Posted inBooks Science

Sean Carroll’s “Planets of Belief” — ideally constantly changing

I've loving a new book by theoretical physicist Sean Carroll,  "The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself." After reading just a few chapters, I felt compelled to leave a laudatory Amazon reader review. Here's part of what I said. I'm an inveterate consumer of both science and philosophy books. Almost always, the scientists lack the ability to talk about philosophy cogently, and almost always the philosophers are clueless about basic scientific understandings. So each frustrate my desire to simultaneously (1) learn about how the world is, and (2) find meaning in the world, given…
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Posted inReality Religions

Non-believers in religion urged to come out of the closet

Here's a Guest Opinion by my wife, Laurel, that is in the current issue of Salem Weekly -- our city's alternative paper. In it she plugs the May 26 Portland Atheist Festival. Laurel and I are signed up to be some of the people who will speak for two minutes about why they're proud to be atheists. Non-Believers Come Out of the Closetby Laurel Hines If you are one of the ever-growing numbers of people who don’t believe in a religion, you are “a-theist” (not part of a religion). If you don’t like the religious dogma that Ted Cruz and…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Relatives of RSSB guru Gurinder Singh fined $400 million for hiding business facts

It's a fascinating soap opera, how billionaire nephews of guru Gurinder Singh are entangled with the Indian spiritual organization that he heads -- Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Gurinder Singh's family earned about $250 million from shares of Religare Enterprises they paid about $3 million for, as I described in "Radha Soami Satsang Beas' guru makes $254 million." Those shares came from Malvinder Singh, who is the guru's nephew. Malvinder's brother is Shivinder Singh. They formed Religare after selling their stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan’s Daaichi Sankyo Company. A few years ago, Guru Gurinder Singh's son became CEO of…
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Posted inBooks Science

My (only) big problem with Sam Harris’ “Waking Up” book

I'm re-reading Sam Harris' Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Having read it first in 2014, I wanted to see if I looked upon the book any differently now -- having altered my views about meditation, consciousness, and such during the past few years. Well, I'm still having a problem with how Harris looks upon consciousness. It's pretty much the same problem I talked about in "Questions I had in Sam Harris' 'Waking Up' meditation chapter." It sure seems in the "In fact..." passage that Harris is touting the good that comes from feeling that he is a…
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Posted inMystics Radha Soami Satsang Beas

How could a guru who knows he is a fake be a “good person?”

Here's a mildly-edited email from someone who asked me some provocative questions about Charan Singh, a Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru who I was initiated by in 1971, after which I followed his teachings for about 35 years.  This person apparently sent me an email, rather than posting the message as a blog post comment, because he thought I might be offended by what he said about Charan Singh.  Since I'm not -- and in fact enjoyed the message a lot -- I'm sharing it here. Following the message, I share my response to the questions about Charan Singh. Dear…
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Posted inScience Universe

The “self” is like a web without a spider

Self... who am I? Will... who controls what I do? Being... do I continue on after death? These are big questions. Humans have struggled to find answers to them from the beginning of recorded history, and surely long before that.  Most people accept a view that is common to most religions: I am something other than my physical body; call it soul or spirit. I have free will; so I am responsible for my actions. I possess, or am, a non-material essence that is unaffected by physical death. Well, maybe.  But these answers go against the grain of modern science.…
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Posted inReality Science

“Free will isn’t. Existence is.” My hoped-for TEDx talk.

Well, it's time for my third annual TEDxSalem speaker application. I was rejected in 2014 and 2015, having pitched Grand Talks About The Cosmos that, obviously, didn't strike the speaker selection committee as being such marvelously interesting topics as I considered them to be. Noting that the deadline for prospective speakers to apply for the 2016-17 event was coming up on April 18, I decided to pitch another talk idea. This time, Free will isn't. Existence is. If nothing else, another TEDxSalem rejection will add to my Tortured Artist (or Misunderstood Genius) resume. In my old age, well, more accurately,…
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Posted inGod

No dragon in the garage. Also, no God in heaven.

I so love it when someone writes a book that says stuff I've been saying on this blog for a long time. Except he says it even better.  Which explains why I'm liking Paul Singh's "The Great Illusion: The Myth of Free Will, Consciousness, and the Self" so much. Singh is a scientifically-minded professor of obstetrics and gynecology who was raised in the Sikh religious tradition, and believed in Indian forms of spirituality/healing for a long time. Until, he saw the light of reality. Here's an excerpt from his book that speaks to an oft-spoken theme in my blog posts. It…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

The relief of no longer believing in religion

Amazingly, and not a little scarily for me, I've written 2,194 Church of the Churchless posts since I started this blog in 2004.  I've covered lots of subjects. But an important topic hasn't gotten much attention from me. It's difficult to write about, being elusive, slippery, exceedingly personal, difficult to describe. What it feels like to (obviously) be the same person I was when I embraced a religion, yet now being a person who doesn't believe in what once was so important to me. It was difficult to compose those italicized words. Elucidating what they mean... even tougher.  I guess…
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Posted inGod

The answer to “Does God exist?” must be “No”

I'd expect better from a professor of philosophy than William Irwin's poorly reasoned essay in the New York Times, "God is a Question, Not an Answer."  I really have no idea how he can defend statements such as this: Dwelling in a state of doubt, uncertainty and openness about the existence of God marks an honest approach to the question. There is no easy answer. Indeed, the question may be fundamentally unanswerable. Huh, unanswerable?  Here's how the question of the existence of God is answered: with the best evidence available. This is how we humans answer all questions. There's no other…
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Posted inReligions Science

