Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

       This moving speech by Carl Sagan provides us with a cosmic perspective of ourselves within the vastness of the universe.

Accepting the Absurd

       Who knows the mind of God?
We often see religious individuals acting based on what they consider the word of God. This ‘word’ is interpreted very differently based on the group one is associated with.  Acting based on what one considers the word of God is a very powerful role to take on and it allows for tremendous good as well as harm. I believe that the virtues of love, compassion, and charity are found at the core of most religions but I do not see how these virtues are ordered from a transcendent entity and therefore divinely true. I take them as worldly truths but see no need to attribute them to godly truths unless used metaphorically. 
      
        I believe the topic of the divine is too subjective and transcendental to know which ideals are God given. Humanism does very well in advocating for moral action without God. Faith is an inner guidance that can lead to good in the world, as well as great harm. The difference between the two are the reference groups of religious socialization. I am an advocate for keeping the good religion and ditching the bad. Justification for what is the 'good' or 'bad' cannot be transcendent since it it non-falsifiable. My justification for what is 'good' is purely the down to earth nature of what promotes human suffering and what relieves it.  
       
        I view the existence of God as unknowable as well as the meaning of life. Human action should not be based on divine meaning since such meaning can not be acquired. I turn the the philosophy of Absurdism which states we can not know an ultimate meaning, therefore we should stop believing we can find one and start living our lives based on personal meanings.

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”  Albert Camus 

      Even if unknowable, personally find meaning in the spiritual search and therefore I have the motivation to contemplate and write about it. I believe there are great benefits in spiritual and contemplative practices, but one must always beware not to become the donkey chasing the carrot. Accept that the carrot is unreachable and focus on the here and now.

For more commentary on Absurdism visit: PhiloPsychoFreedom

Technorati Tags: Atheist,Absurdist,God,Philosophy

God Hates Haiti?

        With the recent horrible disaster in Haiti, some Christians feel it is the fault of the Haitian people for Practicing Voodoo. According to Lisa Miller at Newsweek, about half of Haitians practice Voodoo as a result of their African ancestry. The televangelist Pat Robertson, as well as a local priest in my area, and numerous others who hold fundamentalist beliefs maintain that the best explanation for this natural disaster is the sinful ways of the people themselves. This position is justified on the basis of the first commandment in the Bible. Pat Robertson claims:

“When the God of Israel thunders from his mountaintop that ‘you shall have no other gods before me,’ he means it. This God rains down disaster—floods and so forth—on those who disobey.

       This statement would have to conclude ‘God’ is vengeful and belligerent since the majority of those who died were Christian; many of them young children or infants. This gets to the heart of one of the bible’s most paradoxical assertions on the ‘nature of God’. If one accepts that God is omnipresent, all-powerful, and caring, it is imposable that any bad thing would happen to a good or innocent person. The only way to maintain a similar belief is to eliminate one of the three attributes and be left with a God that is:

Everywhere, Powerful, Does not care 
Not everywhere, Powerful, Does care 
Everywhere, Not powerful, Does care

This logic is found in the philosophical problem of evil when Epicurus States:

If a perfectly good god exists, then evil does not.
There is evil in the world.
Therefore, a perfectly good god does not exist.

       One must ask these questions before blindly accepting what some consider ‘the true nature of god’. In the face of such horrific disasters I am only reminded that the nature does not have a mind, bad things happen to good people in this chaotic world, and the only compelling case for God appears to be a deistic explanation (non-interventionist God). In times of hardship some people get angry at god; I get annoyed by those who believe there is a God to be angry with.

      With all this said, humans should not think they have figured out the true nature of God. Faith is the opposite of certainty, therefore if someone chooses to have faith, they must be willing to admit they are not certain. People like Pat Robertson need to stop pretending they know the divine reason why random events occur. Here’s a video on his claims, and the Haitian response:

       Here is a recent news update that further emphasizes how out of touch with reality religious groups can be:

Link: Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti

Technorati Tags: Haiti,Religion,Voodoo,Christianity,Philosophy

Missing The Point: Sign is Secondary

       Today I decided to give the Christian sermon radio another listen. Filled with heavily mystified teachings and fluff that seems to go on mainly for the sake of seeking donations, one may ask why I even bother listening in the first place. I listen because every now and then I find a rare diamond of insight amongst the fog of dogma.

         Today I was pleasantly suppressed to hear a preacher say exactly what I had been thinking, without any appeals to the supernatural. He addressed the disconnect between the symbol and the symbolized. Rather than being deluded by focusing on the reality of a religious tradition, he emphasized the importance of seeing the reality IN a tradition. He went on to explain how too many people take these teachings for face value and therefore interpret metaphorical lessons as literal occurrences. The story of the last supper is an example of an occurrence that if taken literally, a person must believe they are consuming the body and blood of Christ that is transformed from bread and wine into a divine substance. To believe this is to miss the point. The bread and wine may be sacred, but it is no more divine than it was before it was blessed. The communion represents the importance of community rather than the literal ingestion of Jesus as many Catholic practitioners still maintain. 

        This idea of the symbol can also be seen in the ‘divinity of the church’. Many people hold churches as necessary for mass since they believe the church is ‘Gods home’. I agree a church may be sacred, but just like the bread has not transformed into Jesus, the church no more divine than your own home. If this is the case, than why are masses carried our in churches rather than being broadcasted over television?  The answer is again in the importance of coming together. Communities coming together in one space for a common purpose allows individuals to feel a connection to something larger than ones self. In a highly individualized society where globalization and capitalist competition alienates us from a sense of community, church can serve as a sacred place of coming together. The ‘home of God’ does have a practical purpose if one looks past the literal translation of metaphysical terminology. Looking past the metaphor is emphasized quite very well in this Buddhist quote:

“All instruction is but a finger pointing to the moon; and those whose gaze is fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond. Even let him catch sight of the moon, and still he cannot see its beauty.”

