Posted inPolitics

Russia invading Ukraine makes religiosity seem irrelevant

This morning I had an idea for a Church of the Churchless blog post. I jotted down the topic: Embrace what's real, not an ideal.  It had struck me that many, if not most, of our personal problems stem from expecting too much from life. We think, "Ideally, I wouldn't be ______" (fill in the blank). Having so much pain. Failing to enjoy my job. Arguing with my teenage child. Wondering why I'm not happier. So many possible ideals that reality doesn't match up with. Probably I'll revisit this subject later. Right now, I find it hard to concentrate on…
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Posted inScience

A scientific theory never becomes a fact

New Scientist has a feature near the end of the magazine where reader questions shared in one issue are answered by other readers who send in submissions that are selected to appear in a later issue. Below is a question and six answers related to when a theory becomes a fact. The answers make a lot of sense. Even though I've been aware that when something is called a theory, this doesn't mean that it isn't a well-proven means of describing reality. But this is how many people view a theory -- as something speculative, as when we say "I've got…
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Posted inBooks Reality

Mind-body dualism almost certainly isn’t true, but it could be in a simulation

Are mind and body two different things, or one thing? Descartes, along with Eastern religions that view consciousness as immaterial, argue that mind and body belong to different realms, nonphysical and physical. A big problem with this view, of course, is that it's obvious that mind and body are intimately connected. I think, "Type I think," and voila, that's what happens. If mind and body are different, how could an immaterial mind control the physical fingers that tap out letters on my keyboard? And how is it that ingesting coffee, LSD, alcohol, or numerous other substances affects the mind, if…
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Posted inAtheism

Atheism has no doctrines

In Armin Navabi's book, Why There is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God, he has a chapter called "Atheism has killed more people than religion, so it must be wrong." Navabi's main argument against this is in a section called Atheism Has No Doctrines. He makes some great points, so I'm sharing that section here. Atheism Has No Doctrines The violence within Christianity or Islam can often be traced back to the teachings of those religions because it is embedded in the ideology of the religions themselves.  Even though war and violence in…
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Posted inHumor Religions

Wacky religious news: Islamic sex cult and baptism gone wrong

My wife, Laurel, a proud atheist, enjoys finding stories about the bizarre side of religions (assuming there is anything other than bizarre in religiosity). Recently she came across the tale of Adnan Oktar, a Turkish sex cult leader.  In the end, it was not the British deep state, Darwinists, Jews, Freemasons or any of the sinister cabals that Adnan Oktar long railed against that defeated him. It was the Turkish judiciary. On Monday, the notorious 64-year-old preacher, often referred to in salacious headlines as a "sex cult leader," was sentenced to 1,075 years in jail for crimes including sexual assault, sexual…
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Posted inReality

If we’re in a simulation, its creator is our god

A few days ago I wrote about one of the central notions in David Chalmers' new book, "Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. Namely, that if we're in a simulation, our world is still real.  In this post I'll talk about a chapter in the book with a compelling title: Is God a hacker in the next universe up?  What I'm enjoying most about Reality+, aside from how clearly Chalmers writes and reasons, is how he integrates basic philosophical questions with the specific issue of us being in a simulation. Does God exist? The question has been asked…
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Posted inReality

Even if we’re in a simulation, our world is real

As computer simulations become more and more lifelike, the question could we be living in a simulation?  becomes more interesting. Especially to fans of The Matrix movies.  But also to philosophers, since Plato, Descartes, and many others have wondered whether this world that we assume is real, actually is. David Chalmers, a philosopher who is the codirector of the Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness at New York University, has written a fascinating book: Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy.  In an early chapter, Chalmers summarizes the central questions he addresses in the book, along with his one…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Like Walt Whitman said, we all contain multitudes

Yesterday I surprised myself. Also, the day before. And today. In fact, every day. I surprise myself when my view of life changes from what it was before. Which isn't really surprising, since life is full of change. It could even be said that life is change. Hearts beat. Lungs breathe. Neurons fire. When life becomes unchanging, that's called death. The surprise that brought this blog post to life was me saying in a comment that I agreed with what another commenter had said about theistic religions being more satisfying. I wrote: You might be surprised to hear this, but…
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Posted inAwareness Consciousness

A guided meditation by Sam Harris about the open sky of consciousness

Below is a transcript of a guided meditation by Sam Harris that I listened to recently on his Waking Up app. I enjoyed it a lot. His guided meditations last either 10 or 20 minutes, depending on how much non-speaking time you choose. So the words by Harris should be experienced, not just thought about. Of course, there's quite a bit to ponder in how Harris views consciousness and its contents. What he says reminds me of what I read about Descartes and his famous Cogito, ergo sum, I think therefore I am,  in an intriguing new book by David Chalmers…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Thoughts on the Sant Mat teachings

Today I got this message from someone who wants to be referred to as Godot. They are still dedicated to the spiritual philosophy of Sant Mat that I embraced for thirty five years. But they have problems with the direction Radha Soami Satsang Beas has gone since the death in 1990 of Charan Singh, the guru who initiated this person and myself. My thoughts on the teachings of Sant Mat. In 1972, I received Nam. The Path is inside, and meditation has been my focus. When Charan Singh passed away in 1990, I was not concerned that he had left…
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Posted inBuddhism Consciousness

