Mulling Matters

Nick Lowe-Cruel To Be Kind -1979 #155.TOTPs70s

2011-02-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

2011-01-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

Karen Armstrong on religions and compassion

The Second Amendment, the NRA and the Propensity for Violence

2011-01-10T09:23:00.001-08:00

My father was a lifetime member of the NRA, which means we got, each month, the subscriber magazine, The American Rifleman. We also had the NRA decal on dad's Oldsmobile Delta 88, of which he was clearly proud. This was during the late sixties and early seventies, the Vietnam War era. We lived on Maryland's Eastern Shore, still a rural outpost, but the suburbs are encroaching as I type.

Dad was big into the hunting culture then, executed trips to dispatch game. Once he went after elk in upstate New York. Deer and geese were too simple to bag, but were certainly vulnerable on Maryland's Eastern Shore. They still are. Some call this "thing the herd." Dad did bring home what he shot, dressed and ready for the freezer, where those weird dated packages resided.

During the hunting off-seasons dad even made his own bullets. It was curious to me as a boy. Sure seemed like toys, but I never went beyond gazing at dad's gun collections and paraphenalia. I did make him a gun rack in shop once. He approved, hung it on the wall in the den, put a few weapons on it. But what were all those scopes, cartridges, and rifle and shotguns for? I knew. We didn't share a love of guns or hunting. Never knew what dad thought of his youngest son. He died when I was seventeen, in 1973.

The Struggle

2010-09-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart."
ALBERT CAMUS

God and Evolution

2010-09-12T10:02:00.001-07:00

Matt Ridley. "When Ideas Have Sex"

2010-09-11T04:29:00.001-07:00

This explains everything

2010-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR 9/5/10 11:59 AM
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196&sc=nl&cc=es-20100905 Page 1 of 9

Whether it's a dead

ancestor or God,

whatever supernatural

agent it is, if you think

they're watching you,

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?

by ALIX SPIEGEL

August 30, 2010

Jesse Bering's mother died of cancer on a Sunday, in her own bed, at 9 o'clock at night. Bering

and his siblings closed her door and went downstairs, hoping they might somehow get some sleep.

It was a long, hard night, but around 7 a.m., something happened: The wind chimes outside his

mother's window started to chime.

Bering remembers waking to the tinkle of these bells, a small but distinct sound in an otherwise

silent house. And he remembers thinking that those bells carried a very specific message.

"It seemed to me ... that she was somehow telling us that she had made it to the other side. You

know, cleared customs in heaven," Bering says.

The thought surprised him. Bering was a confirmed atheist. He did not believe in any kind of

supernatural anything. He prided himself on being a scientist, a psychologist who believed only in

the measurable material world. But, he says, he simply couldn't help himself.

"My mind went there. It leapt there," Bering says. "And from a psychological perspective, this was

really interesting to me. Because I didn't believe it on the one hand, but on the other hand I

experienced it."

Why is it, Bering wondered, that even a determined skeptic could not stop himself from perceiving

the supernatural? It really bothered him.

It was a very good question, he decided, to take up in his lab.

God, Through The Lens Of Evolution

For decades, the intellectual descendants of Darwin have pored over ancient bones and bits of

fossils, trying to piece together how fish evolved into man, theorizing about the evolutionary

advantage conferred by each physical change. And over the past 10 years, a small group of

academics have begun to look at religion in the same way: they've started to look at God and the

supernatural through the lens of evolution.

In the history of the world, every culture in every location

at every point in time has developed some supernatural

belief system. And when a human behavior is so

universal, scientists often argue that it must be an

evolutionary adaptation along the lines of standing

upright. That is, something so helpful that the people

who had it thrived, and the people who didn't slowly died

out until we were all left with the trait. But what could be

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR 9/5/10 11:59 AM

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196&sc=nl&cc=es-20100905 Page 2 of 9

they're watching you,

your behavior is going to

be affected.

- Jesse Bering, psychologist,

Queens University, Belfast

Deities From Around The World

the evolutionary advantage of believing in God?

Bering is one of the academics who are trying to figure

that out. In the years since his mother's death, Bering

has done experiments in his lab at Queens University,

Belfast, in an attempt to understand how belief in the

supernatural might have conferred some advantage and

made us into the species we are today.

In one experiment, children between the ages of 5 and 9 were shown to a room and told to throw a

Velcro ball at a Velcro dartboard. They were told that if they were able to hit the bull's-eye, they'd

get a special prize. But this particular game had an unusual set of rules: The children were told

that they had to throw from behind, they weren't allowed to throw the ball while facing the

dartboard, and they had to use their nondominant hand — rules that basically made it impossible

for any of the children to win the game unless they cheated.

The children in the study were divided into three groups. The first group was left alone and told to

play the game as best they could. The second were told the same, with one difference — the

children in the second group were told that there was someone special who was going to watch

them. The experimenters showed the kids a picture of a very pretty woman — a character that

Bering had made up whose name was Princess Alice.

Princess Alice, the kids were told, had a magical power: Alice could make herself invisible. Then

the children were shown a chair and were told that Alice was sitting in the chair and that Alice

would watch them play the game after the researcher left. The third group of kids was told to play

the game, but the researcher sat with them and simply never left the room at all.

The question that Bering sought to answer was this: Which group of children was least likely to

cheat?

The children in the first group — the completely unsupervised kids — by far cheated the most. But

what was surprising was the behavior of the second group.

The children who were under the impression that Princess Alice was in the room with them were

just as likely to refrain from cheating as those children who were actually in the room with a

physical real-life human being. A similar study Bering did with adults showed the same thing —

that they were dramatically less likely to cheat when they thought they were being observed by a

supernatural presence.

A Change In Behavior

Bering has a credo, a truth he says he's

learned after years of studying this stuff.

