Religion « The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Personal Reflections ... Religion ...

I have a penpal who is a Trappist monk. He’s an interesting fellow who was a Catholic parish priest up here in NJ for most of his adult life. (He’s quite accomplished, being the author of several books and numerous articles on spiritual topics.) Sometime in his 40’s (remember the idea of “mid-life crisis”?) he decided to “go contemplative” and left the suburban parish life to join the Order of Cistercians Strict Observance. He has been living as a professed monk in a Cistercian community down South since then.

As to the question of just how “strict” the Cistercians (aka Trappists) are these days, I recently received a letter from my monk-friend in which he discussed his latest inspiration. He has been reading travel adventure books written by people who have traveled around the world sailing on working freight ships, i.e. those huge container ships that keep us flush with Chinese-made consumer stuff. My friend has already initiated discussions with his abbot for a leave-of-absence (“sabbatical”) to pursue such a trip. The cost would be around $12,000, and somehow he could swing it (not sure if he has a bank account or if his monastic community would pick up the tab; in the old days, monks were not allowed to have any significant private possessions, everything was supposed to be shared in community).

I’m quite happy to hear that my friend may soon embark on a late-life adventure, one that will no doubt become a major memory for him. I look forward to the book that will inevitable follow (he is currently aware of six books on container ship travel; he will no doubt » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 1:47 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Friday, September 5, 2014

◊ Atheists and Quantum Agnostics

Religion ... Spirituality ...

One of the most frequent argument I read or hear from the “New Atheism Movement” is that the universe does not need a supernatural cause of origin, because science now understands how something can come from nothing; and thus how something so unlikely as our universe, with its fine tuning and hotspots where complex life evolves and manifests itself in even more complex conscious and self-conscious forms, could happen. They are referring to modern theories regarding the inflaton field, chaotic inflation, multiverses, the near endless variants of superstring theory, etc.

But as impressive as all of that is, it does not truly amount to “something from nothing”. The anti-theological boffins ultimately assume the existence of some level of energy and information, even if that form of energy is very different from the things and events that we encounter in our human lives. The BIG question – i.e. why is there something and not nothing – does not go away quite as easily as the atheist cosmologists would like when they refer to “vacuum effects”. By “nothing”, the theologians mean no superstrings, no fields, no quantum mechanics — just plain and total nothing.

The only way to honestly dodge that question (aside from trying to dismiss it as irrelevant, in that no one has » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:32 am Read Comments (8) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

◊ Those Dreadful Atheists

Religion ... Society ... Spirituality ...

There’s a recent article on the Science20 web site about atheists. The basic premise of the article is that pure atheists may not exist — because deep down in the subconscious, there exists a pre-programmed bias towards the notion that something in the universe is looking over us, something more than what we know thru our normal senses and our logical minds. The author summarized the article quite well up front, saying that “Cognitive scientists are becoming increasingly aware that a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged.”

Atheism is generally a product of the thinking, rational part of the mind. Yes, the part that gave us science and the Enlightenment, mathematics and the French Revolution, antibiotics and the atom bomb, etc. This is strong stuff, and many people really go head over heels for the atheistic / positivist-rationalist point of view. Still, this point of view may never completely overcome something deep inside the mind and brain. According to the article, an atheist scientist, Graham Lawton, was quoted in New Scientist as saying “atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think . . . even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.

So, given that scientists themselves have found atheism to ultimately be psychologically impossible, are they about to give up on it? » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:39 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, May 15, 2014

◊ Father Bob Cormier — Been to the Mountaintop

Personal Reflections ... Religion ...

I was a bit taken aback to read that Father Bob Cormier, a 57 year old Roman Catholic priest, died this past week in a tragic mountain climbing accident at Mt. Hood in Oregon. I had met Fr. Bob and had talked to him in passing back in the mid-1990s, when I was working at New Community Corporation in Newark and Fr. Bob was an assistant at St. Rose of Lima, the parish of NCC founder (and defacto boss-man) Msgr. William Linder. I left NCC in 2001 and lost track of Fr. Bob; but Not that many years ago, my brother got to know him a bit, given that he was re-assigned to a parish in Jersey City but would sometimes come out to my brother’s parish in Lyndhurst to do fill-in mass assignments. Unlike almost all other priests, Fr. Bob would never take any money for doing this.

