07.29.09
Posted in articles at 10:23 am by MPJ
Today’s Question:
Where do Atheists drive their sense of morality? if it is not developed by the church, and without religious influence by parents, are the children who are raised without religion sure to turn out deficient?
Answer:
Some atheists, to be sure, are without morals. But many/most who have actually thought through their beliefs sufficiently to call themselves atheist have moved beyond the need for moral rules supplied by the church. Such people are self-regulating and their morality comes Read the rest of this entry »
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07.28.09
Posted in articles at 12:11 pm by MPJ
This is one part of a question that came in from someone in India. The whole thing read:
“If there is no God, then why do so many Christians claim that the Lord talks to them?
And what about faith healing? Many christian Iknow personallyare good people, yet
they also claim that God talks to them.
Because his very short question was so complex, I am going to reply to each part separately.
Question: If There is No God, Why Do So Many Christians Claim the Lord Speaks to Them?
Answer: This is the phenomenon of spiritual or mystical experience. Such experiences happen to people of all religions, not just Christians. In fact they even happen to non-believers. It is not always “the same” Lord who is speaking but as I understand this, people tend to interpret an experience like that in a way that fits in with their culture and beliefs.
It is even possible that the image that appears or the voice they hear is something shaped by their mind into an entity that person can recognize. Ken Wilber made an interesting contribution on this topic – I think it was in his book Integral Spirituality. He said people can have what he calls a “state change,” which is his word for a mystical experience, at any level of belief (or from any religion or from non-belief,) but the person will interpret the experience according to the stage he is at, or the particular religion he is.
Newberg and D’Aquili were two brain scientists (Newberg is still alive and still writing) who did a lot of research on this by studying people’s brains – Buddhists and Franciscans — as they were having experiences like this, trying to find out if there was a spot in the brain that caused mystical experience. I believe their results were inconclusive but their book “Why God Won’t Go Away” is a very interesting read.
Obviously, this is a very complicated topic and there are no black and white answers. The trouble comes along when someone has a mystical experience of some sort and then, without considering all the possibilities, (the complexities of the human brain, the similar experiences of people in different religions and people who don’t believe at all) concludes that the experience has proven their own beliefs. Sadly, this sometimes causes such people to go out and try to convert others on the basis of that experience.
Mystical experiences are obviously way broader than any one religion and are certainly not the sole province of Christianity. We are well-advised not to jump to any quick or easy conclusions about their meaning.
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Posted in articles at 11:42 am by MPJ
I just got the bright idea of posting the questions I get on AllExperts.com under the category of atheism or skepticism here. Look for posts to come up with questions and my answers as they arise.
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07.08.09
Posted in articles at 12:11 pm by MPJ
I just read an article that says the Catholic Church is trying to ban nuns (and all Catholics) from practicing Reiki: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/02nuns.html?pagewanted=1 (bottom of page 2) There is even a link to a manifesto detailing the Catholic Church’s position on Reiki: http://www.usccb.org/dpp/Evaluation_Guidelines_finaltext_2009-03.pdf. It was officially generated by the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The manifesto basically says Reiki should be shunned by Catholics because it is unscientific and unChristian. Oh how they SOOOO do not understand!
First off - um….saying a piece of bread and wine is literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ during the Catholic Mass IS scientific?? And that Christ literally rose from the dead IS scientific?? Where is Read the rest of this entry »
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07.01.09
Posted in articles at 4:42 pm by MPJ
I was just checking out Scribd.com and came across this article: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3595766/Becoming-Spiritual. I thought it was really interesting how he what he said there way back in 1992 correlates really well with the spiritual stage theory discussed on this site.
In essence he is dividing the world up into non-spiritual and spiritual. What he calls non-spiritual refers to all the stages from Rational on down:
-believing only in what can be seen, heard, proven.
-believing in a supreme being that is separate from us and will one day hold us accountable.
-focus on external power
-being motivated by achievement, performance and acquisitions
-being involved in fighting…a war against that which one believes to be evil
-no reverence for life or sense of responsibility to the universe
-feels the need for grudges, hostility and revenge.
What he calls spiritual refers to the Mystic stage alone:
-believing in an unseen order of the universe with which we should align ourselves
-view god as some sort of universal force within ourselves
-focused on empowerment of self and others
-motivated by ethics, serenity and quality of life
-focused thoughtfully on what they are “for” as opposed to fighting what they are against.
-feels a sense of reverence about life and approaches it with a sense of appreciation and awe
-instead of hostility and revenge, focuses on forgiveness.
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