Religion « The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Religion ...

I did a Google search on Father Marek Bozek recently to follow up on the blog entry that I wrote about him back in August. Looks as though the court will rule any day now as to whether the Archdiocese of St. Louis has the contractual power to boot Bozek from St. Stanislaus, the renegade Catholic parish on the outskirts of the Gateway City. Keep an eye out, we should be seeing more headlines about the situation rather soon.

I also saw some dirt about Bozek on a traditionalist Catholic web site; turns out that he was hedging his bets even before the Archbishop de-frocked him back in 2009. He was already a member of the Moonie-supported “Married Priest Now” group, and also became a recognized priest in the Reformed Catholic Church, a relatively small schism group. Yea, that does make him seem a bit “restless”, and perhaps he is a bit of a loose canon. But as dirt goes these days, that ain’t exactly a Richter scale 7 earthquake.

What is more interesting is that St. Stanislaus is not the only breakaway Catholic parish out there right now. There appear to be at least two others » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:29 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

◊ The Kosher Buddha-Church of Tomorrow

Personal Reflections ... Religion ...

It’s Holy Week for the Christian Faith, time once again for the remembrance of Jesus’ final week of life. Jesus spent that week in Jerusalem with his close followers, making purity preparations for the Passover ritual. So let’s not forget that it was all a Jewish thing, entirely Kosher. I grew up in the Roman Catholic faith, entirely non-Kosher. But in my middle age I joined the legions of Catholic baby boomers who left the church, looking for a Christian (but still non-Kosher) alternative.

After fiddling around with the Episcopalians and Quakers for 20 years or so, I dropped the whole subject after reading a bunch of entirely reputable books about the life that the Jewish Jesus may have actually lived (as opposed to the Christian “God-Man” view). The “historical Jesus” scholars convinced me that Jesus was not God or the Son of God or the Christ. He was Jesus of Nazareth, biological son of Joseph, fellow human being, a man who was born a Jew and died a Jew. Period. No more bodily resurrection for me, no more transubstantiation of the sacred body and blood during the Mass. No more communion wafers that start smoking or burn the rug if dropped on the floor (as we were told in Sunday School).

And yet . . . I don’t have bad feelings about Christianity, and harbor no destructive wishes against the Catholic Church. In fact, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:45 pm Read Comments (4) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, March 19, 2011

◊ The Folly of No Folly

Personal Reflections ... Religion ... Spirituality ...

When I was 15 years old, I worried a lot about what Jesus said in the Gospels. Yea, I was a bit different from most guys my age, who mostly worried about playing sports, getting hold of contraband (cigarettes, liquor, marijuana), and getting girls to notice them and perhaps allow them into the garden of sensual delights. For a host of reasons that would require a small book to explain and a panel of shrinks to interpret, I became more and more religious just as most kids lost interest in churchgoing. I was taking the Gospels seriously, looking to them as the rulebook by which I was to live my life.

The problem with that is that Jesus set really high standards. I became increasingly worried about my ability to live up to his standards; like hey, even thinking about sex was just as much a sin as doing it! So I started going to confession a lot (that wonderful Roman Catholic ritual of having a priest listen to your sins and give you pardon, on the condition that you perform some penance – usually saying a bunch of prayers), because I was afraid of the danger of going to hell for not fulfilling the strict standards that Jesus set.

A few years later, when facing the possibility of being drafted into military combat service in Vietnam, I decided to file for conscientious objector status so that I would not violate Jesus’ blanket prohibition on taking another human life. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:48 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, March 6, 2011

◊ Bubbles, Jesus and Wall Street

History ... Religion ...

I’m still a fan of the modern academic / historical approach to Jesus of Nazareth. I’ve sampled a bit of the various schools of modern-day thought on the life of Jesus, and I’ve come down on the side of the eschatological / apocalyptic approach. Under this paradigm, Jesus was trying to save Israel from Roman subjugation by preparing the people for direct intervention by God. Jesus did not have in mind some future heavenly realm; he felt that God was coming down to earth very soon. God would land in Jerusalem, and would orchestrate a series of marvelous events that would push the Romans out, cast out the bad Jews, and leave the good ones to live very long lives in a land of peace and righteousness. Again, not in some heavenly realm, but right on the dusty soil of Palestine.