"I've always said that I don't believe in God, but

I don't really believe in atheists either," Bering

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR 9/5/10 11:59 AM

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196&sc=nl&cc=es-20100905 Page 3 of 9

Through the lens of

evolution, a belief in God

serves a very important

purpose: Religious belief

set us on the path to

modern life by stopping

cheaters and promoting

the social good.

says. "Everybody experiences the illusion that

God — or some type of supernatural agent —

is watching them or is concerned about what

they do in their sort of private everyday moral

lives."

These supernatural agents, Bering adds, might

have very different names. What some call

God, others call Karma. There are literally

thousands of names, but according to Bering

they all have the same effect.

"Whether it's a dead ancestor or God, whatever supernatural agent it is, if you think they're

watching you, your behavior is going to be affected," he says.

In fact, Bering says that believing that supernatural beings are watching you is so basic to being

human that even committed atheists regularly have moments where their minds turn in a

supernatural direction, as his did in the wake of his mother's death.

"They experience it but they reject it," Bering says. "Sort of override or stomp on their immediate

intuition. But that's not to say that they don't experience it. We all have the same basic brain. And

our brains have evolved to work in a particular way."

Why would the human brain have evolved to work in that

way?

For Bering, and some of his friends, the answer to that

question has everything to do with what he discovered in

his lab — the way the kids and adults stopped cheating

as soon as they thought a supernatural being might be

watching them. Through the lens of evolution then, a

belief in God serves a very important purpose: Religious

belief set us on the path to modern life by stopping

cheaters and promoting the social good.

God And Social Cooperation

Dominic Johnson is a professor at the University of

Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and another one of the

leaders in this field. And to Johnson, before you can

understand the role religion and the supernatural might have played in making us the people we

are today, you really have to appreciate just how improbable our modern lives are.

Today we live in a world where perfect strangers are incredibly nice to each other on a regular

basis. All day long, strangers open doors for each other, repair each other's bodies and cars and

washing machines. They swap money for food and food for money. In short: they cooperate.

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR 9/5/10 11:59 AM

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196&sc=nl&cc=es-20100905 Page 4 of 9

Everywhere you look

around the world, you

find examples of people

altering their behavior

because of concerns for

supernatural

consequences of their

actions. They don't do

things that they consider

bad because they think

they'll be punished for it.

- Dominic Johnson, professor,

University of Edinburgh

This cooperation makes all kinds of things

possible, of course. Because we can cooperate,

we can build sophisticated machines and create

whole cities — communities that require huge

amounts of coordination. We can do things that

no individual or small group could do.

The question is: How did we get to be so

cooperative? For academics like Johnson, this

is a profound puzzle.

"Explaining cooperation is a huge cottage

industry," Johnson says. "It dominates the

pages of top journals in science and economics

and psychology. You would think that it was

very simple, but in fact from a scientific

academic point of view, it just often doesn't make sense."

It doesn't make sense because there's often tension between the interests of the group and the

interests of the individual. Johnson gives an example. Recently he was on the subway in New York

and as he was going through the turnstile a little child ran in with him and got through the barrier.

He got onto the subway without ever paying.

"Now we only have the Metro if everyone pays," Johnson

says. "But there's an advantage for everyone if they don't

have to pay themselves."

And what's true of the subway is true of everything.

Why fight in a war, risk your own death, if someone else

will fight it for you? Why pay taxes? Why reduce your

carbon footprint?

These all have clear costs, and from an individual

perspective, you and your offspring are much more likely

to thrive if you don't get killed in a war or pay your taxes

— if you behave like the child in the subway.

The problem is that even a relatively small number of

people who choose to behave like the child can affect

the functioning of the whole.

"Even a few cheats undermine cooperation," Johnson

says, because once people realize that they are paying

for the same thing others are enjoying free, they become

So many choices to become distracted

2010-08-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by R. Crumb

2010-08-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by R. Crumb

When is the last time you read Genesis? Bible School? Sunday School, Synagogue, Schul?

R. Crumb has produced a graphic masterpiece for our times:

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Genesis-Illustrated-R-Crumb/dp/0393061027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283012710&sr=8-1

After all, it is the foundation story (or myth) for Western cultures. You know, "In the beginning..." that sort of thing.

In re-reading Genesis one is struck by the utter ridiculous nature of the story. "And darkness covered the earth..."
Yeah, until the sun rose on half the planet.

But this epochal creation story is maybe 4000 years old now. It is so laughably preposterous:

God is lonely, god gets angry, god changes his mind, god smites heathens, chooses one tribe over many and "anoints" them for, let's get real, perdition.

He orders circumcision for all males under 12, baby boys at eight days from birth. Let’s get tribal.

And then god writes a covenant with his finger in stone, the Ten Commandments, which are actually fourteen to sixteen, but who's counting.

I swear, I'm not making this stuff up.

28 August 2010
Philip Fryer

Leon Trotsky

2010-08-28T05:06:00.000-07:00

Leon Trotsky in Turkish exile

Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"

2010-08-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"

Reality

2010-07-31T03:09:00.000-07:00

"Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it."

ANDRÉ GIDE

E.M. Forster quote from "Howard's End"

2010-07-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."

Mental rubbish

2010-07-27T03:04:00.001-07:00

"In Buddhism, the ideas of soul, immortality, and the pairs of opposites such as good and evil, or life and death, are examples of mental dust catchers. Any fixed idea that has not been moved around for a long time creates a place where illusion can breed. A fixed idea is like a stove, or a refrigerator, or a bookcase. Underneath and behind fixed ideas are hiding places that can collect all sorts of mental rubbish."

MARIAN MOUNTAIN

Humor for all

2010-07-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

I've left no one untouched!!!

