In the debate between science (or materialism) and spirituality, there are few who embrace both sides of the coin, who can see that they are One.
Tag: spirituality
Animals Don’t Seem to Worship God, So Did Humans Invent God?
Did the idea of "God" only arise with humans? And if so, what does that say about the reality of God, and our relationship with God?
Is Spirituality compatible with Science? Mysticism may be Key
At times these seem to be at odds, but at the deepest level they may be One.
Thoughts about "From Naïveté to Wisdom," the Pattern of the Spiritual Journey
I want to say a few thoughts about Richard Rohr's daily meditation today about "From Naïveté to Wisdom." Please click the link to read it. It's a beautiful simplified perspective of the faith journey: from order, to disorder, and then reorder.
1 Thessalonians 1 BHT, Paul's First Words about the Word in the New Testament
An addition to the BHT, which may be the very earliest words written in the New Testament, around 50 AD, in Paul's letter to the family who are gathering in Thessaloniki. Paul is exuberant about their faith, and talks about how they knew it for themselves through the manifestation of the Spirit in themselves, after much suffering, just like Paul and Jesus. Their great example was quickly spreading abroad.
Reconstructing the narrative surrounding the origins of the Book of Mormon
It's taken more time to write about this reconstruction, because it is perhaps a more sensitive subject, and more complex, than any I have written before about Mormonism or Christianity, yes, even more so than Jesus or Joseph Smith (which might be an indication that something is off-kilter). The Salt Lake City based Latter-day Saints take the Book of Mormon very seriously as a holy text, as scripture revealed by God, similar to the Bible, and perhaps even more important than the Bible. The Book of Mormon is one thing that makes them unique, their own testament of the divinity of "Jesus Christ," which they believe is also evidence of the unique prophethood of Joseph Smith and the divinity of the church he organized as God's "true church." But I think the truth may be much more nuanced.
1 Corinthians 15 BHT, Paul’s Earliest Witness of the Resurrection into Christ Consciousness, the “Gospel”
An addition to the BHT, containing the earliest account of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ in the New Testament, where Paul describes his witness of the resurrection and what it means to be resurrected into Christ consciousness. This seems to be an excellent summary of the Christian Gospel, or "good news," but it is something which I think we've generally misunderstood in Christianity for centuries. I feel that this is one of the most important translations of the BHT that I have been given the Grace to work out yet—yet not I. I was in tears by the end.
Self-Sacrifice Does Not Mean Self-Hatred
If this "self" is the source of our Fall, of our problems, of our separation from God, of our illusions of reality, of errors, sins, and delusions, then it can become very easy to begin to dislike this "self." It can turn into forms of self-hatred.
Sam Harris talks with Michael Pollan about Psychedelics and Mystical-Spiritual Experience
This morning I listened to a podcast conversation between neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris and bestselling journalist and author Michael Pollan about Pollan's new book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.
What is Religious Experience For?
What is religious experience for? Why is it a part of our human evolution and biology? The religious scholar and author of the book God: A Human History, Reza Aslan, says in the video below: