God does not have to be at odds with what we learn from science. We need to reinterpret our ideas of God from direct mystical experience, and I think we'll find our science and spirituality are One.
Tag: energy
Qualia, Consciousness, Christ, and Cosmos
What is qualia? What is the source of individual instances of subjective conscious experience, like seeing the redness of an apple? Where does the redness come from? I don't know, but here are some ideas. Energy in our environment impinges upon our sense organs causing a cascade of electrochemical reactions and nerve impulses that are [...]
Reconstructing Mormonism’s “Holy Ghost”
The "Holy Ghost" is perhaps one of the most mysterious figures in Mormon theology (and perhaps more generally in Christianity). Many Mormons likely know this being of the Godhead as a "personage of spirit," which "has not a body of flesh and bones," "were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell within us" (D&C 130:22). This already begins to sound quite supernatural, a ghostly person that may come and dwell within me? How are we to make sense of this?
My Thoughts on the New Age, and How It Differs from Mysticism
I am not fond of much of the New Age movement. Sometimes my thoughts about mysticism may seem like the New Age, but I think that is because the New Age has adopted a lot of mystical language and concepts, not that classical mysticism inherently belongs to the New Age. They are two different fields, which have some overlap. The New Age developed just in the 1970s. Mysticism has been around for millennia, indeed, for all of human history, in every part of the world.
What is the Spirit or Soul?
Many religious people believe that the spirit or soul is the ego-self, our personality, the person we think we are in our heads, our psychological "self," with all our memories and experiences and relationships, etc. But none of this existed at our birth.
Four Types or Stages of Resurrection
It seems to me that there are at least four types of resurrection, or at least four stages of the process of being resurrected, or events that could be considered resurrection.
Which comes first? Consciousness or Matter?
A day or two ago, you stated that consciousness arises in matter of sufficient complexity. If you know Spira, you probably know he asserts something different, which is that matter and mind and everything else rise out of and are ‘made of’ consciousness. Just wondering if you disagree with him there, and if so, why?
“Science & Spirituality” a TEDx talk by Jeff Lieberman
This is one of the best TEDx talks I've encountered. In it Jeff Lieberman talks about science and spirituality the same as I have experienced them, including regarding the unitive mystical experience as perhaps the ultimate value in human life.
John 1 BHT, The One
An addition to the BHT, the first chapter of John which talks about the One from which all of reality has emerged, and of which all of reality is.