One of the big controversies among the professors is whether Jesus saw himself as having a direct role in the big event and the administration of the “Kingdom of God”, once in place. A number of Historical Jesus researchers conclude that Jesus did NOT claim such a role, what could be termed a “messiah” role, despite various notes in the New Testament saying that he did. A handful of others come to the opposite conclusion, saying that the “son of man” and “messiah” lines and stories (e.g., entering Jerusalem riding a donkey, hearkening back to Hebrew Scripture stories of kings riding on donkeys) were original, if somewhat trumped up over the years by the Christian biblical redactors. But most seem afraid that if they accept this notion, they will be helping the “snake handlers”, those academicians who support a Christian proselytizing agenda.

I come down on the side of the snake handlers. But not because » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:36 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, February 27, 2011

◊ ZEN, GOING TO THE DOGS

Religion ... Spirituality ...

I had a nice enough morning doing “zazen” with my local Zen group (i.e., our weekly 2-hour meditation and chanting service). During the usual coffee hour that follows, one member was lamenting the loss of his family dog, a 9-year old Boxer. Another member was talking about his new family member, a 2 month old German Shepard. Sunrise, sunset . . . the cycle of life in the canine world, just as in the human.

We also heard about the recent “disrobement” of a prominent Zen priest out in Salt Lake City, Genpo Roshi, because of a sex scandal. Yes, another Zen teacher taking advantage of the sweet and vulnerable young things that look up to a wise man in uniform (the black robes affected by some American Zen teachers, following Japanese tradition). Turns out that “Genpo” (really, Dennis Merzel, born in Brooklyn) was a big-wig in the “White Plum Lineage”; hey, that’s my sangha’s lineage! That’s why our local “sensei” was a bit upset about it.

As far as I’m concerned, this is not terribly surprising. America has suffered a flood of Zen teachers over the past 50 years, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:47 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 29, 2011

◊ This is your brain on Buddhism

Brain / Mind ... Religion ...

One of the main tenants of Buddhism is that the self, along with our sense of self-awareness and our ego, is overrated. Buddhism teaches “annata”, the concept of “no-self”. We are earthly beings subject to perpetual change, and therefore there is nothing fundamental and unchanging within us, no matter how deeply you look within. Thus, we do not have a soul or a true essence unique to our own individual identity. We are just chaff blowing around in the wind.

Another key tenant of Buddhism is the importance of regular meditation, so as to realize the deeper truths (including the “fact” that our lives and selves are ultimately an illusion). Interestingly, there is a recent study on the effects of meditation on the human brain, that indicates this to be a bit paradoxical. The NY Times said of this study:

The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.

More precisely, the study abstract in Psychiatry Journal states:

Analyses in a priori regions of interest confirmed increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus. Whole brain analyses identified increases in the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum in the MBSR group [group that meditated regularly] compared with the controls. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

So, it seems pretty clear that these researchers are saying that » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:18 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, December 18, 2010

◊ Atheism and Religion, Twidlee Dee and Twidlee Dum

Religion ...

There’s a nice little post on the Psychology Today site about why atheism can’t replace religion. The author makes a good case that atheism cannot slake a certain thirst within the deepest corners of the human psyche. Well, the atheist will probably claim that there are no such deep corners of the human psyche thirsting for ultimate meaning; or if there are, it’s just an incidental side-effect from the survival value gained from our ability to spot trends and patterns.

Personally, I agree that atheism will never replace religion, but for another reason: atheism is just another faith system. It works well for certain people, but for the masses, it does not meet the needs that religion meets any better (however unenlightened those needs might be), and thus isn’t worth the time and energy needed to make the intellectual change.

