Posted inGod Science

Scary: 40% of Americans are strict creationists

How the hell is the United States going to compete with the rest of the world -- scientifically, economically, technologically -- when 4 in 10 of our citizens believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago? Read the Gallup poll. And weep for the future of our country if more Americans don't start embracing reality rather than superstition. Most Americans believe in God, and about 85% have a religious identity. It is not surprising as a result to find that about 8 in 10 Americans hold a view of human origins that involves actions by God…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

How is it that “I” have a “self”?

I've never met the other person who seemingly inhabits my head along with me. Have you? Yet everyday language, the way we talk to ourselves (there he is again!) and others, appears to point to the existence of someone other than "I" within our psyches. I dragged myself out of bed.I held myself back from hitting him.I was beside myself.You should take a good look at yourself.He's at war with himself over who to marry.Stop being so mean to yourself.I like myself.I need to be a better friend to myself.I was debating with myself whether to leave.I'm disappointed in myself.He's…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Science

Scientific quasi-remedies for a fear of death

I don't like the notion that I'll die one day. More than the notion, it's the reality of death that produces a sense of unease which varies from mild mostly unconscious anxiety to a strong fearful awareness of impending non-existence. So I wanted to provide a blog post addendum to my previous "This is it" ponderings. Not really a counterpoint; more like a therapeutic sidebar for those who, like me, enjoy life and don't relish the prospect of losing all trace of conscious existence for eternity. There's good reason to argue that I can't help myself. No one can. Such…
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Posted inScience

Can one half of a brain achieve salvation?

Those who believe in the unity of consciousness or the oneness of "soul" need to watch a short You Tube video, "Split brain with one half atheist and one half theist." The neurologist making the presentation ends by saying If the person dies, does one hemisphere go to heaven and the other go to hell? I don't have the answer to that. Watch and see if you do.  
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Posted inReality Science

Unconscious zombies and conscious thermostats

Comments on my previous post about David Chalmers' consciousness theories got me doing more pondering about zombies -- the philosophical variety. Personally, I resonate with Chalmers' notion that it is logically possible to conceive of beings who are identical to us down to the most minute subatomic particle, and behave exactly like us in even the most subtle fashion. The only difference betweeen zombie and human would be this: humans experience what it is like to be what we are; zombies don't. Admittedly this is a strange notion to wrap our minds around. For each of us, our entire life…
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Posted inReality Science

David Chalmer’s view of consciousness: naturalistic dualism

Consciousness. It's what we are and know, since reality doesn't exist for us if we can't experience it. Yet it's also the most mysterious thing in the cosmos. So mysterious, it can't really be called a "thing." Consciousness is utterly subjective. But without consciousness we wouldn't be aware of objective reality. So go figure... David Chalmers has done a lot of figuring on this subject. He's an Australian philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of mind/consciousness. I've had his book, "The Conscious Mind," sitting unread on my bookshelf for over a decade. A few days ago I picked it up,…
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Posted inScience

Matter is as mysterious as spirit

Those who like to delve into the interface of science and spirituality should check out David and Andrea Lane's "Mysterium Tremendum." I haven't read it closely enough to be able to talk about the essay thoughtfully. But a quick look-through showed me that the Lanes' piece makes a lot of wise observations about the overwhelming mystery of matter. Often religiously inclined people think that science takes the magic, mystery, and wonder out of living. Not true. Attitudes like that simply show how little those folks know about modern science. Here's some excerpts from the the essay: Therefore, a very strong…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Science

Reality is the only guru we need

After many years of searching for spiritual truth, about forty, most of which were spent following the teachings of a supposedly God-realized guru,  I finally feel like I know what this truth is. Reality. Which isn't spiritual at all. Nor otherworldly. Or supernatural, mystical, mysterious, secret, hidden from the unitiated. In other words, the big "spiritual truth" is that there isn't any. Everything we need to understand how we relate to the cosmos is right before our eyes: everyday life. Whatever you did today, and whatever you're doing right now, contains the wisdom of the ages. We just need to…
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Posted inBuddhism Science

Susan Blackmore’s Zen’ish theory of consciousness

Combine a Zen master and a psychologist interested in neuroscience. Bingo! You've created Susan Blackmore, or someone very much like her. I've finished reading her Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. I'm fascinated by consciousness, because it's what I am. All I am, really, since whatever I'm not conscious of doesn't exist for me. So whatever consciousness is, or isn't, seemingly would tell me a lot about who I am, or aren't. I used to believe in supernatural notions of consciousness, but now I'm much more interested in scientific theories. After all, I'm a body with a brain. Or a brain…
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Posted inBuddhism Science Wu Project

We all may be living selflessly

Usually we consider that being "selfless" means acting altruistically. This casts the word in a moral sense, which is how most religions see it. We're supposed to put God and others before ourselves. But there's a scientific side to selflessness that I'm finding increasingly intriguing: the notion that nobody has a self, so we're all selfless -- including the greediest, most egotistical, and me-centered among us. Recently I wrote about a book where noted thinkers talk about what they believe, but cannot prove. I quoted psychologist Susan Blackmore: It is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free…
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Posted inBooks Science

What do you believe but cannot prove?

