Posted inReligions Science

What are the odds of alien civilizations believing in our gods?

Astonomers have come up with an estimate of how many earth-like planets there are in our galaxy: some 40 billion. Wow.  The known odds of something — or someone — living far, far away from Earth improved beyond astronomers’ boldest dreams on Monday. Astronomers reported that there could be as many as 40 billion habitable Earth-size planets in the galaxy, based on a new analysis of data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. One out of every five sunlike stars in the galaxy has a planet the size of Earth circling it in the Goldilocks zone — not too hot, not too cold…
1
Posted inReligions

Atheism isn’t a belief. It is a lack of belief.

I don't listen to country music. I don't like country music. I don't believe country music is worth listening to. So does this make me an "acountrymusicist"?  That is, someone who holds to a belief that country music sucks. No, I just don't like it. I pay very little attention to it, noticing this musical genre only when it is is foisted unwillingly on me by a radio station, TV show, or store.  Likewise, I don't consider myself an "asoccerfan." I just am not much interested in soccer. Same goes for religion. So why should I be called an "atheist"…
23
Posted inReligions Science

Faith is pretending to know things you don’t know

To most people, faith is a positive quality. Perhaps it is, if "faith" is construed as "hope" or "positive thinking." As in, I have faith that I'll be able to make it to the top of this mountain.  You don't know if you'll be able to reach the summit, but you hope that you will. Nothing wrong with this. Somewhat similarly, faith can be viewed in probabilistic terms. I have faith that my laptop will start up when I raise the lid in the morning, because so far it has every time I've done this. But in his book, "A…
9
Posted inReality Science

Wisdom is humility in the face of mystery

The title of this post is a sub-heading in the final chapter of Robert Burton's "A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves."  Burton cautions against taking neuroscientific claims about how the human brain/mind works too seriously when they aren't backed up by solid evidence. Yet even when they are, he reminds us that our interpretation of evidence is guided by processes in the very brain/mind we're trying to understand. Naturally this applies to religious, mystical, spiritual, and philosophical claims equally, if not more so. Just because we feel like we can stand…
1
Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

Stop talking to God… and other imaginary friends

I've decided that I talk too much. Not to other people. I do that just fine, in my opinion. Not too much, and not too little. Just about right. It's another type of talking I'm referring to. Talking to entities that aren't there, or can't understand me. For example... God. Our dogs. My dead mother and father. The now-deceased guru I used to follow. Myself.  Now, I don't really believe that any of these entities can comprehend what I'm saying, either because they don't exist (God, dead mother and father, guru) or don't have the ability (dogs). Myself is an…
4
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Four good questions for a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon

Below is an email message I received today that asks four good questions of Gurinder Singh, the current guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) -- an India-based spiritual organization that I was a member of for many years. Some background info: (1) In RSSB, the next guru is appointed by the preceding guru via a will; (2) Gurinder Singh is the nephew of the preceding guru, Charan Singh, who appointed him; (3) "Satpurush" means the Supreme Being; (4) the Punjab is a province in northwest India; (5) RSSB and other Sant Mat movements believe that God/Satpurush incarnates as a…
114
Posted inScience

We humans think we’re special. What makes us believe that?

Oh, you're so special! Just about every parent has thought this about a child. Their child. Because in the realm of parenthood, as in Lake Woebegon, every child is above average.  Ditto for us humans as a whole. Why, it's just so obvious that Homo sapiens is a unique species. Somewhat like other animals, of course. But on the whole we're so special.  Ditto for every religion humans have come up with. Every religion, faith, spiritual belief system, mystical practice, and meditation approach considers that it is uniquely able to bring believers closer to truth, God, ultimate reality, enlightenment, whatever.…
15
Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Economic Times story casts light on guru’s business connections

Ah, Indian gurus have come a long way. Question is, a long way from what? Meaning... The traditional image of Indian gurus was of a deeply spiritual, ascetic, non-materialistic seeker of cosmic truth. The guru eschewed the maya of worldly entanglements, having his (or rarely, her) sights on lofty enlightenment. Times have changed, at least when it comes to the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh. His predecessors pretty much followed the traditional guru role.  However, Gurinder Singh has devoted himself to making his family one of the richest in India through complex financial dealings with some relatives…
56
Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Three ways of dealing with anxiety about death

Nicholas Humphrey's "Soul Dust" is one of those books that I both want to never end, and am eager to come to the end of. Like I said in a previous post, I'm loving the book.  So I want to keep enjoying the chapter or so that I read each morning. However, I also am curious to learn how Humphrey ends his book (last chapter comes up tomorrow). Thus reading this book is somewhat akin to dealing with the knowledge that each of us will die one day. We don't like the idea of living coming to an end, while…
3
Posted inReligions

Is God a substitute for the social safety net?