         There is beauty in the breakdown of  literal translations.  Behind the thin shell of prose there is a vast poetic sea of meaning and emotion. Many Christian groups have become a gravy bowl of watered down teachings that are too stubborn to keep up with modern thought. Thinking about why you hold your beliefs is important. Thinking about what they mean is even more important. 

Missing the Point: Mystification

           Today I was listening to a Christian preacher on the radio and found myself agreeing with his sermon on the harms of living egocentrically. I realized his ideas were not strictly Christian, nor were they strictly religious. The themes he preached fit quite well with the spiritual teachings of  Eckhart Tolle, philosophies found in Buddhism, as well as with Psychoanalytic theories in Psychology. I was compelled to continue listening since his insights were practical and applicable to living well. This all quickly changed when the preacher started branding his ideas ‘Christian’ in the form of divine truth. To take ethical beliefs as God-given, and to live morally for the sake of worshiping a transcendental entity is to miss the point altogether.

           I believe we should take these concepts, that are often mistaken as mystical, and bring them down to a concrete level in order to see how they may operate in the everyday. This can be seen with the concept of Karma in Buddhism. Karma works on a action/ reaction basis rather than a mystical one. Karma 'energy' is not something transient, but rather the lens through witch one sees the world. This Lens affects ones emotions, which in turn affects their actions. These actions then affect how other people perceive the individual. A Cooley said; 'I am who I think you think I am', therefore, the self becomes created on this basis. This micro chain of action/ reaction works on a macro level and can be otherwise called the 'butterfly effect'.

          Many religious concepts that are thought to be 'mystical' can actually be perceived as down-to-earth insights we can all relate to. The mystification of morality occurs where there is literal interpretation of poetic writing.

Why ‘Atheist Spirituality’?

           I use the name ‘Atheist Spirituality’ since it fills the role of describing my beliefs accurately while providing well recognizable terms. Though, it is still insufficient since it uses the word 'atheist' which focuses on what one does not believe in. Rather than asserting ones lack of beliefs, a title that asserts ones beliefs would be more useful. Personally, 'Naturalistic pantheist' is the closest I can come to such a definition. If I were to use this title, many people would simply not understand what this blog is about at first glance since ‘naturalistic pantheism’ as a concept that is not widely known.
          
          Spiritual atheism does suffice, but the drawback is that labeling ones self according to ones lack of beliefs may be more useful if one takes a protest position. Rather than taking on the identity of a protester (paying more attention to the object of protest), I prefer to the focus on what I stand for: an open-minded approach to spirituality. Many people have other positive assertions of belief such as ethical freedom (Christopher Hitchens), science (Richard Dawkins), free will (Jean-Paul Sartre). Playing the protester and playing the advocate is a fine balance one must consider. 
        
           My approach to open-minded spirituality consists of contemplation in light of viewpoints within modern and post-modern philosophy. Philosophy is questions that may never be answered while religion is answers that may never be questioned. Such questions can only be pursued if one has a highly critical mind-filter while considering the validity of every position presented. When faced with religion, a fool merely accepts it, politicians abuse it, and the wise question it.

Follow your bliss with an open mind.

A Step in the Right Direction for Religion

The description of the book is as follows:

It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian

Millions of us look at religion and say, "No thanks, I’d rather be spiritual than religious." For those of us who feel like this, religion has been losing its credibility and relevance. But our departure from religion is simultaneously a departure from its rich treasures of spiritual practice, community, organized action, and hard lessons learned, often leaving us isolated, incoherent, and ill-equipped for our spiritual journeys. It’s Really All About God is a very personal story and a thrilling exploration of a redeeming, dynamic, and radically different way to hold one’s religion. Readers will deepen their religious identities while discovering God, goodness, and grace beyond their own religious boundaries.

What is Spirit?

  

         

          Spirituality is the life of the spirit. The spirit is not a thing, but a function. It is the act of thinking, willing, imagining, ect... Spirituality is living and experiencing as opposed to supernatural transcendence. It is not the metaphysical or transcendence of entities, but the absolute. The absolute refers to the everything in existence; supernatural creator entities can not be included since their existence suggests something beyond everything which leads to the question of who created the creator. The idea of the absolute in this way is seen in Epicurus's pan, Lucetius's summa summarum, and Spinoza's nature. The sum of all relations, conditions, and points of view is the absolute.

“ These are the fundamental concepts with which Spinoza sets forth a vision of Being, illuminated by his awareness of God. They may seem strange at first sight. To the question "What is?" he replies: "Substance, its attributes, and modes. ” — Karl Jaspers

        
        God is not in nature like water to a sponge, but rather IS nature; therefore, instead of using the word 'God', the word 'nature' is more suitable. Spirituality is immanence rather than transcendence. It can't be given, attained, or bought. It is not magic or god given, but rather, an inner experience. It is what the Jewish call would call 'the breath of life', what Christians would call being 'filled with spirit', and what Buddhists call 'being awake'. The purpose of a spiritual life is to lead followers down the path of intimacy and connectedness with the richness of ordinary life through a sense of connectedness with the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. It is our sense of at-one-ness with all that is.