Posted inReality

Why we believe in things we know aren’t true

It's a well-worn saying here in the United States: "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt."  We all deny reality. We all prefer to feel good about a falsity rather than embrace a harsh truth. But some people struggle against our human inclination to believe in things that aren't true, while others make little or no effort to resist the lure of denial.  A piece in the New York Times, "Believing What You Don't Believe," casts light on what's going on here.  How is it that people can believe something that they know is not true? For example, Kansas City…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Coach’s praying on field deserved a Satanic response

When religious fundamentalism runs amok, I love it when the overly-righteous get an unwelcome reflection of their own dogmatism. Here in the Pacific Northwest (I live in Oregon), local newspapers have been running stories about a high school football coach in Washington state, Joe Kennedy, who likes to overtly pray on the field.  Pleasingly, he was sacked on the Unconstitutional Goal Line. An assistant football coach at a Washington high school who prayed at games after he was told to stop praying was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday night. The Bremerton School District placed Bremerton High School assistant football coach…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

My new affirmation: softer, slower, smaller

I've been practicing Tai Chi for about eleven years. Before, I was into hard style martial arts -- traditional Japanese Shotokan karate at first, then a mixed style focused on Korean karate.  Soft-style martial arts like Tai Chi (a.k.a. internal styles) take considerably more time to learn and, perhaps, master. External styles are centered on punching, kicking, blocking, and such. What you're supposed to learn is pretty much open to view. Sure, there's a mental side to karate, but by and large the emphasis in training is on what your body is doing, not your psyche. With Tai Chi, there's…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Religions

“Soul” — an appealing notion, but no agreement on what it is

For many years I believed that I had, or was, a soul. This idea was comforting, because the spiritual philosophy I followed taught that the essence of human beings was non-material, pure consciousness, and everlasting. So when my body died, supposedly my soul would live on. Worse case was, it, or I, would be reincarnated as another bodily life form. Best case was, my soul, or True Me, would leave matter and mind behind forever. In this case, soul-me would exist in a "heavenly" realm beyond time and space. Now, it was always hard for me to imagine what such…
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Posted inGod Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

“Faithless Feminist” speaks to irreligious women and men alike

My wife, Laurel, is an increasingly ardent scientifically-minded religious skeptic. After starting a Meet Up discussion group here in Salem -- Science Minded Skeptics --  she's gotten to know Karen Darst, a Portland woman who runs the Faithless Feminist web site.  Check it out. It isn't just for women, or feminists. I liked Garst's "The Devil Made Me Do It" post. The whole idea of the devil is ridiculous, but the notion of an supernatural power in opposition to God (who is another absurd idea) can be found in Eastern as well as Western religions.  For a long time I…
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Posted inScience

Consciousness could be the mind’s way to explain unconscious actions

One of my favorite parts of New Scientist issues are the letters. Not surprisingly, given the readership, the letters typically are intelligent, insightful, and creative.  Below is one from the October 10 issue that grabbed my attention. It just seems like it could be so right, though I'm not sure how anyone could test this hypothesis.  The letter writer suggests that just as the human mind/brain has an inherent tendency to attribute conscious purpose to other people (basically, "theory of mind"), perhaps that same ability to construct a purposeful agent also is applied inwardly -- to one's own mind.So when we…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Afterlife myths enabled early humans to cope with fear of death

Members of a wolf pack who are hunting prey with sharp horns don't stop and think, "Damn, if I keep chasing those animals, I could freaking die!"  Early humans did. Because we have self-awareness, while animals, almost certainly, simply are aware.  Meaning, a human can anticipate his or her death, even when the threat of that happening isn't imminent. Other animals also fear death, but only when their lives are immediately threatened. This is a huge difference. An important difference. A difference that makes all the difference between us and other species. It also is a central theme of a…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Mantra meditation basically is useless

First off, tonight I had another circular moment when I decided to search Google for "mantra meditation useless," the topic that I wanted to blog about. This has happened to me before when I've asked the Great God Google to enlighten me on some subject. I do a search, then find that some of my own Church of the Churchless posts are the top results.  So I turn out to be the answer to the question that I asked myself.  In this case, Google led me to my "Meditation is useless" and "Skeptical look at mantras and Transcendental Meditation" posts. …
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Posted inPolitics Religions

“Our God is a Woman! Our Mission is Protest! Our Weapon are bare breasts!”

FEMEN International has a good slogan -- the title of this post.  Recently they made good on those words, as described in "Topless female protesters manhandled after disrupting Islamic conference in France."  Members of a feminist protest group known for storming events topless has disrupted an Islamic conference in France and caught what appears to be a bit of a beating in the process....Even right-wing media sites like Breitbart were impressed when two young women, sans shirts, took the stage last weekend at what was billed as a “Muslim salon” in Pontoise, France, a town just outside of Paris. The salon, as…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Don’t care about what others think about you

A few days ago I had one of my mini-enlightenments -- a SO TRUE intuition that popped into my mind unexpectedly and unbidden. It felt like it came from a unconscious part of my psyche that is sometimes (or always) wiser than my conscious self. The intuition seemed really important at the time. Still does. Though it's kind of hard to put into words. Best I can do is this: Why the hell do I care so much about how other people look upon me? How I feel about myself is way more important than how they feel about me. When…
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Posted inBuddhism Morality

Tantra vs. Buddhist ethics (Tantra is a lot more fun!)