If words sound like spiritual drivel, they probably are

We've all heard lofty sounding spiritual phrases that initially seem like they mean something, but on further reflection are recognized as empty words. In one of his Scientific American Skeptic pieces,  "The True Meaning of BS," Michael Shermer uses Deepak Chopra as an example. Example: “Attention and intention are the mechanics of manifestation.” This is an actual tweet composed by Deepak Chopra, as quoted by University of Waterloo psychologist Gordon Pennycook and his colleagues in a paper published in the November 2015 issue ofJudgment and Decision Making. The scientists set out to determine “the factors that predispose one to become or to…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Profitable spiritual investing: do nothing extra in tough times

My churchless "sermon" this Sunday is based on an article in TIME magazine's March 28 issue, "In a turbulent stock market, the best investment move is the least obvious." This non-sacred secular scripture ends with a paragraph that has deep meaning for those of us -- which means all of us at some point -- who face difficult choices about how to deal with tough times in life. You can't avoid all the dangers that lurk in the global economy, but you can minimize their impact. Timing any market remains a fool's game. Another mistake, says Moskowitz, is that when…
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Posted inBuddhism

Meaningness site well worth an (uncertain) read

Back in 2011 I discovered David Chapman's "Meaningness" writings. In a blog post I praised Chapman's dizzying thoughts about what life is, and isn't, all about.  And shared what I said to the person who turned me on to the Meaningness site. Thanks a lot for the link. I've read several posts/chapters and am blown away by this guy. He's like a more intelligent, more scientific, more coherent, more wise version of me who also can write a heck of a lot better. And has a great sense of humor. I'm an instant David Chapman fan. Since, I've gotten Meaningness…
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Posted inReligions Science

Science’s “faith” is very different from religious faith

Great timing, Steve. Your comment today on my "Why 'man of faith' is an insult" post came soon after I'd come across a perfect reply. But first, the comment: Brian, thank you for taking a moment to respond to my post. I understand and agree with both of your references (although I have a special affinity for chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream). Still, I'd like to understand your perspective on faith just a bit more. You indicate that neither of your examples require religious faith, and I agree with that premise. My question is this (and expanding upon your…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Disturbing Radha Soami Satsang Beas land grab in New Delhi

Here's some news items from 2013 and 2014 I've learned about for those who like to keep up on what's happening with an Indian guru-led spiritual organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). RSSB has been appropriating land from a wildlife sanctuary outside of New Delhi. The Hindustan Times reported on this in an April 2014 story,"Forest dept accuses spiritual body of land grab." Download Forest dept accuses spiritual body of land grab | india | Hindustan Times The Delhi centre of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) has occupied 123 acres of forest land, the forest department has alleged. The department…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Our modern secular world is safer and more moral

After reading Steven Pinker's book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined," my thoroughly atheist wife recently was moved to write a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, the Salem Statesman Journal. The claim that the 20th century was the most violent is not true. Most other scientific information shows that although the two world wars killed large numbers of humans, in terms of numbers of humans killed versus world populations at the time, this was actually mild compared with killings by Genghis Khan and others eons ago. Historic facts now known demonstrate that the…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

A look at Radha Soami by a thoughtful sceptic

Wow. That was my thumbs-up one-word reaction to a well-written, cogent, intelligent, moving comment on a 2006 blog post, "Top ten signs you're a fundamentalist Satsangi." The writer put so much time and thought into the comment, right away I knew it deserved to be elevated into a blog post where it would be more visible.  So, here it is, below. Having been devoted to the Radha Soami philosophy myself for about 35 years, I resonated with much of what this person said. I didn't grow up in a Radha Soami family as the commenter did, so it was interesting…
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Posted inGod

Belief in God fades away gradually for many atheists

Do you believe in God?  This isn't an either-or question where the only possible answers are "yes" and "no." There are many shades of unbelieving and believing when it comes to God.  Many outwardly religious people aren't inwardly sure whether God exists. This includes a surprisingly large number of clergy.  Similarly, many atheists hold on to spiritual beliefs of one form or another, up to and including the possibility of a divine being or universal consciousness.  Personally, I've found that after 35 years of being a believer in an Eastern/Indian variety of religion, then becoming a spiritual sceptic, I've gone…
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Posted inReality Science

Understanding reality (including religion) is a matter of “likely”

After almost a dozen years of writing Church of the Churchless posts, and reading comments on them, I'm familiar with the arguments religious people use to justify their beliefs.  When I point out that there is no demonstrable evidence supporting a belief in God, heaven, soul, spirit, angels, the afterlife, or any other form of supernaturalism, frequently I'll hear something like this: Hey, Brian, you can't prove God doesn't exist, so there's no proof for your skeptical view either.  Thus, it's a tie! There's no proof God exists, and there's no proof God doesn't exist, so it's up to each…
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Posted inReligions

Why “man of faith” is an insult

So, I was browsing through the Sunday Oregonian a little while ago and came across a story about how recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was remembered as a "man of faith" at his funeral.  This is a similar story I found on Google News, "Justice Scalia eulogized at funeral Mass as man of faith and man of law." Forever combative about the law, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was remembered Saturday as a man whose deeply held religious faith brought him peace. Rather than a star-studded funeral service featuring judges and politicians, Scalia’s sendoff at the…
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