Moderation and Aristotle

2010-07-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

http://changingminds.org/explanations/values/aristotle_ethics.htm

Aristotle's Ethics

Explanations > Values > Aristotle's Ethics

Aristotle made note (and Plato agreed) that moral virtue is about the
exercise of control over natural feelings, and that good values is
indicated through the use of good judgment in finding an effective
balance between extremes. Aristotle thus had a personal value of
moderation.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, he gave examples:

VICE (Defect)VIRTUE (Mean)VICE (Excess)Cowardice (too little confidence)CourageRashness (too much confidence)
Foolhardiness (too little fear)CourageCowardice (too much fear)
Insensibility (too little pleasure)TemperanceSelf-indulgence (too
much pleasure)Meanness or Stinginess (too little giving)Liberality
Prodigality or Wastefulness (too much giving)Niggardliness (in giving
out large sums of money)MagnificenceTastlessness and Vulgarity
(giving out large sums)Undue Humility (too little honor)Proper Pride
Empty Vanity (too much honor)Inirascibility (too little anger)
Good TemperIrascible (too much anger)Shamelessness (too little shame)Modesty Bashfulness (too much shame) Surliness
FriendlinessFlattery

So what?

If you want to be like Aristotle, be moderate. More generally, moderation is a pretty good guide to acceptable behavior.

See also

Nicomachean Ethics

What Was It This Morning?

2010-07-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

What Was It This Morning?

“Life is what one wants in one’s soul.”

- D. H. Lawrence

Spring is the season of profligate promise. The song birds; cardinals, robins, jays, sparrows (and who knows who else) were all voicing their cacophony. It was very nice, actually, and in early May in Maryland, the songbirds are as necessary as rain, which might just happen this day or next.

I read today that it is an old tradition in Asia to add a year to a person's "calendar" age to reflect the reality that they were around for approximately nine months before birth. It makes sense. Of course, they may use the lunar calendar as well, so by my reckoning, I am now fifty-two and nine months. I prefer to mark days, however, so I am 18,780 days old from conception to now.

This was just a normal work day, nothing special. I woke, used the bathroom, made and ate breakfast, went out the door to my car to work. All this was solo accomplishment. So why did I stop at a traffic light and glance an orange school bus to my left? I think it was because one little boy was looking down at me and shyly smiling. The bus lettering read “Karate Academy”, and a number of other children glanced my way since I waved. A few waved back furtively, wondering if they should wave to strange men. The little boy might have noticed my forearm crutch on the back seat. It was only a moment.

I imagined the kids going to a meet or an exhibition, but it was only 8:20 in the morning, and what kind of academic school was that anyway?

Suddenly the air was electric. It was rush hour but traffic was moving. I was not late, for once, and the CD player was in the middle of Kim Edwards’ “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter." It was clearly better than NPR and the horrific Iraqi War news, five years running. If only Bush had a child in Iraq – the war would have been over in a week following enlistment.

Which leads me, inexorably, to organized religion and all manner of sky gods’ worship, and in particular, to Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the golden tablets. It is not more insane that the revelations of Gabriel to Mohammed, the stone carved Ten Commandments, the gospels of Jesus Christ, or the books of Moses. It is even not more insane than beliefs in the teachings and followers of Zoroaster, Huitzilopochtli, Odin or Zeus, but it is also not less insane. Notice some of our gods are dead, and none of them pertain to life forms on Mars, or unknown planets with their own life forms.

The Mormons (Later Day Saints of Jesus Christ) and Joseph Smith are special to us, however, because their religion is home grown in the United States of America and still alive. The Branch Dravidians and David Koresh were home grown too, as was Jim Jones’ Peoples’ Temple group. All of these charismatic male leaders are now dead.

The shy boy on the bus, however, is not.

Philip Fryer

May 2007

"Zeitgeist, the Movie"

2010-07-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

"What Was It This Morning?"

2010-07-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

What Was It This Morning?

“Life is what one wants in one’s soul.”

- D. H. Lawrence

I imagined the kids going to a meet or an exhibition, but it was only 8:20 in the morning, and what kind of academic school was that anyway?

The shy boy on the bus, however, is not.

Philip Fryer

May 2007

War's idiocy

2010-06-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

To answer:

I think it's Obama's stupid male ego, thinking war a matter of winning or losing. There are NO applicable lessons from sports and NO umpires. Everyone loses in war and Bush I (Persian Gulf war) Clinton (Bosnia and Somalia) Bush II (Iraq war) and now Obama (Afghanistan war) don't see the stupidity of an invading war. And that's just the last twenty years!

Cynically I believe they are merely tamping-out fires and hot spots by shedding soldiers' lves and national treasuries. The 21st century will not be the "triumph" of the McChrystal and Petraeus waging war solutions. This is all the generals know, all they are trained to know. Break out of the box! We so need a fundamental paradigm shift in intractable problem thinking and leadership NOW. Crazy leaders in North Korea and Iran have no solutions either, and we ALL see that, just not our own stupidity.

Russia was idiotic too, and before them the British (et al) in Afghanistan. No lessons there. The "graveyard of empires" indeed. Even more so this idea of settling disputes between peoples (or nations if that includes these tribal regions) by war. The next "defeated" generation will wage the next retaliation war. Think the 20th century and Germany, Russia (Soviet Union) and China. Madmen leaders indeed.

Only Japan seems to have learned from the 20th century's bloodbath, maybe from their Shinto and Buddhist underpinnings? Maybe from the horror of the American atomic war and staring in the abyss of species' destruction? Or maybe they are merely reloading?

Certainly Christianity and Islam have ZERO answers to provide us - they both believe in their crazy "end of days" stories! Have you ever read Revelations? Madness is only provided from madmen prophets. Nietzsche understood this better than most. Unbelievable. Women help us. Yin and yang have been out of balance for too long. As if god was the final umpire, saying "you're out!" while we cook the planet.

Okay, we have a structure in place for settling disputes between nations, such as it is, the United Nations. The world uses it to keep tamping-out the hotspots. It could be so much more, but we are still stuck in last century's nations paradigm.