I don't know much about Tantra. I've had the impression that Tantra was all about wild spiritual sex -- which might have some truth to it, but possibly just a little. David Chapman, though, knows a lot about Tantra. The real Tantra. Also, Chapman is an expert on Buddhism. So he's just the guy to write a post called "Buddhist ethics": a Tantric critique. The post, like all of Chapman's writings (I'm a fan), is clear and nicely composed. Still, it will strike people not into this subject as rather Buddhist-geeky.  Which isn't a criticism. Just an observation.  I read…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

A walk in nature could be better than meditation

I've meditated every day since 1970. So obviously I'm a big believer in meditation.  But the more meditating I've done, the less I believe it is the best way to feel better and deal effectively with life's problems.  Sure, it is one way. There just are so many others -- as Brené Brown implied in an answer to a question posed to her in the "8 Questions" feature on the last page of a recent issue of TIME magazine. You say one of the keys to all this is spirituality. Why is that?I really wrestled with that. The way I define spirituality is a deeply…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

It is impossible for the brain to always “be here now”

I'm a big fan of mindfulness and meditation. I resonate with a non-religious, secular, scientific approach to Buddhism.  But I'm also an avid reader of neuroscience books. My current fave is Antonio Damasio's "Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain."  Much of the book is filled with more details about brain anatomy and functioning than I really care about. The overall theme, though, is fascinating -- how our sense of self is built up from more primitive primordial feelings, along with a less primitive core self and a possibly uniquely human autobiographical self. Today I came across a section…
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Posted inFundamentalism

Hindu fundamentalists are killing freethinkers in India

Well, a story in the New York Times, "India's Attack on Free Speech," makes me feel better about religious craziness in the United States. We have lots of fanatic Christian fundamentalists in this country. But we also have the First Amendment and a healthy respect for free speech. Our Christian nationalists don't kill anti-religion bloggers. (Good news for me!) In India, though, people are being killed for speaking their faithless minds. I'd thought that India was making progress on becoming a liberal democracy akin to ours ("liberal" means something different in this context from the usual liberal/conservative distinction). But apparently…
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Posted inGod

“Pascal’s Wager 2.0” — an interesting read

Most people are familiar with Pascals' Wager. (If you aren't, I've written about it here and here.) Pascal's basic idea was that it makes sense to believe in God, because if you're right the benefits are eternal and unlimited, while if you're wrong you lose nothing. (Or very little. Such as listening to a bunch of boring sermons and not eating meat on Fridays.) Over on the New York Times web site, there's an interesting piece by a philosophy professor, Gary Gutting. In "Pascal's Wager 2.0" he argues that doubting God is a better bet than denying God. The wager…
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Posted inMorality

Traditional Buddhist morality is worse than modern secular morality

Buddhism often is embraced by people who reject other forms of religion. It's sort of like a spiritual security blanket for those who no longer feel comfortable taking shelter under theistic theologies like Christianity. Something to hold on if it is just too scary to let go of religion entirely. I've used Buddhism in this way, being attracted to its non-supernatural aspects while rejecting rebirth, karma extending over multiple lives, and such. I don't see anything wrong with this. But there's a decent argument to be made that when the unappealing side of Buddhism is discarded, what's left isn't really…
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Posted inReality Spiritual practice/meditation

Wow. My wife convinces me she’s enlightened.

If you think I'm churchless and irreligious, you haven't met my wife, Laurel -- who is now surpassing me in skepticism about all things godly.  She's even enlightening me about enlightenment.  Driving home from central Oregon this afternoon, with plenty of time to converse during the two hour trip, Laurel said: Why are so many people concerned about being enlightened? It's just about embracing reality. Which is right here, right now. So understanding there's no such thing as enlightenment, just reality, is true enlightenment.  I couldn't add much to this bit of wisdom. Mostly I just marveled at Laurel's evident…
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Posted inReality

John Gray’s “The Soul of the Marionette” — perplexing and persuasive

I enjoy books that present familiar ideas in a fresh way. I also enjoy books that, when I read the last page, leave me with as many questions as answers. John Gray's "The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry Into Human Freedom" is such a book.  I finished it last night, having read the 168 pages in just a day and a half. Once I started Gray's book, I found it so fascinating, I felt compelled to get to the end as soon as possible -- so I could grasp its conclusions. Problem was (if it is a problem,…
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Posted inMystics Religions

Tough talk about Rajinder Singh from a disillusioned ex-disciple

Recently I got an email from someone who was initiated by an Indian Sant Mat guru, Rajinder Singh, and now realizes that this supposed divine being isn't really what he claims to be. This person gave me permission to share the message, which I've done below with some mild editing in line with the person's wish to remain anonymous. I'm always pleased to hear about someone's disillusioned experience with a religion or religious teacher. This is a wonderful thing, waking up from an illusion.  Feel free to share your thoughts about what this person says in a comment, as my…
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Posted inReality Religions

Why religious Personal Beliefs are usually Personal Delusions

A few days ago astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted out something so-true: If your Personal Beliefs deny what's objectively true about the world, then they're more accurately called Personal Delusions. Beautifully said.  This makes most religious dogma delusional. In fact, I probably should have said all religious dogma, since if something is objectively true it belongs in the realm of science and other forms of generally accepted knowledge, not the realm of religion. Now, in a reply to someone who commented on this tweet, Tyson clarified what he meant. He was asked, "What if your personal delusions don't deny what's…
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