Posted inScience

“It is what it is” actually is a profound scientific statement

As irritating as it can be to hear it is what it is uttered so often by athletes after a loss, I find this phrase appealing.  I described why in a blog post a few years back, "The profundity -- or not -- of 'it is what it is'." Me, I like the phrase's meaninglessness. Zenlike, it points to the this'ness of is'ness (a truth'ness that will make a lot more sense to you if you're stoned or drunk, which is the best state of mind to read Church of the Churchless blog posts like this). ...The author of the Slate…
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Posted inReligions

No U.S. President should attend prayer breakfasts

A few weeks ago I said that I agreed with Obama's statement at a prayer breakfast regarding wrongs being committed by adherents of all religious faiths. But a Salon article argues for a broader conclusion: no President should be attending prayer breakfasts, since this supports the ridiculousness of religion.  Check out "Faith-fueled forces of hatred: Obama's religion speech was troubling -- but not for the reasons the right alleges." What, some might ask, could be wrong with prayer? By common definition, prayer entails someone sitting for a quiet moment and beseeching his or her Lord for intervention in matters of…
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Posted inBooks Science Universe

Here’s a science book with a radical view of reality

Oh, man. I'm so glad I got pulled in by the Book Magnet.  That's how I explained my purchase of two thick, serious books to the cashier at the Book Bin in downtown Salem, Oregon. I'd parked my car in front of the bookstore, gone to my Tai Chi class, and was all set to drive home until, poised to unlock the car door... Go inside and check out the new books, the everpresent voice inside my head told me. Must obey, I happily told myself. "The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time" stared me in the face almost…
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Posted inReligions Science

Oregon should eliminate non-medical reasons for not vaccinating

People who irrationally fear vaccines shouldn't be allowed to opt out of vaccination laws for either philosophical or religious reasons. After all, a lot of scientific research shows that vaccines are safe and effective. Sure, there are some risks. But there are risks in everything, including wearing seat belts. Once in a while you hear of someone dying after being trapped in a burning car by his or her seatbelt. Seat belts save many more lives, though. Same is true about vaccines. There are occasional mostly minor side effects, yet clearly the benefits both to the individual and to society…
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Posted inBooks Morality

Ten modern atheist non-commandments

A few months ago I wrote about Lex Bayer's and John Figdor's atheist manifesto in "Halfway through 'Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart,' I love this book." Having finished it, here's their full list of ten non-commandments (I'd only gotten to six at the time of my first blog post). 1.  The world is real, and our desire to understand the world is the basis for belief.2.  We can perceive the world only through our human senses.3.  We use rational thought and language as tools for understanding the world.4.  All truth is proportional to the evidence.5.  There is no God.6.  We all…
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Posted inReligions Science

Dissolve life’s imaginary problems. Don’t try to solve them.

The best way to resolve a problem is to realize that it doesn't really exist. Poof! Gone. Problem isn't solved; it is dissolved.  More and more, I'm concluding that this is a big drawback with religions. They want us to believe in problems that aren't evident to a non-believer. Like: (1) How does one come to know God? (If God doesn't exist, this isn't a problem)(2) How can our sins be forgiven? (If sins are imaginary, this isn't a problem)(3) How can we be sure of going to heaven after we die? (If there is no heaven, or life after…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Science

“Boyhood” and big bang stir thoughts of religious ridiculousness

Last night I experienced an interesting juxtaposition of two disparate events: watching "Boyhood", via a Netflix DVD, and reading an article in the most recent issue of New Scientist, "Big bang discovery crumbles to dust." Both made me think about the ridiculousness of religion. In Boyhood -- a great movie, by the way -- there's a scene of a Christian minister doing his thing at a church service. He's preaching about the part in the Bible where Jesus asks Thomas to touch him after his resurrection. (This is where the term "doubting Thomas" comes from.) The preacher says that when…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Religions

Obama is right: religious believers of all faiths commit wrongs

Yesterday President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. Here's some of what he said -- the part that deeply irritated dogmatic Christians in this country. Now, over the last few months, we’ve seen a number of challenges -- certainly over the last six years.  But part of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we've seen professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also twisted and misused in the name of evil.  ...We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in…
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Posted inReality Religions

Humanism is way better than religion. Yet mystery remains.

On the whole, I'm pleased to call myself a humanist. As noted in this post about a humanist book, someone called me this during my sophomore year in college --  before I even knew what humanism was. This is one of the points made in an interesting You Tube video a regular Church of the Churchless visitor told me about today: "Christian man says humanists are debauched. Andrew Copson explains what Humanism is really all about."    If you're like me, you'll find the preachy Christian guy who speaks at the start of the video to be irritating. But here's…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

David Lane addresses the “guru question”

Wow, nice job, Dave.  David Lane, a.k.a. the Neural Surfer, responded to a questioning comment on one of my blog posts from "Appreciative Reader" by putting up a one page web site, The Guru Question. Give it a read. I found the page most interesting, especially the part where Lane says nice things about me and this blog. For some (obvious) reason I found this particularly persuasive.  Lane is a bit more positive about the India-based spiritual/religious organization we both have belonged to, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Which is led by a guru, Gurinder Singh. We do share skepticism…
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Posted inReligions Science

Everybody accepts the reality of inner experiences. But not of religion.