My question, however, is whether something totally different would do a better job in improving our society and our lives. What I propose is a form of agnosticism, but not just any old agnosticism. I embrace a form of hopeful and engaged agnosticism, an agnosticism that cares even as it admits to the possibility of ultimate emptiness.

I’ll have more to say on that in the future!

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:30 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, November 20, 2010

◊ Boppin’ With the Buddha

Personal Reflections ... Religion ...

I had an after-thought from my last blog about dancing styles and a recent British psychological study regarding same. As I said, I am a “bopper”, someone who responds to music by moving up and down. However, most of the world responds with side-to-side dancing. In my handful of ventures out onto the dance floor, I have had people explain that to me. In other words, my big-bopper dancing style did not receive a warm reception. So I stay off the dance floor now.

The study that I cited said that people who dance up and down generally have an open-minded temperament. So, that would imply that people who do NOT bop to the music are not so open-minded. And thus, it follows that they are not open-minded to dancing up and down. Thus it makes sense that I did not receive good reviews for my dancing. Given that the side-to-side shufflers are the majority, they own the world of dance. That is the social norm here in the suburban USA. No room for us boppers; no stars waiting to dance with us. Oh well, open-minded people like us can go find other things to do. So there!

I have been reading up lately on what the real Buddha actually said and taught, in the short but classic 1958 work by Walpola Rahula, “What the Buddha Taught” (this is one of those things that I do in lieu of dancing). And I’ve noticed a couple of interesting things. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:31 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

◊ Boppin’ For Allah

Psychology ... Religion ...

I recently saw some reviews of a new book defending agnosticism. The book is called “Spiritual Envy”, written by a Jewish fellow named Michael Krasny. Obviously, if Dr. Krasny (a PhD in literature) is defending agnosticism, he is not strictly speaking a religious practicing Jew. I have not read his book yet, but the reviews indicate that Krasny once believed in the God taught by the Torah and the Prophets, but now does not. However, he doesn’t accept the tenants of atheism either. He defends the idea of accepting that one cannot really know if there is a God or not; or if there were, just what that God would be like.

But Dr. Krasny obviously still cares, or else he wouldn’t write a 264 page book about what we can or cannot know about God’s existence. Perhaps he is still searching; perhaps he is still hopeful. And perhaps he still takes the leap of faith in living as though there were a God of goodness that cared about us. Even though I share Krasny’s intellectual agnosticism, I also care. As to whether I live a life of faith, well, I guess that I’m not the one to judge that. But I do the best I can, I try to remain hopeful.

One little glimmer of hope for the muddled-up world that we currently experience is found in one of the Spiritual Envy reviews. Would you believe that an Islamic scholar » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:44 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

◊ Things Never Change

Current Affairs ... Religion ...

My last post sort-of made the point that Nazism never really died. Back in the 1940s, Carl Jung noticed a similarity between the Nazis and Islam; today, the message of certain radical elements of Islam would no doubt be heartily approved by Adolph Hitler.

Someone once said that the Nazis were especially pernicious because in order to effectively oppose them, you had to become Nazi-like yourself. Ironically, the radical Islamists are now inspiring Nazi-like behavior on the part of their opponents.

Yes, I am talking about Christian minister Terry Jones’ plan to burn a stack of Qurans this weekend as to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Can’t he see the irony? Did they not show movies of Nazis burning books in public squares in the 1930s, when Rev. Jones was in elementary school? (They sure did show us those movies in history class when I was in school).

Further irony: the Quran says a lot about Jesus as a miracle worker and a mighty prophet of God, born of a virgin. OK, it does imply that Jesus was not “the Christ”, God’s Son. I’m just saying, Jesus is also going down in flames in the midst of this.

I can’t say that Christopher Hitchens is entirely wrong in all the negative things he says about God and faith. People really do become drunk with the notion of God and act like drunks, whether Nazis, Christians or Muslims. Including drunken bar fights, but on a political and international scale.

I’m also starting to see why the Buddhists stayed away from a “strongman God” concept throughout their history.

◊ posted by Jim G @ 5:17 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

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