Maybe we need to think and act as if there were no nations. No more regional, ethnic or religious concerns, but instead entire global pressing issues. Doesn't our environment cry out for this new thinking?

I'll keep trying to change minds in the White House. Wish me luck.

St. Ann's Bay, Cape Breton

2010-06-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Cape Breton Bound

2010-06-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

So true

2010-06-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

"What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner."

COLETTE

Really, it's all about a cup of tea

2010-06-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

The Book of Tea"If you’re born clumsy it’s not bad. If you’re born clever it’s not good. The proper way to serve tea is to find your own way."

ZEN SAYING

2010-06-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Lady Gaga as librarian

2010-06-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Einstein's brain examined

Think about it -

2010-05-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

"I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preacher."

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

2010-05-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Mark Fiore knows

2010-05-25T04:25:00.000-07:00

The Dalai Lama wishes for mutual respect by all organized religions. Seems naive to me. Love and hatred are yin and yang; flip sides of the same crazy Wishes and dreamspop song.

Julia Sweeney on "Letting Go of God"

2010-05-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

Letting Go of God

Julia Sweeney knows

2010-05-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

The talk

Fourth Patriarch of Zen, Tao-shin

2010-05-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

Daily Zen

Burn baby burn

2010-05-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself."

SHUNRYU SUZUKI

Meditation, Appetite and Moderation

2010-05-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Meditation, Appetite and Moderation

"Entering the forest without

moving the grass;

Entering the water without

raising a ripple."

ZEN SAYING

When one sits on one's zafu and zabuton on a clear morning, the last thing one should notice is the swelling of the next door breast, the fetching curve of the backside beside yours, or the delightful taper of the ankle with bracelet and heart rose tattoo tucked just within but out of reach.

There are animal scents lurking, pheromones cascading throughout the hall.

The next thing to ignore is your rumbling, gurgling, empty tummy, and your hope that the noise is less disconcerting to others than it is to you. When will your next meal be, or is it another, wretched fasting day?

Appetite is a necessary curse. We would despair with its passing, but not this morning.

But look, there are fresh flower cuttings on the Buddha's alter, the familiar, sandalwood incense wafting in the zendo, and nearby a small, lit candle. All is as it should be but for desire.

How does one remain clear and focused on nothing? In the absence of lust how does one find one's purpose, let alone meaning?

We could lower our gazes, even lightly close our eyes. We could but what would we miss?

Ah damn, it hasn't even been a minute yet!

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

Fun interpretation!

2010-05-09T05:01:00.000-07:00

"Jesus' Twin: Philip Pullman Takes On The Gospel"

religion, 9/11 and yoga

2010-05-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

Good morning,

And happy Mother's Day! There's a change in the weather. Good.

All religion is about the elaborate fear of death. Well, I get that. I like continuance myself. So build the rococo structure of organized religion as high as the Tower of Babel itself (recently in Dubai) and it is all just a house of cards, liable for toppling at any moment, Allah whoever be praised, inshallah whatever.

But you got to like a group that refers to itself as the "Friends". After 9/11 the Friends' School in Baltimore gathered all their kiddies together in their "Meeting House" and just let them express their fears, and then lapse into silence (their normal mode) till the parents came to pick-up their charges. I know, my best friend and her attending son told me.

In the small world of Baltimore we almost used this same Meeting House (on N. Charles) to practice yoga but settled on the Govans' Presbyterian Church's meeting hall for a bit till relocating to the current location in Towson, at TU's Newman Center's cottage.

Just can't avoid organized religions' places, y'know?

The Jesus Effect - an insight

2010-05-02T05:26:00.001-07:00

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126224885&sc=nl&cc=es-20100502

http://atheism.about.com/od/biblegospelofmark/a/mark06d.htm

Conversations with History: Howard Zinn

2010-05-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

2010-04-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

The Very Air That We Breathe

2010-04-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Very Air That We Breathe

As you know I've thought long about this topic, and much of this thinking does not pertain to any high school debate. But since you asked yesterday -

The history of this nation is war after war. Hope I don't have to argue that point. I feel it is so unfortunate that the original colonies chose this path of disagreement with Britain. It is important to understand that this was our future nation's choice. The Canadian provinces chose a radically different path that did not result in revolution. It is not in the Canadian "air", but is the very "air" that we breathe as Americans.

It is also more than ironic that the so called "tea party" movement today references the historical event of dumping tea into Boston's harbor as a prelude to revolutionary war.

At that time the American colonies chaffed under British tariffs, feeling them exorbitant and they were increasing, not only for tea. The Brits felt their protection well worth the tariffs.

Writers and political thinkers of that era stirred the pot of revolution, much of it derived from French thought (Rousseau's (1712 – 1778) and his writing was well known to American intellectuals.

The French Revolution (1789–1799) followed the American revolution. That's important to keep in mind.

So whether the American Revolution was justifiable or not, it WAS our choice. This nation was born of war as THE ultimate problem solver.

Moving far ahead to the decision to drop atomic bombs (on mainly civilian targets) in Japan in the summer of 1945, it was almost inevitable that this war culture nation would have chosen this "solution" to end WWII. We have NO tradition of reconciliation without armed conflict. Think about that. Only the 60's civil rights movement stands apart in the U.S.A. as an example of major societal change here without war. It was, in the main, non-violent, inspired by Gandhi and perfected by M.L.K., Jr. Notice too that many Americans still hate and distrust this "forced" change without war. After all, the Civil War did not solve the racist problem here. It still lingers. Think again about the recent "tea party" movement, that is 95% Caucasian.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/233331

Would we have dropped these bombs in Europe? No way. They were too much like us, not Asian, or the definable other. Would we have dropped atomic bombs on African nations? What do you think?