"Don't you believe in love?" Whenever I see a comment like this on one of my blog posts from a religious believer, I'm dumbfounded. it's a ridiculous thing to say. For one thing, I don't believe in love. I experience love. There's a big difference between believing and experiencing. Likewise, I don't believe in consciousness; I experience consciousness. Nor do I believe in life; I experience being alive.  Same is true for everybody. Atheists. Agnostics. Religious people. Scientists. Musicians. Farmers. Young. Old. Men. Women. Everybody.  The only way any one of us knows anything about reality is through experiencing. It's…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Sam Harris’ “Waking Up” video is well worth $4.99

I've read Sam Harris' book, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. I've written four blog posts about his book (see here, here, here, and here).  So when I learned that Harris was offering a $4.99 video -- an hour of him talking about the message of "Waking Up" plus an hour or so of audience Q&A -- I wondered if it was worth five bucks to me. Turns out, it was.  I came away with a deeper appreciation for Harris' central theme: the supernatural side of religions is bullshit, but a secular understanding of how human consciousness functions…
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Posted inReality Religions Science

Religion is a failed paradigm deserving of ridicule

Even after more than ten years of blogging on this here Church of the Churchless, I continue to be surprised by how often visitors to this site believe that religious belief shouldn't be subject to ridicule. Um, didn't they notice the word "churchless" in the blog name? Or the tag line, Preaching the gospel of spiritual independence? Today a comment interchange on a recent post pointed to this inability of true believers to recognize that their worldview lacks a solid foundation. Here's what "x," a religious skeptic, said: I don't preach anything...I just comment on preachiness...like yours. You think you're…
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Posted inBuddhism Taoism/Tai Chi Vedanta/Advaita

Why an experience of “pure consciousness” says little about reality

As I said in a previous post, I've dug David Loy's book, "Nonduality," out of a forgotten book bag and have gotten back to reading it after a several-year break.  A few days ago I read his chapter, The Mind-Space Analogy. Pretty damn brilliant. Of course, this book is based on Loy's philosophy doctoral dissertation, so I guess the brilliance isn't surprising. Below I've shared Loy's analogy in his own words, albeit condensed. I've left out F and G of his analogy, which are another form of Mahayana Buddhism and Theism.  As you'll see, what Loy has done is imagine…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Lia Purpura’s “Probability” poem

I came across a poem, "Probability," by Lisa Purpura in the January 19, 2015 issue of The New Yorker while reading in bed before I went to sleep. I read it four times that night. More, since.  I like it a lot. Not because I understand exactly what Purpura is trying to say. That's not how poetry works. Rather, it made me feel something about myself, and life, that rang true. Something about how I place myself at The Center of Reality, viewing events from this oh-so-privileged perspective.  The never-ending series of causes and effects that is this world comes…
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Posted inBooks

Cutting out the bullshit from “nonduality”

A few days ago I rediscovered a book that I'd starting reading a few years ago, David Loy's "Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy."   It's one of the few writings on the subject of nonduality that doesn't make me want to barf up the New Age pseudo-mystical crap that almost always infects this book genre. I talked about this in my first 2013 post about Loy's book, "Pink Panther and Alan Watts on nonduality." I'm reading a book about nonduality by David Loy that has a pleasingly appropriate title, "Nonduality." Loy is a Zen practitioner and a university professor. …
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Posted inReality

Is life absurd? Or maybe asking that question is.

For something completely different... and really well written... and either marvelously meaningful or completely meaningless... yet fun to read, nonetheless... Check out Rivka Weinberg's New York Times piece, "Why life is absurd."  I liked it a lot. While understanding it hardly at all. Which could be Weinberg's point. With modern philosophy, often it's hard to tell the difference between satire and seriousness. Here's a few excerpts to whet your reading appetite. In a famous 1971 paper, “The Absurd,” Thomas Nagel argues that life’s absurdity has nothing to do with its length. If a short life is absurd, he says, a…
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Posted inReligions

If a cartoon inflames religious passions, so what?

Over on my other blog today I put up a post, "Statesman Journal should put Mohammed cartoon on opinion page."  It irritated me that the editorial page editor of our local newspaper, which is part of the Gannett chain, said that he'd probably never publish a cartoon that included a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, because this is offensive to Muslims. Well, the cartoon above is the cover of the next issue of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French magazine that courageously is going to publish shortly after a dozen staffers were murdered by Islamic fundamentalists.  The caption at the top…
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Posted inComments

New Church of the Churchless comment policy

Time for an experiment with comments on my blog posts. I'm scientifically minded. I enjoy trying something different and seeing how it works out. Starting today, I'm going to be less accepting of publishing comments that include a lot of preachy religious dogma. Some people have been using comments on my "churchless" posts as an opportunity to share their irrelevant (to the post) religious beliefs.  They might make a passing brief reference to something I said in the post, then launch into a lengthy description of how great this-or-that religious belief system is. From now on, I'd like those commenters…
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Posted inReligions

Religious bias against gays is wrong, not religious

Like I've said before (quite a few times), and almost certainly will say again (after this time), religious beliefs shouldn't allow people to ignore laws. Where does this end, if we allow it to begin? Some Christian religious bigots believe homosexuality is a sin, so they refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple who want one for their wedding. Which, by the way, is completely legal in 36 out of 50 of these United States, where gay marriage is allowed. Yet as Frank Bruni says in his thoughtful New York Times piece, "Your God and My Dignity," this…
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