Posted inReality

I figure out the Meaning of It All

Here it is... the capstone of 65 years of living, my grand theory of meaningfulness, the key to a satisfying life, all of philosophy and science encapsulated in a few pithy sentences.  (Plus, I readily admit, convincing proof of my delusional grandiosity.) This is where everything goes wrong, and where everything goes right: keeping our personal subjective interior in relationship with the world's objective exterior. The key is figuring out that relationship. I assume that such exists. There are indeed two aspects to our living. Subjective and objective.  I realize many would disagree. Those strongly inclined toward idealism see everything…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Two good comments about faith and guru games

Here's a couple of comments on Church of the Churchless posts that I particularly enjoyed today. Understand, I like all the comments people leave here, even the ones I disagree with. Dialogue, discussion, debate -- that's what this blog is about. (Religious people would add another "D" word,  damnation.) But some comments strike me in a special way, making me think, ah!, nicely said. This one is from Gene: "...remove the foundation of faith that supports their religiosity." The foundation of faith is the 'meaning' one finds from their very own life experiences. The only way to remove this would…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

December visits to the RSSB Dera cancelled. Anyone know why?

Today I got an email message from someone in South Africa who said that the Radha Soami Satsang Beas group there has heard that December visits with "Babaji," a.k.a. Gurinder Singh Dhillon (current guru) at the Dera in the Punjab have been cancelled. First time ever, said this person, who asked if I knew anything about this. I don't. Since quite a few people who are still involved with RSSB visit this blog, I figured I'd share the information/question and see if anyone else knows what is going on.
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Posted inReligions

How to cure an addiction to faith

In his book "A Manual for Creating Atheists," Peter Boghossian has some advice for those who want to helo cure religious addicts: don't focus on weaning them off of religion; rather, remove the foundation of faith that supports their religiosity. Makes sense.  Attacks on religion are often peceived as attacks on friends, families, communities, and relationships. As such, attacking religion may alienate people, making it even more difficult to separate them from their faith. ...Attempting to disabuse people of a belief in their God(s) is the wrong way to conceptualize the problem. God is the conclusion that one arrives at…
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Posted inReligions Science

Atheism is the rejection of theism, not a belief system

Here's a follow-up to my "Atheism isn't a belief. It is a lack of belief." That post had quotes from James Lindsay's second book.  The passages below are from Lindsay's first book, God Doesn't, We Do. Once again, he persuasively challenges the false assumption that theism, believing in God, and atheism, not believing in God, are somehow both belief systems. Doesn't make sense. Read on to see why. Another common misconception among believers is that infidels, atheists in particular, subscribe to a religious view that is called Atheism. This is incorrect, generally speaking. We might be able to call (capitalized)…
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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…
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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"…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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