Church of the Churchless (blog by Brian Hines)

[Alex]

Great free will question: What do we want to be free from?
May 03, 2012
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/05/gazzanigas-great-question-what-do-we-want-to-be-free-from.html

Free will is a limiting, destructive belief
March 09, 2012
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/03/free-will-is-a-dangerous-destructive-belief.html

There's no free will, so you're unable to believe me
January 28, 2012
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/01/theres-no-free-will-so-youre-unable-to-believe-me.html

[Alex]

Respect reality, not religion, if you love the Ultimate
August 07, 2012
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/08/respect-reality-not-religion-if-you-love-the-ultimate.html

"If God created the world, then seemingly it is blasphemous to believe in something that isn't true about physical reality. Since the big bang, evolution, global warming, quantum mechanics, and other solid scientific theories are almost certainly true, to deny them is to deny God's creation."

"But there is demonstrable evidence for the amazing phenomena scientific research reveals to be present beyond the bounds of everyday experience, whereas religiosity, spirituality, and mysticism only deal with beliefs, opinions, hopes, desires, and other concepts of human minds."

"Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches connect us with a world that exists independent of our subjective consciousness. The proof of this is that we can say to someone else, "Do you see that? Do you hear that? Doesn't this taste great?", and learn that what we consider to be real, actually is."



Alex's comment:  

The author makes a simple yet profound statement here.  Conventional wisdom often associates God with religion.  But if you love Ultimate Reality (or God), you want to find it, you may use the more reliable method of science which is evidence-based, not necessarily the conventional way of fuzzy belief-based religion.  

"I love God," I want to say, "therefore, I listen humbly to Her revelation through Physics and Biology.  Amen."

[Alex]

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."
--Saint Augustine



Alex's comment:  I fully agreed with Augustine; what he said does happen.  Another name for that "reward" is delusion.

[Alex]

How atheists comfort children about death
December 22, 2012
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2012/12/how-atheists-comfort-children-about-death.html

Atheist parents describe talking about death with their children in a straightforward way, without anxiety.

“We are a science-based family. When we don’t know the answer, we say, ‘We don’t know.’ We don’t say ‘Jesus did it,’” said Jamila Bey, a 36-year-old D.C. radio host who attended Catholic churches and schools through college. Her son is 4.

...I had to explain, ‘Honey, life is very long, but sometimes bad things happen. Not often and they hurt.’

“I said, ‘When people die, it’s just like before they were ever born. They’re not scared, they’re not hungry, they’re not cold. But the people left behind miss them.’ I didn’t fill him with ideas of celestial kingdoms where you get wings and [expletive].”



Alex's comments:  This is a practical issue for atheist parents.

[Alex]

Why Taoism beats Zen on being non-religious
March 20, 2013
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2013/03/why-taoism-beats-zen-on-being-non-religious.html

[Alex]

Consciousness, magic, and scientific rationalism
September 06, 2013
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2013/09/consciousness-magic-and-scientific-rationalism.html

Here's a really interesting piece by neuroscientist Michael Graziano, "Consciousness and the Unashamed Rationalist." Naturally I just ordered Graziano's book, Consciousness and the Social Brain.

His distinction between attention and awareness makes a lot of sense.

As Graziano says below, his theory posits that awareness "is the brain's own fuzzy description of attention. A brain attends to thing X; the brain constructs the description, 'I am aware of thing X.'"

Read the whole thing:

Consciousness and the Unashamed Rationalist
Michael Graziano
Professor of Neuroscience and Novelist, Princeton University
30 August 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-graziano/consciousness-and-the-una_b_3844493.html

[Alex]

Experience of conscious will is an illusion
3 May 2017
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2017/05/experience-of-conscious-will-is-an-illusion.html

[Alex]

Gurinder Singh: the One is the goal, God without attributes
13 May 2017
http://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2017/05/gurinder-singh-the-one-is-the-goal-god-without-attributes.html
//After all, something has to have always existed, or existence wouldn't exist. So why not call this the "One"? Just don't ascribe any attributes to the One, because the One couldn't have any attributes, being, obviously, One.//

//...Osho Robbins asked a question of Gurinder Singh, the current guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (the spiritual organization I belonged to for about 35 years)...

...I asked him to explain about SARGUN and NIRGUN...

...What he said was that SARGUN is God with attributes – the path we all follow and NIRGUN is the goal – the God without any attributes – the ONE. Sargun is the MEANS and Nirgun is the END or GOAL.

So the Goal is to get to the ONE – where these is no duality.

This is in line with the notion that the Guru cannot come at the time of death because there is only ONE, and there is no place to take the soul.

The idea of the guru coming at death and taking the soul to Sach Khand is as naïve as the notion of Father Christmas.

Sach Khand is not a place – so why is everyone keen to go there? What do they think is awaiting them in Sach Khand?

The true goal of Sant Mat is to DIE. Meaning the EGO (the ‘I’) dies, which means there is no longer a YOU who wants to go to Sach Khand.

That is the real meaning of “die while living”. Eliminate the ego WHILE you are alive – realize there is no YOU – no separate self. Just a deluded little disciple who thinks he is privileged and will go to Sach Khand.

-- Osho Robbins//

[Alex]

I can't stop seeing religious belief as a placebo
16 March 2024
https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/2024/03/i-cant-stop-seeing-religious-belief-as-a-placebo.html