Posted inPersonal/Stories Science

Salem (Oregon) skeptics meet under Center for Inquiry banner

Last night my wife and I entered a den of secular, scientific skeptics. Not surprisingly, we enjoyed our first CFI Salem Humanists meeting. There was some sort of merging between the local Center for Inquiry and Humanist groups, but CFI seems to be the main banner under which they meet now. Laurel and I had read about the meeting, an honoring of Carl Sagan, in our local newspaper. We figured we'd meet some like-minded people. We figured right. There were quite a few other newbies in an upstairs room at the IKE Box coffeehouse. So it took a while for…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Reality

Marvel at the Wizard of Is

With apologies to L. Frank Baum, I'm amending your book title for some philosophizing about "Is" rather than "Oz." I'm no longer religious. But I've still as awe-inspired as I ever was. What I find so awesome now isn't God, or guru, or any other imagined divinity. It's the inarguable presence of Is. No faith, no dogma, no theology, no anything is required to demonstrate the existence of Is. That's because Is is existence.  There Is is. Here Is is. Everywhere Is is. Awesome! Yet as obvious as Is is, what I really love about Is is how mysterious it is.…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

True life is lived when tiny changes occur

I hold a glass of red wine. I start to set it down on a wood table at a friend's house. I notice the tile coaster on which glasses are to be set. I pause to read a message on the coaster. True life is lived when tiny changes occur.   Leo Tolstoy  "Nice," I think. I take a sip of wine before putting the glass down. A tiny change. True life. Looking to confirm the quote, I found some other Tolstoy quotations that appealed to me.  Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without…
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Posted inReality Religions

Be adaptable like a fox, not stalwart like a hedgehog

In his fascinating book, "The Signal and the Noise," Nate Silver talks about two thinking styles: that of the fox and hedgehog. I've blogged about this before in "Sure you're right? You're probably wrong."  In other words, those who were most certain they were right were more likely to be wrong. It's better to be a fox, someone who knows many things, than a hedgehog, who knows one big thing. The article's author, Sharon Begley, lists the characteristics of foxes (better predictors) and hedgehogs (worse predictors). Foxes... cognitively flexible, modest, open to self-criticism, consider competing views, doubt power of Big…
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Posted inPolitics

Religious right got smacked down in U.S. 2012 election

We did it! Faithless, churchless, secular, non-believing Americans are on the political march. So says a fascinating story in the New York Times, "Christian Right Failed to Sway Voters on Issues." Christian conservatives, for more than two decades a pivotal force in American politics, are grappling with Election Day results that repudiated their influence and suggested that the cultural tide — especially on gay issues — has shifted against them. They are reeling not only from the loss of the presidency, but from what many of them see as a rejection of their agenda. They lost fights against same-sex marriage in all…
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Posted inReality Science

Reality belongs to those who know, not believers

Reality is real. This is, for some, an unreal statement. They believe that reality is whatever someone considers it to be, that it's possible to create our own reality, that reason, logic, facts, and demonstrable evidence are useless in revealing whatever lies behind obvious appearances, that intuition and a gut feeling are better guides to truth. Well, as I said in a post a few days ago, Tuesday's national election in the United States was a victory for reality. And a concomitant defeat for those who value subjectivity over objectivity, passionate belief over reasonable facts, "I feel..." over "I know...…
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Posted inPolitics Reality

U.S. election a victory for reality

Reality won tonight! I've been glued to my television, laptop, and iPhone for about six hours, sweating out the results of our national election. Obama has been re-elected president. Democrats are going to maintain control of the Senate. Virtually every Republican I was hoping would lose, did.  I'm happy. Both for the political philosophy that I favor, and for the reality based community that I consider myself to be a proud member of. Because this was more than an election between Republicans and Democrats. Borrowing a fancy term from a highly respected political analyst, Nate Silver, who I like a…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Why I like D.T. Suzuki’s brand of Zen

For me, minimally Buddhist'y Zen is one of my foraging spots when I feel the need to feast on some "spiritual but not religious" food.  Seven years ago I bought "The Zen Koan as a means of Attaining Enlightenment," by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, a.k.a. D.T. Suzuki. (Check here for a recent update on my enlightenment; in brief, it's going great.) Many books come and go in my meditation area. A few are permanent residents. D.T. Suzuki's is one of them. Parts of it are so steeped in Zen lore/tradition, I don't resonate with them. But otherwise I can usually turn…
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Posted inFree will Science Universe

Free will is a wonderful thing to lose

Most of us are afraid of losing our freedom. We like being able to say what we want, go where we want, do what we want. Within limits, of course. Absolute freedom is impossible. Constraints are part of the human condition. This helps explain the almost universal belief in free will, and the desire to exercise free will to the fullest. Even if we're constrained by outer circumstances, such as not being able to drive 200 miles an hour because our car won't go that fast, most people have the feeling that what they are capable of choosing to do…
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Posted inScience Spiritual practice/meditation