It sure seems like people turn more toward God when they face tough times. If life doesn't give us what we need, the anticipation of better things to come in an afterlife offers hope that eternity in heaven will be much more pleasant than the time we spend on Earth. Thus an interesting letter in New Scientist hypothesizes that as near-universal health insurance through Obamacare/Affordable Care Act becomes more and more of a reality, religiosity in the United States will decline. We can only hope. From Rev Dr Derek SuchardIn his review of Ara Norenzayan's Big Gods: How religion transformed cooperation…
16
Posted inReality Science

“Soul Dust” shows how we create an enchanted world

Here's my new loving it book: "Soul Dust," by Nicholas Humphrey. I loved his "Seeing Red" also. Blogged about that earlier book of Humphrey's here and here. Intimations of "Soul Dust" are evident in this quote from "Seeing Red" that I included in the second post. My suggestion is that in the course of human evolution, our ancestors who thought of their own consciousness as metaphysically remarkable -- existing outside normal space and time -- would have taken themselves still more seriously as Selves. The more mysterious and unworldly the qualities of consciousness, the more seriously significant the Self. And…
No Comments
Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

Sung: the only Tai Chi most people need to know

Relax. Relax. Relax.  There. Really understand what "relax" means, and you've pretty much mastered the essence of Tai Chi. So said Cheng Man-ch'ing, one of the most eminent teachers of Tai Chi. Relax (sung). My teacher must have repeated these words many times each day. 'Relax! Relax! Relax completely! The whole body should completely relax!' Otherwise he said, 'Not relaxed, then you are like a punching bag.'  To comment on the single word sung is extremely difficult. If you can relax completely, then the rest is easy. Here I have written down what my teacher told me daily in order…
3
Posted inBuddhism Science

Unbiased thought or pure perception is impossible: Neuroscience 101

Like I said before, now it's really tough for me to read books that reflect pre-scientific understanding of the human mind. Or to seriously consider any form of spirituality/meditation/philosophy that doesn't address what Robert Burton, M.D. says in the opening pages of his "A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves." Our brains possess involuntary mechanisms that make unbiased thought impossible yet create the illusion that we are rational creatures capable of fully understanding the mind created by those same mechanisms. Our brains have evolved piecemeal; contradictions, inconsistency, and paradox are hardwired into…
15
Posted inBuddhism Science

Buddhism is too serious and unscientific for me

I must really be entering the churchless deep end. Which is great! I enjoy diving into the depths of reality, rather than swimming around in the shallows of religious and philosophical concepts. For a long time I've enjoyed reading Buddhist books, so long as they aren't overly traditional. But now even edgy writings like "Rebel Buddha" seem too dogmatic to me. How can this quote be justified? Is mind the brain or a by-product of the brain? Is it chemicals and neurotransmitters lighting up pathways in the brain that spark sensation, thought, and feeling, and lead up to the brilliance…
12
Posted inBuddhism Reality

One sip of coffee is more real than a thousand thoughts of God

I've drunk a lot of coffee in my life. Also, thought a lot about God. What I've concluded after all these years (65, to be exact) is that a single sip of coffee brings me hugely closer to reality than a thousand God-thoughts. I could have said "a million," because the gap is so wide between (1) something that actually exists in the world beyond the human brain, and (2) something that exists only as an abstract human conception. In no way do I call myself a Buddhist. But there are many aspects of Buddhism that I find appealing, along…
8
Posted inBuddhism

Now is the simplest place and time to be

Here's how I've come to look upon now: its the best place to live out my life, because it is the simplest and least complex residence my psyche can reside in. Also, my inescapable home. So I might as well embrace what is impossible to be separate from. During my waking hours, I always have to deal in one way or another with what is happening now. Even if I'm lying down doing nothing, that doing nothing is something. Question is, how much extra do I add to the inescapable now? Dealing with now is an irreducible minimum experience; adding…
18
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Sorting out your wantings with a thought cloud

Obviously I don't know how your brain/mind works. Heck, I don't even know how my brain/mind works, even though so far as I, neuroscience, and Buddhism can tell, there is no difference between me and my brain/mind. (From here on out I'll just say "mind" instead of "brain/mind," since the mind is the brain in action.) Nevertheless, what I feel when I ponder some subject is that thought clouds, for lack of a better term, start to form and float around within conscious awareness.  Each is a concept of sorts. But maybe more like a feeling. Or an intuition. Regardless, they…
No Comments
Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Imagine how you felt when you still believed

Almost everybody has believed in imaginary things.  God. Angels. Bigfoot. Flying saucers. Soul. That the barista at the coffee shop is really attracted to you when he/she smiles while handing over your drink. The list is endless. Because it feels good to believe in things that we want to be real, but almost certainly aren't.  How do we tell the difference between reality and illusion, fact and belief, actuality and hope? By using an everyday form of the scientific method: predict what would happen if your belief really is true. If that prediction comes to pass, or if the experiment…
8
Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Make your own meaning… no validation required

I love the idea that life is meaningless. It fills me with joy to think that the cosmos doesn't give a crap about me, nor does the God who doesn't exist, nor the oft-mentioned "universe" -- in the sense of the universe is trying to teach me a lesson. No it isn't. Whatever lesson you or I are going to learn from an experience will come from us. Ditto for meaning. I used to believe there was an objectively real Meaning of Life. The main goal of life was to figure out what that truth was. But meaning isn't a fact…
14
Posted inReality

Reality is the only grace we need

Grace. An intriguing word.  It can mean smoothness of movement. But in spiritual and religious circles, there is a different meaning.  a :  unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctificationb :  a virtue coming from God c :  a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace This sort of grace implies mitigation of an undesirable state. God gives us the grace of salvation, enlightenment, or whatever because we need saving or enlightening. Or whatever. So God, usually considered to be the creator and sustainer of existence, makes the creation imperfect. Or at least produces the circumstances for sin, error, and…
1