God has a plan and is in control. Everything happens for a reason. You have an immortal soul, but … Don’t trust yourself. A better place awaits those who obey God. I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive. God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in thisContinue reading “As If”
Tag Archives: religion
The Spirituality of Dropping Out
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about purpose and the importance of living a “purpose-driven” life. In Christian circles especially, the message has been that knowing god’s purpose for you and living with a mission-in-mind is what it’s all about. This has turned out to be a “best-selling” proposal, as apparently manyContinue reading “The Spirituality of Dropping Out”
A Case for Healthy Religion
My aim in this post is to offer an understanding of religion that can help us appreciate its importance while providing criteria for constructive criticism. Many today are applauding the decline of religion as a necessary precursor to our postmodern “enlightenment.” Religion is based in superstition, organized around power and privilege, corrupt at the deepestContinue reading “A Case for Healthy Religion”
Radiant Being
Look around and rest your gaze on something nearby. What do you see? A coffee cup. A potted plant. An old paint-peeled wooden fence outside the window. What if I told you that you are mistaken? The things you just named are only concepts – meanings that your mind is putting around what you see.Continue reading “Radiant Being”
Metaphors of Life
Metaphors operate at a level where experience first breaks over the threshold into expression, the real presence of mystery into representations of meaning. At a very deep level – just short of the very deepest – human beings orient themselves according to a guiding metaphor of life itself. What is life, and what is yourContinue reading “Metaphors of Life”
What You (Really) Want
At the very deepest level life is desire. Because organisms are open systems – not closed and self-sufficient, but dependent on their environments for what they need to survive and prosper – desire is active even at the cellular level. As our focus moves upwards to higher levels of organizational complexity and consciousness, desire becomesContinue reading “What You (Really) Want”
Humanism in a New Key
My recent reflections on the cultural shifts in the West over the past 2500 years or so has started to uncover the real essence of the post-theistic movement overall. Whether it was the breakthroughs in natural philosophy (science) and politics (democracy) back in fifth-century BCE Greece, or the breakthrough in morality represented in Jesus’ radicalContinue reading “Humanism in a New Key”
A New Christianity
In “What is Post-Theism?” I explored how Western culture since the ancient Greeks evolved through three creative phases, where an earlier function of god (behind nature, above politics, and ahead of morality) was internalized and transcended by the human being. The revolutions of science (natural philosophy) and democracy in Greece essentially took over for godContinue reading “A New Christianity”
What is Post-theism?
The representation of god in myth and belief has served three key functions over the long course of history: as (1) the hidden agency behind the forces and events of nature, (2) the transcendent legitimation of political authority, and as (3) the advancing ideal of our moral development as a species. In some cases, theseContinue reading “What is Post-theism?”
On the Other Side of Meaning
I know someone whose religion is a collection of curiosities from across the landscape of world traditions. A little of this and a little of that, thrown together in no systematic or reasonable way, but still very personal and meaningful as far as it goes. If you were to ask this individual what it all reallyContinue reading “On the Other Side of Meaning”
Tracts of Revolution 