Religion

Having not read the book I will withhold comment beyond the confines of this article. My own position is that anyone who seriously interested in human history and cultural development, two ways of saying the same thing, it is impossible to get beyond a very elemental understanding without moving beyond the anthropomorphized gods. While it appears…

No, we don’t have it wrong but neither do you have it wrong. The problem to me is the failure of the Semitic religions to clearly redefine themselves as spiritual practices dedicated to self awareness. To some of the people who consider themselves still participants in those religions their concept of prayer is a meditation technique focused on…

This is an interesting analysis. It seems to me this is, at best, the equivalent of damning with faint praise. Extreme religionists are saved from hypocrisy by stupidity. They gave up any pretense of morality to further their authoritarian dogma putting them in exactly the same corner with every other tin foil hat wearing crackpot. They obviously…

While this is interesting, I’m in need of some clarification. Granting that the goal is to understand religion as a characteristic of our species, what are the objectives? Neurology? Cognitive science? How is religion defined? If you are not dealing with subjective content then you are dealing with the neurological structure of belief systems. How is…

Yes, that is precisely the problem and the toys that need to be put away. First of all let me agree with you. Spiritual health is essential to getting our shit together. As with the very nature of this universe, that is a process of evolution. The challenge is getting to a baseline understanding of the universe that gives us the personal and social…

Found this on my list and actually read it because of the picture. I didn’t expect this to be as interesting as I found it to be. To me it describes a reasonable path out of the darkness of religion to a healthier spirituality for those struggling with childhood indoctrination. My sense from the responses seems to confirm that. There is a very strong…

Thank you for the response and I’m sorry what I wrote proved confusing. In short the history of religion in human civilization is important to understand just how bizarre contemporary American Christianity really is. It helps if you have some knowledge of human history and, I realize, my assumption that readers here would recall the role of religion…

This is an excellent article that clearly identifies the problem and uses an understandable label. Coming from a rural fundamentalist background is really the only way to get a full understanding of the frightening reality of these systems of direct personal control. I’ve come to see these religions (Abrahamic and Hindu) as malignant and I don’t…

How Close Are We to Kristallnacht?

I’m glad to hear that cities are continuing to work on this. I was upset, more than I realized when I wrote this piece. In fact I’m going to revise it and expand on what “growing teeth” can mean besides starting a firefight in the neighborhood. I still have not seen…