Well, I think we were astonished and frightened by the destruction unleashed by these weapons of mass destruction. This is OUR nation's legacy, none others. Never used again since 1945. 65 years of being scared shitless by atomic (now nuclear) weapons.

Will crazy religious jihadists procure dirty nuclear devices and fulfill god's will for the heathen infidels?

We've got a lot of nerve even asking the question, but hope others don't follow our lead.

The text itself

2010-04-27T04:31:00.000-07:00

Godless

Preface.

In the spirit of the late great Eric Hoffer, much of the following is aphoristic. Hopefully it is also nuanced and not redundant.

The God of Mars

Did beings once worship on the Red Planet?

Who were they anyway?

Martian gods in Martian images?

Earth will lose its fragile ecosystem too one day.

We will muck it all to hell.

Is there still life on Mars?

Did their gods benignly watch

As their planet became uninhabitable?

Subterranean water may still flow.

"Primitive" life as algae may even still exist.

And so?

Our Earth has a "space" probe, hurtling there as I type.

And yet our demise is sadly assured.

But I don't think their gods are watching.

Those gods of war have won.

Things Catholic

As in Roman Catholic. 2000+ years of a mistake. The New Testament does not recommend an all male and celibate priesthood. Far from it. St. Paul even counseled to "better marry than burn" with desire. The Christian Orthodox clergy have always married, although it is not required.

Most humans live with lust during our mature decades. Not all but many.

The great worry regards celibacy and childhood and the assault on innocence. Is it too close proximity to purity? How could a priest choose sex with a child and live with himself? Maybe the "confessional" has its roots just there.

Insight

Your life sounds busy now. "Family and personal choice time" are both important. An insight from years ago and other over-busy friends: we make our choices, busy or not, and they are OUR choices, so complaining is complaining about ourselves. Given that, why do we make these choices?

What I Believe, and Why

One day Chao-chou fell down in the snow, and called out, “Help me up! Help me up!” A monk came and lay down beside him. Chao-chou got up and went away.

ZEN KOAN

What I believe is precious little, in fact. Well, I believe I will die one day. You too. Assuming you. I also believe I am here now, although I am dubious about the "I" bit, less so about the here and now. Let's say there are six billion concurrent human lives on the planet, if most of us believe, like deluded Rene Descartes, that their own "I" is unique, then it is not wholly rational to posit our uniqueness. Six billion unique humans. I mean, really? I see more in common. Like bees. And don't get me started on the chimera of the "soul". Empirical evidence displays several, incontrovertible, shared characteristics:

We are born
We live and grow from infant to adult
Many of us produce progeny in our mature years
Other life forms share our planet, living the same mortal arc of existence
All of us will die, none will escape
Earth's natural resources are finite and yet regenerating
Our planet too has a lifetime, fortunately longer than ours
Other lives existed prior to ours and other lives will likely exist after our demises
Death is the great drama of existence, and we will all be surprised one day

What is the evidence for our uniqueness? That we are sentient, albeit mortal beings? That many of us cling to beliefs in our special status? That many of us wish for a controlling force in the universe? Whatever, but I am not convinced. So let me re-phrase my belief: life and death occur without my willingness in the matter. I opened my eyes once to life, I will close my eyes once to death.

Observations

In seeing commonalities in existence we can readily deduce that many humans believe in deities, angels, demons and some imposed (or discovered) plan in the universe. The ratio of American believers is about two out of three. And yet history and archaeology demonstrate that many have lived and died with their own unique beliefs intact. This does not make their beliefs more or less "true", however, in any mutually accepted sense of verifiability. We also know that gods and their attendant hosts of spirits are born, live for a time and, well, die. Zeus, Isis, Thor and Odin have few followers today, but this does not mean that their former followers were less convinced of their reality, or their prayers and offerings insincere. It would be foolish to believe otherwise. We do not have the luxury of foolishness, except on the matter of particular extrapolation: if one believes the moon is made of green cheese, your belief does no harm unless (and until) your belief convinces enough tax payers to foot the bill for a lunar expedition to verify or disprove your belief. Remember Kant's "Categorical Imperative". I for one will refuse to pay, unless compelled by society to contribute to that foolishness. Sort of like tax dollars to kill folks I do not know. We'll get to war in a bit.

We are a hopelessly (and helplessly) social animal until our uniqueness is proven. But it won't be. In the main we all live in societies with accepted rules of conduct. A very few live in caves, after all. We tend to tolerate diversity until it threatens our existence, at which time we seek to suppress (or eliminate) difference. War has been our recently accepted mode of societal control for ten thousand years of recorded history. That is a blip of time on this planet for our species. We still continue this lunacy of war, which never solves problems, but to bequeath them to future generations. Did I mention we are creatures of habit? I'm hoping we make progress on this matter, possibly learn habits of peace, for continuance's sake.

Fear

We fear those deemed to be "the other", and seek to retard the influence of those others. We have used, in our recorded past of ten thousand years, these factors of discrimination:

location
ethnicity
religion
race

We see defining characteristics of the other, and seek (or have sought):

domination
enslavement
eradication

This is to thereby lessen the effects of the other on us. A few of us are also seduced by the other and mate with them, producing progeny, and another category of human being: neither them, nor us, but our mongrel selves.

Profundity

A profound and deep question that deserves time for pondering: Do we have the species' ability to not participate in our own destruction? Looking at history, the answer is a resounding, "no." Think of Easter Island, as Jared Diamond reminds us. Just stone statues remain. Will we also destroy the flora and fauna that share the concurrent planet with us? Many, but not all. As Jonathan Schell once reminded us in The Fate of the Earth, there will remain insects and grasses, no matter what we do.

Consolation

We cannot, ultimately, do anything unnatural, since we are one other evolved species on planet Earth, neither more nor less. We don't live on, for example, Mars. We are doing just what we can accomplish. Finally, it doesn't really matter if we believe or not. I find that consoling. Some may think it nihilism. Wrong again. Et tu brute.