I knew that Fr. Bob was an intelligent fellow who seemed at first to be on the quiet side, but who in fact had quite an activist streak within him. But I never suspected just how quietly but genuinely accomplished he was. Fr. Bob did youth ministry, prison outreach, parish work, drug rehab, radio commentary, was fluent in several languages, did church ministry in Guatemala most every summer, and was a bit of a theologian. He also published several books and maintained a Facebook site and a web site meant to be a “toolkit for faith” in modern times (www.thefaithkit.org). There is quite a lot of interesting and down-to-earth material on that site, it clearly is a work of love. And Fr. Bob was also an outdoor adventurer, a pilot, skier, a restaurant aficionado (he enjoyed his glass of wine with dinner), scuba diver, cave explorer, sailor, and . . . what did finally did him in . . . a mountain climber. Wow, I never would have guessed!!

Unfortunately, his recent trip to ascend Mt. Hood in Oregon » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:37 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, April 24, 2014

◊ Catching Up, Part III: Gravity Waves, Multiverses, and Skepticism

Current Affairs ... Religion ... Science ...

In my second post for tonight, above, I pondered how someone could be totally rejected by every computer and ATM and web site that they depend upon for the transactions of daily life. Perhaps an episode or two of on-line identity fraud (such as I recently experienced) could get you banned from all forms of computer-mediated transactions. For now, though, I think (and hope) that I still exist within the e-commerce / e-finance netherworld. So, let me proceed to offer some follow-up thoughts on a recent news item.

Which news item? Lots to choose from!!! The Ukraine crisis is still hot, flight 370 still has not been found, and since that incident another Asian transportation disaster happened (the South Korean ferryboat sinking). The US economy is getting better, perhaps; although new-home sales were still troublingly slow in March. (This could be partly the hang-over effect of a tough winter, but more ominously, it reflects the impact of slightly rising mortgage rates). President Obama, “new world man” that he is, is doing his best to ignore the 20th century leftover problems in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and thus continues his “pivot to Asia” with a visit to Japan. Obamacare is finally working . . . maybe, but maybe not. Stay tuned. The US FDA is finally going after E-cigarettes, and the FTC is finally weighing in on net-neutrality. Global warming has been in a “pause” over the past 12 to 15 years, but most scientists are adamant that the worst of climate change is yet to come. So what important human event do I wish to comment on at this time?

Given my love for modern physics and my fascination with the inter-twined worlds of the tiny (quantum particles and fundamental forces) and the vastly large (cosmology), I want to retro back to the announcement made last month » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:50 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

◊ On Scapegoating the ‘Levantines’

Religion ... Society ...

I came across some interesting observations recently about organized religion and it alleged antagonism towards the ancient myth of the “hero’s journey”. These observations are contained in a book called “Seeking Truth, Living With Doubt” by Steven Fortney and Marshall Onellion; a collaboration between a Buddhist high school teacher and an agnostic condensed matter physicist. Somewhere in the middle of the book, chapter 7 to be exact, the authors discuss the relationship of the “individual’s heroic journey” to the institutions of science, art, mysticism and institutional religion. They review the ancient theme of the hero who leaves his home turf for a long-term road trip in search of truth, beauty and meaning; i.e. your basic Joseph Campbell stuff. The classic example of course is Homer’s Odyssey, but as Campbell points out, the hero’s journey is a theme that runs throughout the course of human history, showing up in many different ways in different civilizations, in different eras both modern and ancient.

These fellows feel that art, science and mystical spiritualities (Buddhism, most notably) are generally good things for human-kind. Not surprisingly, they portray these institutions as being mostly favorable and supportive of the individual’s journey. But as to organized religion . . . well, they basically find that religious institutions, especially the “Levantine faiths” (i.e. Christianity, Judaism and Islam), are responsible for most of the pig-headedness and closed-mindedness in the world, both yesterday, today and presumably tomorrow. So obviously the traditional religions are not open very receptive to someone, however inspired she or he might be, who goes off on his or her own in search of wisdom. According to Fortney and Onellion, the fathers of the church, temple and mosque stubbornly assert that they have a lock on wisdom, and thus any attempt to gain wisdom outside of their standard doctrines and teachings is dangerous and deluded, an infidelity and heresy.

Here’s a taste of what Fortney and Onellion have to say on this: “The Levantine faiths disavow the individual journey as » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 1:30 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 18, 2014

◊ East and West — And No In-Between?

Religion ... Spirituality ... Zen ...

In my life, I have both studied and practiced a variety of “organized spiritualities” (i.e., religions or other tradition-based spiritual group practices). I grew up as a Roman Catholic, and while in my 30’s and 40’s I was involved with various Episcopalian and Quaker congregations. Over the past 4 years, however, I have committed myself to a local Zen sangha. So, I’ve tasted a bit of both the western and eastern approaches to spirituality. (I’ve tasted more western than eastern, admittedly; but nonetheless I do actually sit zazen at least once a week with a group; Zen has become more than a handful of interesting books or magazine articles for me).

