As irritating as it can be to hear it is what it is uttered so often by athletes after a loss, I find this phrase appealing. I described why in a blog post a few years back, "The profundity -- or not -- of 'it is what it is'." Me, I like the phrase's meaninglessness. Zenlike, it points to the this'ness of is'ness (a truth'ness that will make a lot more sense to you if you're stoned or drunk, which is the best state of mind to read Church of the Churchless blog posts like this). ...The author of the Slate…
Oh, man. I'm so glad I got pulled in by the Book Magnet. That's how I explained my purchase of two thick, serious books to the cashier at the Book Bin in downtown Salem, Oregon. I'd parked my car in front of the bookstore, gone to my Tai Chi class, and was all set to drive home until, poised to unlock the car door... Go inside and check out the new books, the everpresent voice inside my head told me. Must obey, I happily told myself. "The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time" stared me in the face almost…
People who irrationally fear vaccines shouldn't be allowed to opt out of vaccination laws for either philosophical or religious reasons. After all, a lot of scientific research shows that vaccines are safe and effective. Sure, there are some risks. But there are risks in everything, including wearing seat belts. Once in a while you hear of someone dying after being trapped in a burning car by his or her seatbelt. Seat belts save many more lives, though. Same is true about vaccines. There are occasional mostly minor side effects, yet clearly the benefits both to the individual and to society…
The best way to resolve a problem is to realize that it doesn't really exist. Poof! Gone. Problem isn't solved; it is dissolved. More and more, I'm concluding that this is a big drawback with religions. They want us to believe in problems that aren't evident to a non-believer. Like: (1) How does one come to know God? (If God doesn't exist, this isn't a problem)(2) How can our sins be forgiven? (If sins are imaginary, this isn't a problem)(3) How can we be sure of going to heaven after we die? (If there is no heaven, or life after…
Last night I experienced an interesting juxtaposition of two disparate events: watching "Boyhood", via a Netflix DVD, and reading an article in the most recent issue of New Scientist, "Big bang discovery crumbles to dust." Both made me think about the ridiculousness of religion. In Boyhood -- a great movie, by the way -- there's a scene of a Christian minister doing his thing at a church service. He's preaching about the part in the Bible where Jesus asks Thomas to touch him after his resurrection. (This is where the term "doubting Thomas" comes from.) The preacher says that when…
"Don't you believe in love?" Whenever I see a comment like this on one of my blog posts from a religious believer, I'm dumbfounded. it's a ridiculous thing to say. For one thing, I don't believe in love. I experience love. There's a big difference between believing and experiencing. Likewise, I don't believe in consciousness; I experience consciousness. Nor do I believe in life; I experience being alive. Same is true for everybody. Atheists. Agnostics. Religious people. Scientists. Musicians. Farmers. Young. Old. Men. Women. Everybody. The only way any one of us knows anything about reality is through experiencing. It's…
Even after more than ten years of blogging on this here Church of the Churchless, I continue to be surprised by how often visitors to this site believe that religious belief shouldn't be subject to ridicule. Um, didn't they notice the word "churchless" in the blog name? Or the tag line, Preaching the gospel of spiritual independence? Today a comment interchange on a recent post pointed to this inability of true believers to recognize that their worldview lacks a solid foundation. Here's what "x," a religious skeptic, said: I don't preach anything...I just comment on preachiness...like yours. You think you're…
I firmly believe that free will doesn't exist. (See here, here, and here, among my many posts on this subject.) To me, and many others who consider that any "free will" worthy of that name should be really free, articles like Eddy Nahmias' Why we have free will in the most recent issue of Scientific American rest on an absurd proposition. Namias basically argues that because conscious thinking affects our behavior, this points to free will. In other words, our actions aren't solely controlled by unconscious brain processes. He says: A body of psychological research shows that conscious, purposeful processing…
David Lane, a.k.a. the Neuralsurfer, has made another provocative short video. It's called "Remainder Conjecture: Driving Science to the Brink of an Epistemological Cul de Sac." Here's my take on Lane's basic point, which seems unarguable to me. Assume that science can explain what currently is unexplainable. If significant mysteries eventually remain that science can't explain, this is where supernaturalism, or at least a radical restructuring of how we look upon reality, can be seriously explored. This is much different from the "god of the gaps" approach where whatever science can't currently explain is taken as proof of God's…
Imagination. We tend to think of this as something special, an activity we engage in when, say, we're trying to do something creative like paint a picture, write a novel, or compose a song. Or as what the brain does when it dreams -- which seemingly is markedly different from the clear perception of reality in our waking state. But Evan Thompson's book, "Waking, Dreaming, Being," has given me a different perspective on imagination. From both a Buddhist and neuroscientific perspective, he sees imagination as permeating every form of consciousness. Here's a passage from his Imagining: Are we real? chapter.…
Ooh! I bet the title of this blog post will irk spiritual types who believe that enlightenment is some sort of mystical transformation of consciousness requiring lots of meditation and/or other practices to achieve. I certainly would have felt that way myself prior to my enlightenment about enlightenment. But as noted in this recent post, I've come to the understanding that spiritual realization (if this term really means anything) involves seeing through the illusion of a soul/self that is separate and distinct from the body and brain. In short, there is no self. No soul. No person sitting inside our…
Having written a well-received book called "Return to the One," I've obviously thought a lot about oneness. My views have changed considerably since I wrote the book. I used to believe that the goal of a spiritual or self-realized life was to merge the soul's immaterial consciousness with universal consciousness, which often is termed God or The One. Now, I've got another view of oneness. A simpler one. A more easily achieved one. A considerably more scientific one. What I am, what we all are, what everything in the universe is -- its the stuff of physics. Julian Baggini puts…
My journey from churched to churchlessness pretty much can be summed up in this fashion: I used to believe that I had (or was) a distinct, unified, immaterial soul or self. Now, I rejoice in the understanding that there's no non-physical "pearl" of Me; I'm a collection of material stuff just like everything else in the universe is. Julian Baggini says this in his terrific book, The Ego Trick: What Does It Mean to Be You? A cart is not an illusion just because it has no existence other than by the correct arrangement of its parts. The only thing that…
Ah, I love it when I see one of my thoughts reflected in someone else's brain. This helps me keep in mind that we humans are wonderfully alike, as well as wonderfully different.
