(cc) maf04 The simple definition of the word “home” by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary reads: “the place (such as a house or apartment) where a person lives.” So what if your soul feels at home somewhere other than where you currently live?  This can create a painful paradox, one my wife and I have been forced to explore recently.  Can you have physical and spiritual homes that are both in different places? What does it take to bind one’s spirit... Read more

(cc) new 1lluminati If asked about my religion, I humorously answer that I am a “Space-age Taoist, Black Sheep Catholic, Perennial Philosophy Pantheist, Dharma Bum.”  In other words I am a spiritual mutt. In the Western tradition there is a sense that one should belong to one religion – to adhere to more than one belief system is seen as a lack of seriousness.  Underlying this conviction is the belief that there is one true religion.  And behind this belief... Read more

Series: Evaluating Reality Using Science Written by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Intentional Insights Co-Founder and President. Graphics by Cerina Gillilan    Clearing your mental cache is an effective way to remove your anchoring bias Communication and Long-Distance Relationships In my early twenties, I said goodbye to my family in New York City and moved to Boston for graduate school. While I’d been living in my parents’ house, I talked to my mother, father, and teenage brother all the time, and felt... Read more

Episode 11: Jennifer Hancock is a Humanist author, speaker, and teacher of online courses in the Humanist approach to happiness. She also publishes the “Happiness through Humanism” blog and podcast. Today she joins us to discuss how Humanist philosophy has helped her and can help others. Listen to the Podcast here Click here to get Email notices of new episodes and SNS articles Learn about Membership in the Spiritual Naturalist Society See a full episode list at our main page... Read more

I didn’t wake up one day and decide to become a Spiritual Naturalist. I was drawn to it by the evidence. Years of learning nudged me closer and closer. But eventually, I came to realize that Spiritual Humanistic Naturalism was the best worldview available. I want to share with you some of the evidence that drew me to Spiritual Naturalism, and some that I have discovered afterward. My desire is not to convince you, but to show you that Spiritual... Read more

Competition has long been regarded as the main dynamic in the way that humans and other living things interact with one another. It was a familiar concept early on for those living in the capitalist economies of Europe and America. When Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, he put the stamp of science on a belief that people harbored, then and since, in their daily struggles. Cooperation, by comparison, has barely acquired a foothold with the public as a fundamental... Read more

This has been a season of nasty politics, concerns about our government, environmental fears, social injustice, mass shootings, terrorism, racial tensions, and violence. On social media, on talk radio, on television, and around our communities – it is not difficult to see the agony, rising tensions, fear, hate, and suffering taking place everywhere. This, from the constant onslaught of such stressful events and the persistent conditions that inspire them. People are wringing their hands as to what can be done,... Read more

Sam Harris (2012), who is an atheist, argues that we should use the word spiritual, while Tom Flynn (2016), who is the Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism, says we shouldn’t. Tom Flynn rightly calls us to be careful about our language. There can be no doubt that the words spirit and spiritual are problematic, at least in their modern connotation. The word spirit is derived from the Latin spiritus, which in turn is a translation of the Greek... Read more

Episode 10: In this episode we are talking about building a spiritual practice. What is a spiritual practice for? What is the function of a practice? A spiritual practice is more than talk, it is about creating good habits. Click here to listen to Episode 10 Click here to get Email notices of new episodes and SNS articles Learn about Membership in the Spiritual Naturalist Society See a full episode list at our main page for the Spiritual Naturalism Today podcast __________ The... Read more