My Seminal Theory

My theory/insight about knee jerk conservatives, including Edmund Burke, Clarence Thomas AND John Roberts is their ignoble fear of the

future. They are afraid of mortality and death. They so want to hold onto what they know and love, as if they're grasping the slipping

hand of a love one who is drowning in a flood. Life requires courage for the future, not irrational fear based on a known past.

We will ALL die despite fear or courage, faith or scepticism.

Organized religion supports this fear by its fantasy of another, better life for believers and damnation and suffering for unbelievers. Disgusting on both counts.

Keeping the Lie Alive

[an exercise in meaningful alliteration]

The entire edifice could crumple

Without constant caring work

Scholars, clergy and believers

Would be lost without faith.

Just Wake Up

Sometimes I really want to snap my fingers in front of the Pope, the Ayatollah, the head rabbi ( whoever that is) and say, "wake up and stop this nonsense!"

Not one of you has anything but crazy faith and all your trappings of services, vestments, incense, chants, architecture, buildings and attendants don't make anything so beyond doubt, let alone real or true.

It is historically true that human animals need nurturing from mothers from infancy forward, protection from fathers, and the whole tribal apparatus which supports leaders in social structures. It is no great leap to deities and priests, gurus, rabbis and imams.

But come on, this doesn't make anything true from faith, and the whole structure is an elaborate house of cards, liable to toppling at any moment. A few do topple the ruse, most don't. Many vested religious folk just keep building it up. Amen, amen, again and again.

Therefore the rococo edifice of organized religion constantly reinforces the structure of belief.

So hold an apple, toss it in the air and then catch it. The idea of god would love the certainty of gravity. But it doesn't have anything but the shared dream of faith.

Mythos and Logos

The philosopher asks himself, “What is your aim in philosophy?” and he answers, “To show the fly the way out of the bottle.” And where is he when he has made his escape? He is, it appears, exactly where he started; for philosophy “leaves everything as it is.”

- LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

The Pre-Socratics take us back to the time of myths and fables in Ancient Greece (600 - 400 BC). Who can name some? Pythagoras, Democritus, Epicurus, Protagorist, et al, and all the Sophists. They wished to establish "universal principles". “Sophistry” is now pejorative as in arguing both sides of the same argument. It was not always so.

Socrates and Plato were both rooted in this argumentative, story-telling, systematizing, and oral culture.

The dialectic line of thought follows from this tradition, whereby a teacher engages with students in reasoning grounded in illustrative stories. We might do that here.

[Why am I drawn to Philosophy?]

We are a story-loving animal, whether it begins with "Once upon a time..." or "In the begginning..." We respond to narratives. The romantic in us also yearns for "...and they lived happily ever after."

Logos is the ancient Greek word for logic and Aristotle was the chief proponent of this categorizing and rational thought. He had a penchant, even mania, for lists, and either/or, if/then reasoning. Aristotle deserves our praise.

He was also maddeningly obtuse in his pre-suppositions. For example, what exactly are "practical wisdom" and a blind belief in "soul"? Doesn't this pre-supposes deities? Show us a soul. Aristotle's lists and categories are too often unsupported, as is attributing dramatic events to god/gods.

Philosophical reasoning must be grounded on more than mere antiquity or blind faith. Show us where the soul resides, demonstrate that virtue is the mean between vice and positive habits, just don't make an either/or category,

Rudimentary Logic

Please attend to the following:

If A then not B (if "yes" then not "no")

And if B then not A (if "no" then not "yes")

When C embraces both A and B simultaneously, or maybe both.

Say what?

For example, if organic life contains death, when death also contains life and vice versa, then life and death are conjoined and simultaneous.

If A not B, and B not A, then (and when) C is both A and B.

Buddhist Logic:

Self and No Self

The Buddha taught this:

You are here

You are not here

You are here and you are not here

You are neither here nor not here

Renee Descartes once famously proclaimed:

"I think, therefore I am."

That presupposes here-ness.

Descartes posits the intrinsic self.

The Buddha posits no self.

Thich Nhat Hahn posits "interbeing". Not only the self but all beings' selves:

Animal

Vegetable

Mineral

The Buddha referred to this as "sentient" and non-sentient life.

“Sentient, animate -- (endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness.”

Ether/neither

Or/nor

Am/not

All and nothing.

Evolutionary Biology is predicated on this understanding. We live a while in our corporeal bodies, but we also slowly die. We are even programmed with a "death gene" to avoid and prevent immortality.

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/pressreleases/2002/november/39661

We leave the planet to our progeny, with no submission to conjectures of the soul’s immortality. Death will happen regardless.

Today we see the same categories of discourse with a relatively recent third category added - the synthetic thinker, as espoused by Hegel.

One may put forward a contention, a thesis, that white is the noblest shade, its quality and virtue unsurpassed. Paint the circle half white. Another contends through antithesis that black is the truest shade. Paint the other half black. Another spins the shaded wheel and sees only grey. Synthesis. Yin and yang and the Tao. [Should we discuss?]

Aristotle, the Buddha and Lao Tzu were rough chronologic contemporaries (about 2500 years ago) and the while the former saw faith as a virtue, the later saw faith as indeterminate. It is certainly not necessarily true, so why did Aristotle place it in the camp of qualities to aspire towards? Is it mainly a social organizing tool?

Faith is based on our sense of experience, e.g., that the sun will shine tomorrow. It always has from our experience. But one day it will not. Suns have lives too. We know this now but they did not know it then.

Does faith provide the glue that sticks children to parents, lovers to each other, citizens to countries, and humans to deities? [What does President Bush think?] I believe we connect faith to hope in a benevolent future.

Faithless men (and women) are assumed by many to lack beliefs that make social systems work. Without an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent god, why be good? Without faith that plowing and sowing a field in spring will lead to crops and sustenance for the other seasons, why would we toil? The same is true for college educations. But it is not necessarily so. This is our convention of habit. [More of this later.]

