Posted inGod Religions

A must read for the churchless: “Faith No More”

Short. Sweet. Persuasive. There's a lot to like about a piece in the Milwaukee Magazine, "Faith No More," by Mario Quadracci. Download Faith No More PDF (in case the piece ever disappears from the magazine's web site) Quadracci nails a theme that I like to harp on also. It isn't up to atheists to prove that god and supernaturalism don't exist; it is up to theists to prove that god and supernaturalism do exist. He writes: I could try to convince you that we reside in a purely naturalistic universe. I could attempt to demonstrate the human authorship of all of…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

I don’t really know what “spiritual” means anymore

Recently I had an essay rejected by the Spiritual Naturalist Society because the powers-that-be there, where I've become a regular contributor (for now...), didn't think that being politically active, in the sense of being involved in public policy debates, was a "spiritual" practice. (See my post, Naturalism needs to rule public policy debates.) This got me to thinking, again, about what that problematic word, spiritual, means. Most people, along with the dictionary, consider that it mostly refers to something supernatural, other-worldly, divine.  But how does a naturalist, someone who only considers the material world to be real, differentiate between what…
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Posted inPolitics Reality

Naturalism needs to rule public policy debates

Below is an essay that I wrote for the Spiritual Naturalist Society (I'm a contributing writer), but which struck them as too political for their tastes -- politics and policy-making apparently not being part of what they consider to be a "spiritual practice."  So, boo-hoo, it was rejected for their site. I'm going to present some arguments to the Spiritual Naturalist Society folks about why no bounds should be placed around a naturalistic worldview. If there is no supernatural realm, it doesn't make sense to me to consider some aspects of a naturalistic person's life to be spiritual, and some…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

More quotations from “Nature’s God,” a marvelously insightful book

I can't describe how much I enjoyed reading Matthew Stewart's book, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic. It isn't the easiest book I've ever read, to put it mildly.  Stewart dives deep into historical and philosophical waters in the book's 435 pages. At times I wondered why he was paying so much attention to a certain subject. But by the end of "Nature's God" I understood, pretty much, how each chapter contributed to his literary goal. Which, basically, was to dispel the myth of the United States being founded as a Christian nation. Or more broadly, as a religious nation.…
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Posted inPolitics

America’s founders reasoned their way to a secular republic

How did the United States come to be the secular constitutional republic -- arguably also termed a democracy -- that it is now? Why aren't we ruled by a king or queen? Why aren't we a theocracy? I've vaguely been interested in these sorts of questions, but I'm not a big history buff. So reading Matthew Stewart's book, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, is pretty much my first serious venture into learning about my country's revolutionary origins. In my last post I shared a bunch of quotations from the book. Here I want to take a stab at relating…
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Posted inBooks Morality

Quotations from “Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic”

l am loving Matthew Stewart's brilliantly written book, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic. It demolishes the absurd oft-heard claims that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Yet it is difficult to summarize Stewart's arguments why this is untrue. "Nature's God," which I'm about 2/3 through, is a complex blend of history and philosophy. It isn't enough to simply say that this country was founded by deists, not theists.  Yes, this is true. But to understand the book's subtitle, "The Heretical Origins of the American Republic," not surprisingly requires Stewart to journey through a…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

30-plus days into Headspace meditation, I’m liking it a lot

A bit over a month ago I discovered Headspace, which was founded by Andy Puddicombe, a British guy who trained as a Buddhist monk before starting this online meditation site. My first free trial experience on July 7 led me to write "Yikes! I actually like a guided Headspace meditation." I'm not a big fan of guided meditations. Usually they irk more than relax me. I get annoyed with the (usually) New Age'y tone of the person doing the guiding. Hey, if anybody is going to annoy me while I meditate, I'm perfectly capable of filling that role myself. After about…
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Posted inReligions

1000 musical fans of Foo Fighters display religion-like devotion

I'm not a religious person. But I respond to emotional displays of devotion that have a sort of religious quality to them. Such as this wonderful video of a thousand musicians and singers assembling in an Italian field to play the Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" -- with the goal of getting the band to put on a concert in Cesena, Italy.   I was moved by the video. And I'm not even a fan of the Foo Fighters.  We humans are social animals. We enjoy getting together with other people and doing stuff. We also enjoy watching masses of…
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Posted inGod Reality

Aliens test the faith of Earth’s religious believers

So here's a thought experiment to ponder, religious believers... Aliens have come to Earth. They're from an advanced civilization in a galaxy far far away. Their spaceship is way beyond anything our scientists have even imagined.  Technologically, it's immediately apparent that we are as sophisticated in their eyes as a chimpanzee with a termite-removing twig is to us.  Fortunately, the aliens haven't come to destroy humanity. Well, let's rephrase that: they're fine with destroying us Homo sapiens one at a time. It's part of a game they like to play with denizens of the planets they visit. The rules are…
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Posted inReality