But then again, a lot of other modern Americans have similarly jumped ship. A lot of zen sanghas, my group not excluded, are comprised mainly of “refugees” from Judaism and Christianity. A lot of people, especially Baby Boomers (given our narcissistic tendencies), want to keep some sort of group-based spiritual practice going in their life, but don’t want all the doctrines, rules and ultimate judgment and other such baggage that the western “Abrahamic” religions usually require. The natural place for such people to go is to an eastern practice, be it Zen, Vedantic yoga (I’m thinking about the more spiritually expansive version of yoga, not your common stretching routines), other Hindu ashrams, Nichiren Buddhism, Bahai, etc. More accurately, they wind up in an American adaptation of an eastern tradition, which is not exactly what the old-school eastern practices were really like. More on that in a second.

From what I can see, most people who leave the church, temple or even mosque for the eastern ways never look back. They warmly embrace their new tradition, study it in detail, learn its every little rubric, and » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 3:31 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

◊ There IS a “god” — but what kind of god?

Philosophy ... Religion ... Science ...

Physics is really pushing the boundaries these days, regarding how we understand what reality is “really like”. It seems increasingly possible that reality is not entirely like what we think it is, from our day-to-day experiences as human animals roaming the planet earth. First, there’s the quantum world and all its Alice in Wonderland weirdness. Then there is Einstein’s relativity, with all its time-space distortions and gravity warps. Today there is even more weirdness in the offing, questioning the existence of space and time itself. Perhaps what we thought were the minute and fundamental building blocks of our world aren’t really real at all. Relativity and quantum theory made time, space and sub-atomic particles fuzzy or rubbery, and new ideas melt them even further.

E.g., a recent experiment hints that time, space, and the motion of things within them may just be an “internal illusion”. Quantum entanglement may be responsible for a holographic process that is grounded in pure information. From the outside of this entangled system, the overall bundle would appear to be unchanging; no time, no motion through space, nothing changing, everything still. From the inside, when you are entangled in the system, the hologram of space, time, particles and motion becomes real, and you experience a world of things moving, and space and time for them to move in. Pretty weird. It’s the holographic relationship between all the information that is real (or “realer”) than electrons, quarks, photons, etc.

And as to the origins of everything, many physicists are now speculating way beyond the big bang. They say that there are “multiverses“, such that entirely new » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:39 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, September 8, 2013

◊ Judaism and Jesus the Christ — Personal Reflections

Religion ...

I recently finished a second listen of the Teaching Company course on the Bible’s Old Testament, by Prof. Amy-Jill Levine. I first heard it several years ago, when I was only interested in getting a general overview of what went on before the Gospels. (Obviously I grew up in a Christian tradition; but not in a Bible-thumping tradition, as I grew up in the Catholic faith. Perhaps that’s why I’m trying to catch up on Bible study!). This time around I focused more on the history of Israel, on what the Tanakh can tell you about Judaism and the Jews. Perhaps it is appropriate that I finished the course just before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (which was celebrated this past Thursday).

So, over the past few weeks, I sat through (or mostly stood, while making dinner or ironing shirts) the great stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob (my namesake!), Moses and the Exodus, Aaron, Joshua, Deborah, and Samson; then on thru the kings, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, then the split of the two kingdoms with the fall of the north; then the rise of the wise prophets, Elijah, Elisha, and Amos; followed by the Exile, Isiah, the Restoration, and the rise of the priests; and finally, the Diaspora, Job, Esther, Jeremiah, Daniel and the growth of apocalyptic expectations (setting the stage for the coming of Jesus of Nazareth). All are great stories indeed, but this time I was listening for meta-themes regarding the formation of the Jewish people and the roots and development of “what it is” about Judaism, about its “social mindset” (if you will). And yes, there was definitely some of that to be had in Professor Levine’s lectures.

One of the most significant “mindset” things that I took away was something of a wise weariness developing amidst the Jewish tradition over the centuries (not entirely my own idea, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:37 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, August 18, 2013

◊ A Question for You Atheists

Religion ... Spirituality ...

Atheism has been around for a long time and is fairly common in certain parts of the world, but it hasn’t yet caught on big here in the USA. However, it’s numbers are growing over time. A huge percentage of people in academia consider themselves atheists, especially in the sciences. So, atheism seems to be the preferred viewpoint of the “brightest of the bright”.

I have a lot of regard for those “brightest of the bright”. I consider myself to be something of a thinking man, a patron of critical thought and rationality. I myself have great regard for the ways and accomplishments of science; I myself subscribe to reason and the basic tenets of The Enlightenment.

And yet . . . I have a problem with atheism. I’m not ready to give up on God and the idea of some sort of life-after-death for we self-conscious beings with complex thinking and feeling abilities. So I have a question » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:00 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

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