Children have implicit faith in their parents unless damaged by grievous actions. Shelter, protection and sustenance are required and expected.

Concepts of deity flow from the same stream. Most humans believe in a parental deity ("father" in our desert religions) who, if properly worshipped (whatever that means) will make our presents agreeable and our futures better, or at least assumable.

Robert Persig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance writes of quality as virtue. He happened to be riding a Harley Davidson. A life of quality is a virtuous life.

Richard Dawkins refers to these benevolent deities as the "sky gods" of religion. If venerated, prayed, or sacrificed to, life will be tolerable until the next volcanic eruption encourages them to sacrifice a virgin or innocent child.

Have I mentioned that there are "no atheists in foxholes"? What is the last thought of a drowning person? I think it is to breathe another breath.

In The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle uses the arithmetic mean, by way of example, in his commentary on virtue and quality. Between the numbers 2 and 10 we have a mean of 6, whereby there is the numeric equidistance of 4 between each number. So, for example, in preparing oneself for light exercise, if one eats a light meal for only two minutes the quantity may not be sufficient for the energy required, while a meal of ten minutes may make one too full for an effective workout. The quality light meal, therefore, would last six minutes, sufficient for good nutrition and also sufficient to have a good period of exercise. Virtue then is the state of balance between extremes. But back to the see-saw...

See-Saw

On the second grade playground some of us ran outdoors at recess to claim the see-saws. Others ran to the slides, swings and jungle gym. We took turns on all the apparatus, knowing there was no time for waiting in line. And in truth the see-saws were not that popular after the initial burst of energy. Up, down, up, down, up and then down with a bounce as the other ran giggling.

But for friends of equal weight the see-saws could achieve a state of equipoise, balanced on the fulcrum.

What did we do? One scrunched forward, one cinched backward until we let go and achieved balance, if just for awhile.

We could learn from this playground example: neither high nor low, neither good nor bad, neither yes nor no, but maybe. Then we run.

Waking

Just wake up to mortal life and this present moment. It is more than enough.

Suffering and Joy

Illusory dreams, phantom flowers—

Sixty-seven years.

A white bird vanishes in the mist,

Autumn waters merge with the sky.

HUNG-CHIH’S DEATH POEM

It seems so clear to me that life is precious and fleeting. When loved ones pass away, health worsens, and abilities once assumed are no longer present, we may visit the well of despond - if we so choose. We could drown in despair. Some, sadly, do. But why choose suffering when life is fleeting? Makes no sense, if we premise the ability to revel in joy. We are all living mortal lives, and since no one dies carrying a key for entry into a next life, let's assume this life matters very much.

Joy often comes delightfully unannounced. A friend makes an unexpected phone call, an email arrives, or a card comes in the mail. Smiles come flashing. Now some accomplishment is planned and prepared for, and provides a level of satisfaction. But this is not joy. It is making the mark with a goal accomplished. The difference is profound. Unprompted kindness opens the joy door, but it is our choice to step through this portal, this gateway. Some choose entry, others tarry. In crossing over into the state of bliss/heaven/happiness we are also given the opportunity to bring others with us. Our choices matter in fundamental ways.

Joy is best shared. Humans are fundamentally a social animal, and as such we suffer when alone unless we embrace others when given the opportunity. Joining the monastery does not remove us from the community of those living parallel lives. Think about it - a normal lifetime of eighty years is a little more than 29,000 days. If one is fifty-three (like me) then that leaves only about 10,000 days. Since we live in the day-to-day timeframe, sun rise and fall each day, it is useful to remind ourselves of life as candle wick and flame. Each day matters.

Reality

This is an important point: Some folks join "alternative" associations/communities and go "whole hog" for a time, but if the motivation is to "lead" others rather than understand the Buddha's message then we see the result.

The Dalai Lama counsels holding to the "faith" tradition one is born to since most religions have some aspect of compassion and service to others. I feel he is disingenuous a bit since only Buddhism holds to the Buddha's teachings, but I get his point - "Buddhism" is NOT the Buddha's message, nor was Christianity Jesus' message. It's the followers who muck up the message.

The Three C's

Give organized religions their do and understand their staying power:

Community

Joining a mosque, synagogue or church provides instant association. If one is born to it (assumed association) then one is automatically a "member". Yippee.

Consolation

Folks are born, folks grow ill, folks die in time. The rituals of organized religions provide solace to many, perhaps most. This is very real - grieving needs an audience.

Compassion

This is the best aspect of organized religion, particularly if their compassion extends beyond the pews to the wider world of suffering. There is so much need for organized assistance. Too bad the real compassion comes with real proselytizing.

There is a fourth "C" that must be understood and acknowledged: Coercion. It is, however, rarely Celebrated.

Godless

2010-04-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

GodlessWakeupw

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-04-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

"Zeitgeist, the Movie"

2010-04-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

2010-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

2010-04-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

Godless

Preface.

In the spirit of the late great Eric Hoffer, much of the following is aphoristic. Hopefully it is also nuanced and not redundant.

The God of Mars

Did beings once worship on the Red Planet?

Who were they anyway?

Martian gods in Martian images?

Earth will lose its fragile ecosystem too one day.

We will muck it all to hell.

Is there still life on Mars?

Did their gods benignly watch

As their planet became uninhabitable?

Subterranean water may still flow.

"Primitive" life as algae may even still exist.

And so?

Our Earth has a "space" probe, hurtling there as I type.

And yet our demise is sadly assured.

But I don't think their gods are watching.

Those gods of war have won.

Things Catholic

Most humans live with lust during our mature decades. Not all but many.

Insight

What I Believe, and Why

One day Chao-chou fell down in the snow, and called out, “Help me up! Help me up!” A monk came and lay down beside him. Chao-chou got up and went away.