This is a great question. Seeing it on the cover of a book in Sisters' (Oregon) Paulina Springs Books made me instantly believe, "I'll be standing at the cash register soon with my VISA card in hand." I couldn't have proven that I'd end up buying What We Believe But Cannot Prove, yet I believed it. And it turned out that I was right. What I didn't know at the time, though, was that all of the mini-essays in the book are available for free online at Edge. So if you want to learn how some of the most brilliant…
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Posted inBuddhism Reality Science

Relationship is the essential nature of reality

Some people are attracted to an "Eastern" holistic outlook on life. Others, to a "Western" analytical viewpoint. I've always thought that these were just two different ways of looking at reality, with each having its strengths and weaknesses. But some passages in Winifred Gallagher's Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life present another possibility. She describes research by psychologist Richard Nisbett about how Americans and Japanese describe an underwater scene quite differently. Americans focus on the largest and most colorful fish, while the Japanese would say things such as "It looked like a stream. The water was green. There were rocks…
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Posted inBooks Science

Possibly I’m becoming more of a “possibilian”

My first bloggish foray into possibilianism had a pretty mild title, "Nothing wrong with being a churchless 'possibilian'." After reading more about this meaning-of-life stance in the most recent issue of New Scientist, I find myself increasingly enthusiastic about David Eagleman's attitude toward uncertainty. His piece is called Beyond God and atheism: why I am a possibilian. It's a nice blend of creative openmindedness and scientific where's-the-evidence? I have devoted my life to scientific pursuit. After all, if we want to crack the mysteries of our existence, there may be no better approach than to directly study the blueprints. And…
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Posted inBooks Science

No need for God in Stephen Hawking’s universe

Stephen Hawking, noted theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is one of the smartest guys in the world. He's also an astute marketer, as shown by the title of his newest book, "The Grand Design" (which I finished reading this morning). Hawking and his co-author, physicist Leonard Mlodinow, are going to sell quite a few copies to clueless religious folks who see "design" on the cover and think, Ooh, great, some scientific proof for intelligent design! They'll be disappointed when they get to the final chapter and read: Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself…
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Posted inReality Science

Science shows how humans create reality

It's a New Age cliche: "we create our own reality." Almost always people who claim this are talking non-sensical gibberish. If this were true, there'd be a racing green Mini-Cooper S in my driveway instead of a silver Prius (see here and here for my long-running attempts to manifest a more exciting ride). However, there is much more than a grain of scientific truth in those words, when understood correctly. As noted in my previous post about quantum theory, in the realm of the very small how an observation is made determines what is observed. In accord with wave-particle duality,…
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Posted inBooks Science

Quantum physics and consciousness: an enigma

These days a lot of people try to marry their weird spiritual or mystical beliefs with quantum physics, one of the best examples being the pseudo-science expressed in the movie What the bleep do we know? (see here and here for some critiques) I've done considerable reading in the new physics and quantum theory, much of it when I was researching my first book, "God's Whisper, Creation's Thunder: Echoes of Ultimate Reality in the New Physics." However, I'll admit that my book can be criticized on the same grounds I didn't like What the bleep do we know? It was…
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Posted inReality Science

Nothing wrong with being a churchless “possibilian”

Some time ago I came across the "Killing the Buddha" web site and blog. Naturally I liked the name of the place. And I copied some links to pages that appealed to me at the time.Such as, "Ways I Have Been a Bad Meditator." And, "The False Science" (concerning a book that I blogged about myself).Today I revisited Killing the Buddha and saw that "The Struggle for the (Possible) Soul of David Eagleman," by Robert Jensen, was featured. Interesting article. It starts off:There’s a struggle inside the brain of David Eagleman for the soul of David Eagleman.That is, there might…
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Posted inScience

Embrace hard truth rather than reassuring faith

When I was an active member of an India-based religious/mystical group, a word that inspired me was sat. It means "truth," and was used in many ways: satsangi (follower of truth), satguru (conveyor of truth), satsang (speaking of truth), and so on.Eventually I realized that my allegiance really was to truth, not to a particular dogma, philosophy, or practice. If my involvement with the group wasn't leading me closer to truth, the goal I'd set for myself wasn't being realized.So I set off on a churchless path. I decided to genuinely commit myself to the tenets of the scientific method,…
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Posted inScience Universe

Finding our place in a factual cosmos

There's only one thing wrong with religious cosmologies: they aren't true. And that's a pretty damn serious thing. Which is why we shouldn't take erroneous views of the universe seriously.Yet we humans are meaning-creatures. Bare facts aren't enough for us. Our highly evolved minds love to construct stories about what life is all about, what's most important for us to do, and other value-laden layerings that provide a increased depth to our existence.The choice each of us faces is how realistic our "myths" are. Now, that word, myth, doesn't need to refer to something untrue. There's another way of regarding…
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Posted inReality Science

John Burroughs’ appealing scientific pantheism

Whenever I take one of those quizzes that tell you what religion/ philosophy melds best with your beliefs, pantheism always ends up close to the top. That makes sense. I've got a naturalistic view of the universe, but I also have a powerful sense of awe when I contemplate the cosmos -- either in its incomprehensibly vast totality, or the mystery of how a single flower has come to be.Today I came across a mention of John Burroughs in "The Quotable Atheist," a book I pick up regularly for some churchless inspiration. The Burroughs quotes I liked the most were…
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