The conversation continues, drawing in more and more participants. Barefoot Bum is suspicious of the metaphorical interpretation of religion – he is an atheist who appreciates poetry and metaphor, and even psychological experiences that may be described as mystical, but wonders whether this is not just a “wedge” to get claims about traditional theistic concepts of God in the door. Doug Chaplin emphasizes that there is no such thing as pure experience. We always interpret our experiences in light of... Read more

The conversation has been joined by Abnormal Interests, who views the language of religion as extra baggage that makes the trip less enjoyable. Now as someone who has lugged multiple pieces of very heavy luggage on trips from one country to another, I definitely don’t want to drag along unnecessary dead weight – it does indeed spoil the trip. So why not just do away with the metaphors and speak in plain language? Because I don’t think we can speak... Read more

Larry Moran has said he gets what I’m saying, but it is just the old argument from experience. But I think there is a difference. I’m not claiming to have experienced aliens or other beings within the world that he’s never seen and has no evidence of. I’m claiming to experience the universe we inhabit itself in a different way. How do we compare our different subjective experiences of existence? I’m not talking about dreams – I’m talking about how... Read more

To some, the notion of “avant garde Christianity” sounds like a contradiction in terms. Isn’t Christianity about “telling the old old story”, they might ask. But this is really no different than those who respond to avant garde music by saying “You call that music?” and those who respond to a canvas filled with abstract shapes with “This is art?!” Such “music” and “art” is never where the majority of musicians and artists are “at”, but it keeps these enterprises... Read more

There is a conversation going on around the blogosphere. It includes Larry Moran’s posts on “Sophisticated Religion“, “Sophisticated Believers“, and most recently “Clear as Mud”. Drew Tatusko has contributed a post on “God and Supernaturalism“as well as “Dear Atheist“. My own posts include “Does Being Exist?” and “Not Getting Through“. Carlo posted on “How To Speak To Scientists” and Qalmlea posted “Dragon Winds Around the Pillar“. Would if be going too far to say that those who have had mystical... Read more

If the title of this post seems odd, I agree. But it helpfully shows why adherents to panentheism, Sufi Islam, some branches of Buddhism, process theology, existentialist theology, linguistic theology and pantheism (and perhaps others such as “mystical atheists“) find themselves frustrated by repeated questions such as “What sophisticated arguments can you offer for the existence of supernatural beings?” Paul Tillich, one of the great and extremely influential theologians of the 20th century, spoke of God as Being itself rather... Read more

IO9 just shared a link to a web site that tries to explain what is going on on LOST in terms of time travel, time displacement and time loops. Fans will definitely want to take a look! Read more

Amused Muse points out that the Discovery Institute is closer to Hitler’s view than those they accuse. For those who still know what “right wing” means, this is no surprise. Also at Pharyngula, which has another post on a University being taken to court because it dares to point out that some religious views are wrong about the facts. John Pieret also covers this topic. Ben Stein is still wrong in a way that can result in the loss of... Read more

Many fans of LOST have noticed how Christian Shepherd has appeared different, and dressed differently, than in previous appearances. There are two possible explanations for this, both of which would make sense in terms of the mytholology and worldview of LOST. The first option is that Christian is himself involved with either Widmore or the Others and can travel through time. In that case, Christian as we have seen him in the last two episodes has travelled from some time... Read more

Is it just me wanting to ask questions that Larry Moran doesn’t consider interesting, or am I genuinely having trouble getting through? Here’s what he wrote in a recent comment on his blog, in response to my response to his response to… The question that interests me is whether supernatural beings exist. If there are “religious believers” who are atheists then that’s fine by me. Why would I want to have any further conversation with them? This debate over “sophisticated”... Read more