ZEN KOAN

We are born
We live and grow from infant to adult
Many of us produce progeny in our mature years
Other life forms share our planet, living the same mortal arc of existence
All of us will die, none will escape
Earth's natural resources are finite and yet regenerating
Our planet too has a lifetime, fortunately longer than ours
Other lives existed prior to ours and other lives will likely exist after our demises
Death is the great drama of existence, and we will all be surprised one day

Observations

Fear

We fear those deemed to be "the other", and seek to retard the influence of those others. We have used, in our recorded past of ten thousand years, these factors of discrimination:

location
ethnicity
religion
race

We see defining characteristics of the other, and seek (or have sought):

domination
enslavement
eradication

Profundity

Consolation

My Seminal Theory

My theory/insight about knee jerk conservatives, including Edmund Burke, Clarence Thomas AND John Roberts is their ignoble fear of the

future. They are afraid of mortality and death. They so want to hold onto what they know and love, as if they're grasping the slipping

hand of a love one who is drowning in a flood. Life requires courage for the future, not irrational fear based on a known past.

We will ALL die despite fear or courage, faith or scepticism.

Organized religion supports this fear by its fantasy of another, better life for believers and damnation and suffering for unbelievers. Disgusting on both counts.

Keeping the Lie Alive

[an exercise in meaningful alliteration]

The entire edifice could crumple

Without constant caring work

Scholars, clergy and believers

Would be lost without faith.

Just Wake Up

Mythos and Logos

- LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Socrates and Plato were both rooted in this argumentative, story-telling, systematizing, and oral culture.

The dialectic line of thought follows from this tradition, whereby a teacher engages with students in reasoning grounded in illustrative stories. We might do that here.

[Why am I drawn to Philosophy?]

Rudimentary Logic

Please attend to the following:

If A then not B (if "yes" then not "no")

And if B then not A (if "no" then not "yes")

When C embraces both A and B simultaneously, or maybe both.

Say what?

For example, if organic life contains death, when death also contains life and vice versa, then life and death are conjoined and simultaneous.

If A not B, and B not A, then (and when) C is both A and B.

Buddhist Logic:

Self and No Self

The Buddha taught this:

You are here

You are not here

You are here and you are not here

You are neither here nor not here

Renee Descartes once famously proclaimed:

"I think, therefore I am."

That presupposes here-ness.

Descartes posits the intrinsic self.

The Buddha posits no self.

Thich Nhat Hahn posits "interbeing". Not only the self but all beings' selves:

Animal

Vegetable

Mineral

The Buddha referred to this as "sentient" and non-sentient life.

“Sentient, animate -- (endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness.”

Ether/neither

Or/nor

Am/not

All and nothing.

Evolutionary Biology is predicated on this understanding. We live a while in our corporeal bodies, but we also slowly die. We are even programmed with a "death gene" to avoid and prevent immortality. [http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/pressreleases/2002/november/39661]

We leave the planet to our progeny, with no submission to conjectures of the soul’s immortality. Death will happen regardless.

Today we see the same categories of discourse with a relatively recent third category added - the synthetic thinker, as espoused by Hegel.

Children have implicit faith in their parents unless damaged by grievous actions. Shelter, protection and sustenance are required and expected.

Robert Persig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance writes of quality as virtue. He happened to be riding a Harley Davidson. A life of quality is a virtuous life.

Have I mentioned that there are "no atheists in foxholes"? What is the last thought of a drowning person? I think it is to breathe another breath.

See-Saw

But for friends of equal weight the see-saws could achieve a state of equipoise, balanced on the fulcrum.

What did we do? One scrunched forward, one cinched backward until we let go and achieved balance, if just for awhile.

We could learn from this playground example: neither high nor low, neither good nor bad, neither yes nor no, but maybe. Then we run.

Waking

Just wake up to mortal life and this present moment. It is more than enough.

Suffering and Joy

Illusory dreams, phantom flowers—

Sixty-seven years.

A white bird vanishes in the mist,

Autumn waters merge with the sky.

HUNG-CHIH’S DEATH POEM

Reality

The Three C's

Give organized religions their do and understand their staying power:

Community

Joining a mosque, synagogue or church provides instant association. If one is born to it (assumed association) then one is automatically a "member". Yippee.

Consolation

Folks are born, folks grow ill, folks die in time. The rituals of organized religions provide solace to many, perhaps most. This is very real - grieving needs an audience.

Compassion

There is a fourth "C" that must be understood and acknowledged: Coercion. It is, however, rarely Celebrated.

Just for fun -

2010-04-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

http://vimeo.com/10815824

Mulling Matters

Nick Lowe-Cruel To Be Kind -1979 #155.*T*O*T*Ps*70s*

The Second Amendment, the NRA and the Propensity for Violence

The Struggle

God and Evolution

Matt Ridley. "When Ideas Have Sex"

This explains everything

So many choices to become distracted

The Book of Genesis, Illustrated by R. Crumb

Leon Trotsky

Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"

Reality

E.M. Forster quote from "Howard's End"

Mental rubbish

Humor for all

Moderation and Aristotle

What Was It This Morning?

"Zeitgeist, the Movie"

"What Was It This Morning?"

War's idiocy

St. Ann's Bay, Cape Breton

Cape Breton Bound

So true

Really, it's all about a cup of tea

Think about it -

Julia Sweeney on "Letting Go of God"

Julia Sweeney knows

Fourth Patriarch of Zen, Tao-shin

Burn baby burn

Meditation, Appetite and Moderation

Fun interpretation!

religion, 9/11 and yoga

The Jesus Effect - an insight

Conversations with History: Howard Zinn

The Very Air That We Breathe

The text itself

Godless

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

"Zeitgeist, the Movie"

Just for fun -

Nick Lowe-Cruel To Be Kind -1979 #155.TOTPs70s