In spiritual science, discussing and debating beats blind faith

I'm amused at the advice I frequently get in comments on blog posts and emails: "Stop thinking so much, Brian. Believe in God. Have faith in your guru. Meditate and experience the truth that has eluded you." These people don't understand that I view spirituality and mysticism as a science. Always have. Likely always will. If I wanted a religion, I had one in my brief career as a Catholic. I was attracted to the Sant Mat teachings, Radha Soami Satsang Beas version, because they were billed as a "science of the soul." Cool. Spirituality and science wrapped up in…
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Posted inScience

Phi, integrated information, the fountain of phenomena

I've read a lot of neuroscience/neurophilosophy books. But none like "Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul," by psychiatrist Giulio Tononi. It's amazingly creative, filled with literary, historical, artistic, philosophical, and scientific allusions that made me feel like a Neanderthal. How the heck does Tononi know all this stuff? Guess I spend way more time watching The Daily Show and Survivor than he does. In the lavishly illustrated book, a blend of theory, fact and fiction, Galileo meets Francis Crick, Alan Turing, Charles Darwin, and other great thinkers. It's pleasingly entertaining, yet left me feeling like I'd eaten…
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Posted inGod

Do you believe that God exists? 100%? Absolutely? No doubts?

Usually on this blog I say what I think, and other people comment. Tonight I'm going to do something different.  I want to ask you, whoever you are, whoever might read this post, whether you are absolutely confident that God exists.  Meaning, you don't just believe, hope, suspect, hypothesize, have faith that God exists. You're sure. And not just pretty sure. You're 100% sure. You've got no doubts about the reality of God. If that describes you, leave a comment on this post. Explain the reasons for your absolute surety about God's existence. And while you're at it, tell us…
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Posted inGod

If rape and life is God’s will, why isn’t everything?

In addition to increasing the chance that Democrats will maintain control of the United States Senate by winning an open seat in Indiana, Republican senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock opened up an interesting line of theological questioning with his instantly infamous rape comment. In a Senate debate Tuesday night, Richard Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer, tried to distinguish himself from two opponents who also oppose abortion, explaining why he does not accept an exception for pregnancies conceived by rape. “I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God,” Mr. Mourdock said. “And…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Why mindfulness is better than concentration

After more than thirty years of focusing on concentration in my meditation practice, I've become a believer of broadening into mindfulness. That is, being aware of whatever is there -- the point of my previous post about my can't-miss meditation approach.  Repeating a mantra is a common concentrative technique. So is following the sensation of one's breathing. Nothing wrong with this. Concentration is good. It's how I'm able to focus on writing this blog post on my laptop while distracting sights and sounds abound in our kitchen as my wife putters around. But here's the thing: I know what I need…
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Posted inScience

Oxytocin and the soul

This probably is my one and only chance for a blog post with the title above. Can't pass up the opportunity. As I was going through my pile of undone/unread stuff, I came across this letter in the October 6, 2012 issue of New Scientist that struck me as interesting. From Felix DuxNo doubt some will feel uncomfortable, as your reviewer Kayt Sukel suggests, at Larry Young and Brian Alexander's idea that the release of oxytocin during sex "tricks" women into nurturing their partners (22 September, p 46). Unless you believe in a non-physical soul - which I'm sure Young and…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

My can’t-miss meditation approach: “Whatever…”

So what do you do when you're scientifically minded, deeply skeptical about religiosity, and mistrustful of holy books, gurus, and other pretenders who unbelievably claim to know all about ultimate divine truth, yet are open to the possibility that reality may consist of more than is evident to our everyday perceptions? Well, here's what I do. Works for me. Your results may differ.  Before I meditate every morning, I utter my unsacred mantra. I'm open to: Whatever...Whoever...Wherever...Whenever...However....  It's my can't-miss meditation system. I've got all the options covered. No matter what ultimate reality consists of, I've opened the door to…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Indian cultural attitudes help explain guru devotion

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." Well, back in 1892 Rudyard Kipling might have been right about the relationship between Britain and India, but obviously since then the world has become, in Thomas Friedman's jargon, a lot flatter. Meaning, a lot more interconnected, alike, accessible. Yet there still is a cultural gulf between East and West. A question I got from an Indian in an email today reminded me of this. I was a member of an India-based spiritual organization (Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB) for over thirty-five years. I've been…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Spirituality is experienced, not proven

What does it mean to be "spiritual"? Is there any way to prove that spirituality is true? How should someone look upon his or her spiritual experiences? Great questions. Glad I asked them of myself. The answers I'm about to give won't surprise those who are regular readers of this blog. But maybe I can say what I've said before in a fresh fashion. Let's start with an experience that I'd call "spiritual" which I had during a dog walk not long ago. Passing by the shore of Spring Lake, I was stopped in my tracks by a crescent moon,…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Death/Rebirth

Brain damage can convince you of Christian bullshit

Recently someone emailed me about my "Heaven is NOT real, no matter what Eben Alexander says" post. She wondered why I thought his heaven seemed so Christian. To her, Alexander's account of the afterlife sounded more Hindu. Well, I'm no expert on Hinduism, but that assertion seems dubious to me. A quick check-in with the Great God Google taught me some things about Hindu notions of the afterlife. A Wikipedia article on the subject emphasizes Hindu belief in karma and reincarnation. We keep coming back to life on Earth, not an eternal life in "heaven." Heaven and hell are temporary…
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