I write a regular Strange Up Salem column in our town's alternative paper, Salem Weekly. (Feel free to give this effort to lift the blah-curse on my home town a Facebook like.)
With marijuana legalization on the ballot in Oregon, in the most recent issue my theme was "A Strange Reason to Legalize Marijuana." Here's how I started off the piece:
Here’s a news flash from the front page of modern neuroscience: “You don’t exist.” At least, not in the way most people believe they do.
We feel as if we look out upon the world as a detached ethereal consciousness floating behind our eyes, inside our head. We feel as if we’re a weightless self or soul inhabiting a body.
These feelings are wrong. The sense of self is an illusion. You, me, and everyone else are billions of neurons woven together via trillions of electrochemical connections.
Marvelously, the brain tells itself stories about how it is other than it is.
The brain tricks us into believing something is real, when it is not, provided that such trickery gives it a survival advantage.
Absolutely!
If I believe that I am a separate unique self, precious beyond compare, I'm going to fight harder to defend myself when attacked. Physically or psychologically, doesn't matter. Nobody messes with valuable Me.
Likewise, the short video convincingly argues that many (or most?) near-death experiences are the brain's way of telling itself, "Dude, life is really worth living. Fight to stay alive!"
The Lane's have a strong connection with India, so some of the examples are from that sub-continent. I liked how one woman devoted to her guru didn't see a vision of him when she nearly died, but rather was wowed by a Holy Chapati.
It reminded her that she had cooking duties to attend to back on Earth.
Have a look.
I'll share my entire Strange Up Salem column as a continuation to this post.
I like how physicist Lawrence Krauss speaks about "more likely" and "less likely" in a short video than "true" and "false." Our knowledge about reality is on a fuzzy continuum, not a sharp dividing line. Rarely, if ever, can we say that this is absolutely 100% true, and that is absolutely 100% false. Still, I don't totally understand Krauss' statement that "Science doesn't prove anything... science can only prove things to be wrong, not right... the Earth isn't flat, we can go around it, so that's wrong." This might have to do with one popular view of the scientific method,…
After buying the new book by noted biologist Edward O. Wilson, "The Meaning of Human Existence" (can't pass up a book with this title, so long as it isn't written by someone religious), I couldn't resist jumping this morning to the Free Will chapter. The excerpts below, in bold, are some of the clearest writing about how the brain/mind works I've ever come across. And I've read a lot of books about modern neuroscience. I've taken the liberty of commenting, in italics, on Wilson's words. Conscious mental life is built entirely from confabulation. Ooh, I love that word, confabulation: "to…
I enjoy Zen. But I have no desire to actually practice Zen. Not formally. Too much work. Too much discipline. Too much bowing before a master who, you eventually realize, doesn't deserve veneration. I prefer the idea of being my own Zen teacher. That way, I can do as much Zen-stuff as I want, in the way I want to, when and how I want. Which includes giving myself koans to solve. This is my new one: If I'm not the one inside my head, then who is? l really like this koan. I'm SO happy I thought of it.…
Recently I've been blogging about Sam Harris' new book, "Waking Up," whose central thesis is that our sense of being a Self or Soul separate and distinct from the brain/body is an illusion. Harris doesn't talk much, if at all, about how this sense came to be. It must have been an evolutionary advantage to early humans. Perhaps it is an add-on, so to speak, to our species' extraordinary ability to be not only aware, but self-aware. Aware of our awareness in a way that other animals aren't, the brain seems to look upon itself as if from the outside, fostering a…
There's a lot of stuff written and said about non-duality. I've both partaken of it and spewed out my own in various blog posts. For example, see here, here, here, and here. After reading a bunch of neuroscience books, Sam Harris' "Waking Up," and several books by Moller De La Rouviere, the simple truth of non-duality is finally sinking into my non-dual mind. Which, like yours, also has been, is now, and forever will be non-dual. Meaning, undivided into an observer and what is observed. Or awareness and objects of awareness. Or consciousness and contents of consciousness. In short, there…
Amazing video. What's even more amazing is that this galactic map is based on only 8,000 nearby galaxies. There are an estimated 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Awe. Mystery. Vastness. Who needs religion? Embrace science.
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