, and other spiritual seekers hope to know the "mind of God," perhaps even becoming it via enlightenment. Yet there's an egotistical, anthropomorphic, humancentric undercurrent to these attempts to reveal ultimate reality. We…
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Posted inReligions

A sign that maybe I’m part Jewish

The Western monotheistic religions -- Judaism, Christianity, Islam -- interest me considerably less than Eastern religions, since I've got some fondness for Buddhism and Taoism.  But a passage in a recent TIME magazine story about Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, makes me think that maybe there's some Jewishness in my churchless non-soul. For Netanyahu, the Jews are not so much God's chosen people as his argumentative ones. They don't take things on faith. Abraham, Moses, and Job, he notes, all argued with God. And sometimes won. Like Bibi, they were ornery and maybe had a chip on…
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Posted inReligions

Religious weirdness: treasures worth billions found in Hindu temple

Every religion is weird, but there are degrees of weirdness. For example, I'm not at all attracted to fundamentalist Christianity. Yet I used to enjoy reading the mystical philosophizing of Meister Eckhart, a medieval Christian who, pleasingly, was decried as a heretic. And I also have enjoyed learning about the less religious side of Hinduism, Vedanta, which focuses on meditation, the nature of consciousness, and other esoteric subjects rather than rituals. However, a fascinating article in the April 30, 2012 issue of The New Yorker reminded me that Hinduism also has its more weird religious side. "The Secret of the…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Profound significance of “blowing Willie Nelson” joke

Last night my wife and I saw humorist David Sedaris at Salem's oh-so-cool historic Elsinore Theatre. There's a lot to like about Sedaris. He's gay, liberal, funny, ironic, cynical, profane, and a really good writer. Also, thoughtful. Many of his jokes make you think. They've got layers of meaning. Here's my favorite joke, which I tweeted after the show, minus Sedaris' entertaining set-up to it. What's the last thing you want to hear while blowing Willie Nelson? "I'm not Willie Nelson." (Note to those who aren't conversant in American slang: "blowing" is synonomous with "giving a blow job," which is synonymous…
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Posted inGod Religions Science

Analytical thinking weakens religious belief

This is one of those scientific findings that cause me to say, "Well, yeah, of course!": analytical thinking leads people away from religious believing. TIME magazine has a good summary of the not-unexpected research conclusions. We all fly both ways, on the complementary wings of intuition and analysis. These basically correspond to "fast thinking" and "slow thinking," the brain's System 1 and System 2 in the parlance of Daniel Kahneman (see my blog post, Don't mistake God for your intuitive brain speaking. Sometimes it makes sense to intuit; other times, to analyze. As the TIME article says, both brain capabilities…
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Posted inMorality Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Religion is wrong, but it feels right to believers

So how is it that religious beliefs are almost certainly wrong, yet the vast majority of people in the world accept them? What makes religiosity so attractive?  A central theme of my previous post, New Scientist looks at the science of religion, is that belief in the supernatural comes naturally to humans. Early on in childhood development we understand that "agents" with desires, intentions, and a consciousness like our own exist even though we can't perceive these beings. It isn't much of a jump to divine unseen agents, gods and other entities. But after listening to a Point of Inquiry…
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Posted inReligions Science

New Scientist looks at the science of religion

Why do so many people believe in God or in other sorts of supernatural beings? Most religious folks would have no trouble answering that question. "Because God is real," they'd say.  Well, that's highly debatable. And I'm being generous to religion. That's ridiculous is closer to how I really feel. The most recent issue of New Scientist dives into these "Why believe?" waters. An editorial does a good job of summarizing core themes in the following articles. It ends with: Secularists would also do well to recognise the distinction between the "popular religion" that comes easily to people's minds and…
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Posted inReligions

Keep the good religious feeling. Discard the religion

Recently I had one of my marvelous enlightened insights. These occur regularly now that I've forsaken the confines of "thou shalt" religiosity. I'm not sure how much more enlightened and insightful I can become. Maybe infinitely. Can't be sure, since one of my core insights is that uncertainty and unknowing are part of the human condition. Mystery is us. Also, the cosmos. Anyway, My Big Insight (haven't copyrighted it, so feel free to share, steal, embrace) is this: If you've given up unfounded religious beliefs that you used to embrace, yet miss the pleasurable feelings those beliefs produced, keep the…
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Posted inHumor Religions

Bill Maher says “atheism is not a religion.” Yes!

On last Friday's Real Time With Bill Maher, the "New Rules" segment got it exactly right. Atheism is not a religion. It's the absence of religion.  As noted in this post, if atheism is a religion, albino is a suntan. For another thoughtful perspective, check out Skeptico's "Atheism is not a religion." You can watch the whole New Rules segment (six minutes long) here. Atheism bit is at the end. Thanks to HBO, I'll share a transcript of Maher's take on religion and atheism below.  And finally, New Rule: Until someone claims to see Christopher Hitchens' face in a tree…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Are all religions essentially the same?

I used to believe that underneath all the obvious differences between religions, there was a difficult-to-discern common core. Mysticism was what united Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, and other faiths. God is One. Humans have, or rather are, a soul. It is possible for this soul-drop to merge into the One god-ocean. There. Three simple sentences. Forget all the complex divisive theologies. That's the oft-forgotten genuine essence of every religion: realizing that our true Self is, basically, the same as God.  It was a nice belief. Warm and fuzzy. The Indian spiritual organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, that…
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Posted inReligions

More “Apatheists” and “So what’s?” saying no to God

Here's some encouraging churchless news: USA Today reports "For many, 'Losing my religion' isn't just a song: it's life."  Helton, 28, and Dohm, 54, aren't atheists, either. They simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as "So what?" "The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal," says Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. ...Only now, however, are they turning up in the statistical stream.…
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Posted inReligions Science

What would a new scientific religion look like?

The world needs a new religion. The ones we have are outdated. Every major religion -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism -- dates from prescientific days. Apple comes up with a new and improved iPhone every year or so. Why should we be content with ancient forms of spirituality concocted by people who didn't even know that the Earth revolves around the Sun, much less about quantum theory, relativity, the big bang, and evolution? Our old religions are deeply problematic. A short piece from the National Academy of Sciences on "Compatibility of Science and Religion" pinpoints the problem. Science and religion are…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

I’m scolded for changing religions. But change happens.

Why is it that religious true believers are so upset when someone leaves their chosen faith? This confuses me, because many, if not most, members of a religion are converted -- either from a different religion or from unbelief. So it isn't surprising that the process of conversion often keeps on going. People can convert to another religion. Or deconvert from religious belief entirely. (See my "Deconversion is as natural as conversion.") Yesterday I got an email from someone who scolded me for -- shock! -- changing. Below I've shared what he said (minus his name), along with my reply…
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