I’ve written a book summarizing my thoughts on life, truth, morality, and religion. About one-quarter of the book contains material from this blog (revised, re-written, and greatly improved), while the rest is new material never released before. The book is called The Triple Path. You can download it here (currently available in PDF, ePub, and Kindle formats (MOBI and AZW3)).
If the Triple Path rejects failed ancient cosmologies, then why still believe in God? Current scientific models give us tremendous insight into how the universe began and how it works, and into the origins of mankind. These models, however, also have significant gaps and cannot explain the root cause of many scientific observations. Why did the Big Bang happen? How and why do the fundamental forces work? How and why do the elementary particles exist? How did consciousness evolve? What…
Beyond studies of just the general effect of religiosity, prayer and meditation are two specific religious practices that have been shown to have positive effects. Prayer has a beneficial effect on the person who prays: it increases gratitude and has a strong relationship with hope and adult attachment.1 Praying for one’s partner also decreases infidelity in the person who prays (both unfaithful acts and thoughts) by increasing the perception that the relationship is sacred.2 Praying with and for one’s partner…
This post is a follow-up to my previous five-part series on Cosmology, Religion, and Reason. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here.Part four is here. Part five is here. In part five of my previous series on cosmology, I talked about some of the potential evolutionary explanations for the development of religion. Many of these evolutionary explanations are compelling, and it is likely that a combination of some or all of them may be right….
This is part five of a series. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. In the last post, I talked about the “Practical Approach” to religious claims. In this concluding post, I expand on this further and talk about adopting a reasonable approach to religion. Toward Reasonable Religion When you follow the practical approach, you accept that no matter what church you belong to, it is important to update your religious…
This is part four of a series. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part five is here. Last post, started talking about the first three of four possible reasonable approaches to religious claims: 1) the gaps approach; 2) the symbolic approach; 3) the rejection approach; and 4) the practical approach. In this post, I talk about my favored approach, the practical approach (presentist eclecticism). The Practical Approach (Presentist Eclecticism) The practical approach is to…
This is part three of a series. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Last post, I talked about the problems with adopting a literal approach to religions’ claims. As alternatives to the literal approach to religious teachings, I listed four reasonable approaches to religious claims beyond just relying on statements from purported authorities: 1) the gaps approach; 2) the symbolic approach; 3) the rejection approach; and 4) the practical approach….
This is part two of a series. Part one is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Last post, I talked about the great benefits that have come from religion, but also about how many of the great religions’ cosmological claims have been proven false. In this post, I’ll talk about the problem with adopting a literal approach to religions’ claims. Much of what our ancestors believed about cosmology is plainly contradicted by what…
This is part one of a series. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Over the tens of thousands of years of human existence, human cultures have developed much knowledge about creating and maintaining good relationships and building communities. In the development of human society over the last 100,000 years, humans moved from simple hunter-gatherer tribes to societies of increasing complexity and size. The large and complex societies of the last…
The following is from the book Revelations by Jacques Vallee. The book, which was published in 1992, is about UFOs (it debunks many of the strange conspiracy theories held by UFO enthusiasts and discusses some of the more notable UFO hoaxes). In one section, Vallee discusses the Ummo UFO phenomenon in Europe, which lasted for decades and involved people all over Europe and elsewhere receiving letters from unknown authors claiming to be aliens from the planet Ummo.1 To illustrate how…