Monday Musings #6 — 9-20-10

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday September 19, 2010 · 11:10 AM PDT

2010/09/19 · 11:10

The ABC's of Religion: A Parable

What is religion about? Watching? Understanding? Or something both demanding and empowering?

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday September 12, 2010 · 11:44 PM PDT

2010/09/12 · 23:44

Imagine a man who lived some time ago.* From an early age, he was drawn to religion. He went to the formal service every week, sometimes even taking notes. He believed everything his church taught him, never felt a need to challenge the teachings, and tried to live as he was told he should. He took his church’s teachings literally: God rewarded or punished us for how we had lived on earth, by assigning us to an eternal heaven or hell after we died. He internalized these teachings until he didn’t even have to think about them; they became part of his nature.

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday September 05, 2010 · 2:44 PM PDT

2010/09/05 · 14:44

We know that a baby’s birth and early life story shape behavioral styles that are often carried through adulthood. We express it through aphorisms: “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree”; “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Others link childhood trauma or abuse with adult behavior. The Greeks said, “Character is destiny,” and saw society’s responsibility to form people of good character as paramount.

The same is true for the birth stories we write for our gods.

DavidsonLoehr

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Tuesday August 31, 2010 · 6:52 AM PDT

2010/08/31 · 06:52

Monday Musings on 21st Century Spirituality, #3
30 August 2010

Using the words “Science” and “Salvation” in the same breath needs some preparation so people in both camps don’t hyperventilate. “Science” means “knowledge.” It can’t guarantee that the knowledge is good, or that it will still be considered true in a year. “Salvation” can mean “to save,” or to make healthy and whole (with its connection to the word “salve”). Using the word in scientific circles or communities of religious liberals, “salvation” usually means to help people come to their full humanity here and now rather than elsewhere and later. Some say that, defined this way, we should slough off the religious jargon, and just speak in plain ordinary language: we’re hoping to help ourselves and our society become more integrated and whole around universally admired behaviors like fair play, truthtelling and compassion. For now, being able to use both jargon and plain talk will open the dialogue to a very wide spectrum of people and beliefs.

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday August 22, 2010 · 8:08 PM PDT

2010/08/22 · 20:08

Monday Musings on 21st Century Spirituality, #2
by Davidson Loehr
23 August 2010

"A Modern Option From the World's Oldest Story"

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday August 15, 2010 · 10:22 PM PDT

2010/08/15 · 22:22

Monday Musings on 21st century spirituality, #1
Davidson Loehr
Posted 8-16-2010: The Sad State of Religion in the U.S.

DavidsonLoehr

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Sunday July 25, 2010 · 9:57 PM PDT

2010/07/25 · 21:57

This may be so abstract most will stop reading – or fall asleep – within a couple paragraphs. But I’ll post this here as a DailyKos Dairy entry – too long, and second-draft – because Christopher Nolan has written and directed some illuminating and disturbing insights into reality vs. fantasy, truth vs. certainty, and what does or doesn’t ground our most fundamental understandings of meaning and purpose in life. The movie’s worth a couple Ph.D.s in philosophy and psychology (and a whole lot more fun than reading dissertations).

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) began “language philosophy,” and was one of the four most important philosophers in Western history (with Plato, Aristotle and Kant). OK, I could be biased: I did my dissertation on him two dozen years ago.

DavidsonLoehr

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Thursday July 15, 2010 · 4:24 AM PDT

2010/07/15 · 04:24

The Huffington Post’s surprising posting on July 2nd of what all liberals probably regard as Creationist propaganda (here: HuffPost Creationism Piece) can at least open the door for an acknowledgement of how deep and serious this issue is for Creationists, and why their intuition – as often – is more deeply right than they may know.

DavidsonLoehr

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Saturday July 10, 2010 · 9:17 PM PDT

2010/07/10 · 21:17

The Twilight series of vampire movies – about people who must suck life out of others to feed the black hole at their own center — is just the latest pack of emotionally engaging fantasies that can give people a better handle on being filled with "spirit" — nothing foofy: think of "a spirited animal" — a quality of aliveness that organized religions haven’t been able to match for over a century. (No U.S. religion has been able to keep up with population growth since the 1800s.)

DavidsonLoehr

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Thursday July 08, 2010 · 4:05 PM PDT

2010/07/08 · 16:05

Reading news stories about how, despite the best efforts of our leaders, we are at the brink of the worst Depression in the past century, has become surreal. It feels like those reports from mobsters or CIA officials that the victim -- with his hands tied behind him and two shots through the back of his head -- had committed suicide.

DavidsonLoehr

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Wednesday June 09, 2010 · 10:52 PM PDT

2010/06/09 · 22:52

The liberals all took this field trip to Egypt, stood too close to the ledge, and fell in De Nile. Now they're realizing that De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt. It's running full tilt through the Democratic party, and there may not be enough of those cute little life jackets to save them.

DavidsonLoehr

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Wednesday June 02, 2010 · 3:14 PM PDT

2010/06/02 · 15:14

Our soldiers are killing and dying for greed wrapped in the American flag. The only “freedom” being served is the freedom for our well-connected corporations to loot at will while our young men and women cover their backs. Memorializing the corporate greed for which most of our soldiers have fought and died is simply, and continually, pornographic.

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Monday Musings #6 — 9-20-10

Monday Musings #5: What's Truth Got To Do With It?

Monday Musing #4 — The Story of God's Birth

Science's Salvation Story

GROWING BEYOND RELIGION

GROWING BEYOND RELIGION

Wittgenstein would have liked "Inception"

Why the Creationists must fight evolution

The New Sunrise — and Twilight — of Religious Stories

What if the Plan is Working Perfectly?

Liberals are in Way too much Denial

Memorial Day's Bad Aftertaste