Boundless Existence is grander than anything, even a God

l enjoy marveling at a primal marvelousness: That the cosmos exists. Recently I wrote a piece for the Spiritual Naturalist Society about this -- "Wow! Existence has always existed." I boldfaced That because there's a unbridgeable gap between the What and That of existence. We can talk about What existent things are. It is impossible to talk about the That'ness of existence: That existence exists. Recently on a bookshelf I came across Milton Munitz' "Does Life Have a Meaning?", one of my favorite books. For the third time, I read it. Munitz  also was fascinated by the brute fact of existence. Being a Distinguished Professor of…
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Posted inMystics Radha Soami Satsang Beas

My response to someone’s mystical experience of “heaven”

Once in a while someone emails me a description of a marvelous mystical experience they've had. Usually the person is a devotee of the organization I belonged to for about 35 years -- Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). RSSB is led by a guru who is considered to be God in human form, in much the same way as Jesus is viewed by Christians. Except, the guru is alive. Once initiated by the guru, supposedly he places his "radiant form" within the disciple's consciousness.  Then the radiant form leads the mind/soul of the disciple through various higher stages of reality…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

How I deal with the fear of death and non-existence

Recently I got two email messages from someone who said he shared my fear of death and non-existence. The fearful feelings were bothering him. He felt like no one else understood what he was going through. He wondered if he was going crazy. He asked me how I dealt with this fear, and if I wanted to live forever. Here's the reply I sent to him tonight. Sorry for the delay in replying to you. Anyway…  Yes, I would like to live forever. And yes, I do think like you. I’ve had the same feelings as you — the fears…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

I have another mini not-really-mystical revelation

Might as well start off this post as I did a similarly-titled one back in 2014: Hey, when you're as churchless and unreligious as I am, you take your revelations in any form they might appear. So today, my mini (or micro) satori came unbidden while on a late afternoon dog walk. After canine companion Zu Zu and I had made our way across the creek, through the woods, and started to circle the path around our community lake, I suddenly had a Wow! feeling while we were walking on dry cut grass. Naturally I had to document the outwardness…
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Posted inMystics Spiritual practice/meditation

Alan Watts talks about the source of spiritual authority

Over on my "Let's add a new L-word to 'Who is the guru?' possibilities" post, William left a comment today: Hi BrianI was listening to a talk on the topic of What is a Guru? by Alan Watts. You may well find it interesting. Here's the link that will bring you to the pertinent part of that talk. https://youtu.be/sAq2NY0Tjf8?t=1m54s Since I enjoy reading Watts' books, saw him speak in person back in the 1960's, and like his audio recordings, I watched about half of the You Tube video today. Here's the link William sent, which starts at about the two minute…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Check out On Being — a website, radio program, and more

Driving around today, satellite channel surfing, I clicked on NPR (National Public Radio) and came across On Being. On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener.  On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact. …
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

My new Spiritual Naturalist Society essay: “Marijuana is my secular sacrament”

The third essay that I've written for the Spiritual Naturalist Society is about a subject of considerable interest not only to me, but also to just about everybody in Oregon, where I live, since on July 1 of this year it became legal to grow, use, and possess marijuana. In "Marijuana is my secular sacrament" I argue that cannabis produces an experience of less-self, or even non-self, that is a genuine spiritual experience -- using that word, spiritual, in a decidedly non-supernatural sense. You can either read the essay over on the Spiritual Naturalist Society site, or right here. In…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Me and Tai Chi — eight blog posts about “Taoism in motion”

Today a friend expressed some interest in Tai Chi, so I sent him info about where I've been taking classes for the past eleven years.  I included links to eight blog posts I've written about Tai Chi. After finding them via a Google search, I thought (not surprisingly), Hey, these are really interesting! I'd forgotten about most of them and was pleased to be reacquainted with my own creations.  Tai Chi is an intriguing blend of Taoist philosophy and martial arts practicality. The posts cover both bases, and then some. I've shared an excerpt from each. ------------------------- Ten reasons for guys…
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Posted inMorality

What if…? (questions for religious believers)

Believers in God deserve to have the What if...? gambit turned back upon them. They enjoy telling atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers in a supernatural divinity that nasty things await them -- hell, for instance. Failing to accept the reality of a world beyond this one supposedly leads to undesirable consequences (in this life and an imagined next one). But what if the atheists are right and believers are wrong? This is extremely likely, as I noted in last year's "Religious believers, what if you're wrong?" That post includes some quotes from a book by James Lindsay, "God Doesn't; We…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Yikes! I actually like a guided Headspace meditation

I'm not a big fan of guided meditations. Usually they irk more than relax me. I get annoyed with the (usually) New Age'y tone of the person doing the guiding. Hey, if anybody is going to annoy me while I meditate, I'm perfectly capable of filling that role myself. After about 45 years of daily meditation, that's one thing I've learned from contemplating the workings of my mind. (Maybe the only thing... but at least that's one thing.) A few minutes ago, though, I actually enjoyed a ten minute guided meditation. Listening on my laptop while sitting outside on our…
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