Of all my reflections on the topics of spirituality, psychology, and community, this post represents my best effort so far. If I write nothing more from this point, I think I’ve made a meaningful contribution. But I’ll keep at it anyway. A few of the “big ideas” that repeatedly make an appearance include the groundingContinue reading “The Shining Way to the Kindom of Spirit”
Tag Archives: morality
The Big Picture
It’s true. I’m obsessed with trying to clarify the Big Picture, referring to the full view of our human situation not only inside our ethnic and national pocket cultures, but on the planet and across evolutionary time. Much of our difficulty at present, recurring through history as we tend to get snagged on the sameContinue reading “The Big Picture”
On The Way
The process of becoming somebody and finding our way to genuine community, which I regard as the evolutionary directive of our species, is a hero’s journey fraught with pitfalls and dead ends. If we were driven and determined by a force entirely outside our control, we would have arrived at our apotheosis [see definition 2] longContinue reading “On The Way”
Two Steps Back
Just now world leaders are telling us it’s time to close our borders and load our guns. With all the loonies and radicalized nut-jobs out there, we need to make security our highest priority. Inside our own nation, subgroups are putting tribal loyalty above the common good, as political parties, religious sects, and social classesContinue reading “Two Steps Back”
On The Brink
For some reason I can’t stop thinking and writing about that conceited little blowhard who sits at the controls of our personal lives. I mean, of course, the ego – our separate center of personal identity. I understand why I’m obsessed, since both our historical rise as a species and our eventual self-destruction are tiedContinue reading “On The Brink”
Above Us Only Sky
In my continuing effort to clarify the meaning of post-theism, I’m always looking for creative ways of making it not only understandable but relevant to our times. I happen to believe that more of us than we realize are post-theistic, in both orientation and practice, and that if this movement is to be accepted asContinue reading “Above Us Only Sky”
Becoming a Person of Influence
A video version of this blog post can be found here Here’s the backstory: You work in a company that manufactures technology goods for the public market. Your job entails oversight of product quality and safety, ensuring that the manufactured goods meet or exceed industry standards. Your product line is highly innovative, but other companiesContinue reading “Becoming a Person of Influence”
Creative Spirit and the Invitation to Life in Its Fullness
Matter reacts. Life adapts. Spirit creates. With that, I have summarized the 14-billion-year cosmic process in three stages and just six words. I’m using the term ‘stage’ here less in its temporal sense than as a way of identifying distinct levels of complexity in the evolutionary architecture of our universe. True enough, energy first fused into matter, then stirred toContinue reading “Creative Spirit and the Invitation to Life in Its Fullness”
Family and the Human Future
Both Jesus of Nazareth and Sigmund Freud were Jews who employed the analogy of family systems in their critique of religion. Obviously they didn’t agree in the way they used the analogy, but each regarded it as perhaps our best model for appreciating the strategic role of theism in human experience. In Freud’s theory, the infant andContinue reading “Family and the Human Future”
Human Doing and Human Being
Morality (from the Latin mos, custom): Folkways of central importance accepted without question and embodying the fundamental moral views of a group. Ethics (from the Greek ethos, custom): The body of moral principles or values governing or distinctive of a particular culture or group. My description of the ethical function of religion has prompted aContinue reading “Human Doing and Human Being”