Sam Harris on the riddle of the self

Figured I might as well continue on with how Sam Harris views meditation, spirituality, and the non-existence of an enduring self, even though I've previously written quite a bit about this. As noted before, Harris is one of my favorite spiritual writers because he both recognizes the downside of religions and believing in a God for which there's no evidence, while also recognizing that there is much to learn about the human mind and how we can live more pleasantly through meditation and mindfulness. Here's a footnote to my recent post about Harris and Dzogchen, the Tibetan form of Buddhism…
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Posted inBuddhism

How Sam Harris views Dzogchen

Sam Harris is a fascinating guy. To me, he pretty much epitomizes the "middle way" that Buddhism espouses. Meaning, he is at home both with science and spirituality, finding both compatible with each other and with reality. Which I guess isn't too surprising, since Harris has a deep fondness for Buddhism, particularly Dzogchen, a variety of Tibetan Buddhism. Harris is a leader of the New Atheism movement. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience. The personal section of his Wikipedia page contains interesting information about him. (I've taken out the links and footnotes.) Samuel Benjamin Harris was born in Los…
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Posted inConsciousness Spiritual practice/meditation

You can’t go beyond mind, because that’s what you are

Yesterday Spence Tepper, a frequent commenter on this blog, responded to Appreciative Reader, another frequent commenter. I enjoy how Tepper thinks, even when I don't agree with him. Below I've shared in bold italics some observations on his interesting comment. Hi ARYou asked""Please explain in clear words what exactly you were trying to say."Thank you for the clarity of your question. It was a great question. And I appreciate the response from Tepper below, which is pleasingly direct. Beyond mind meaning beyond your own conventional thinking. OK, I agree that it isn't possible to go beyond the mind, because mind isn't…
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Posted inScience

Say yes to drugs. The war on drugs is crazy.

Over on my HinesSight blog, tonight I wrote "MDMA research shows war on drugs is absurd." Check it out. I shared part of a story Sam Harris tells in his Waking Up book about taking MDMA (Ecstasy) with a friend in 1987, which produced a marvelous feeling of love in them.
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Posted inReality Science

Does spacetime emerge from a more fundamental reality?

The title of this blog post is a question posed on the cover of the February 2022 issue of Scientific American. It refers to a story in the issue, "The Origins of Space and Time."  I enjoyed the story, even though it was difficult to understand.  Here's an image that encapsulates the two main approaches to figuring out what space and time (or as relativity theory puts it, spacetime) emerge from -- assuming they emerge from anything. So if you were expecting some explanation that could be fit, or crammed, into a religious or mystical worldview, expect again. Science of…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Some thoughts about Shivinder Singh and his wife

Here's a message someone sent to me about Shivinder Singh, the brother of Malvinder Singh and a relative of Gurinder Singh -- the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, a religious organization based in India. Charan Singh was the previous guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. There was a recent article in India Today that describes how Shivinder Singh’s wife was conned out of 215 crore rupees by a man who posed as a high government official. He told her he could spring her husband from jail where he has been in custody for a quite a while. This brings forward quite…
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Posted inAwareness Reality Spiritual practice/meditation

The best spiritual practice could be…nothing

Here's some thoughts about the value of basing your spiritual practice on... drumroll please... absolutely nothing. But I'll introduce this topic by sharing an anecdote. Yesterday I took our dog for a walk around the community lake near our rural property. A house is for sale that overlooks the lake. A woman and two children were walking down from the house toward the lake, seemingly because the family was looking into buying the house. A young boy came up to the fence that our dog and me were on the other side of. He pointed and said, "nice lake." Then…
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Posted inBooks Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

I give away eight boxes of books. And a lot of fond memories.

I woke up yesterday morning with a fresh insight: time for the books to go. Not just the small box of giveaway books that had been sitting on a table in my bedroom for quite while.  Also, the boxes of books that had been languishing in the storage space above our carport for much longer, about fifteen or twenty years, I can't remember exactly. Those books had a lot more sentimental value, which might explain why I hadn't thought of donating them before, even though I'd glance at the boxes every time I climbed up the dropdown ladder to get…
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Posted inAlan Watts Morality

Morality, like Alan Watts, is in the eye of the beholder

It's been interesting to see the various reactions of regular readers of this blog to my series of posts about Alan Watts, especially my recent post about how "Alan Watts was true to his moral philosophy."  Those like me who agree with how Watts viewed reality -- as a self-organizing whole without any top-down commander like God -- tended to view his personal life as irrelevant to his philosophizing, which leaned in his later years toward Chinese/Taoist perspectives. Not surprisingly, those who disagreed with how Watts saw things seized upon his three marriages, affairs with other women, drug use, and…
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Posted inAlan Watts Morality

Alan Watts was true to his moral philosophy

There's nothing that irks me more on this blog than commenters who are annoyingly sanctimonious, taking an I'm-holier-than-thou attitude to people they feel morally superior to. So when I saw this comment about Alan Watts by Spence Tepper yesterday, it irritated me. Allan Watts may appeal to drug addicts, alcoholics, sex addicts and fame addicts, but he would have done them greater good acknowldging his own struggles with these things. A man who fails, but struggles, openly acknowldging his struggle, and fights directly as best he can, that is a source of real inspiration. But a man who escapes his…
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