an emergent evolutionary force, that pushes and pulls us to go forward in the directions we deem wise. we have some control, if we desire to use it, and we have responsibility, if we can rise to it.

we have joy when we see our judgments favoured by chance, we have sorrow when we don't, and are forced to wake up the inner pilot to chart a new course.

we have some choice as to how freely we think, and can develop the skill, if we are careful not to tumble into the many traps (of dualistic false thinking) surrounding us, indeed fed to us along with our mother's milk, in many or most cases...

spirituality is as glandular as reproduction or migration, we respond to ancient urges that outrule and outweigh reason/rationality, then rationalise to try and justify our choices and actions in hindsight, often with heavy coats of denial, because we find some parts of our beings do not jive with the preferred image we hold and aspire to, and we cannot explain the violence of our passions, once they have typhooned across our inner landscape.

raised by authoritarian, psychologically inastute forces, whether through family, schools, the military, churches, all persuading us that to allow ourselves the freedom to question anything supposedly set in stone is arrogant, that we need to bow our heads to others before daring to voice our own opinions.

god is surely that freedom to think and feel as we're designed to be, ourselves, unique yet universal.

our job as humans seems to be a student of life, aligning our own micro sense of what's right with our own world and person with the communities around us, especially those who think outside the boxes, and encourage each other to dive deeper into the wonder of exchange, how a conversation is always more than the sum of its parts, and by offering our perceptions to the pie, we can make it more interesting for others to enjoy.

whether someone prays to ziggy marly posters or hindu shrines, chicken feathers or buttered lingams is their private affair, like their taste in literature or home furnishings.

we all dialogue with deep parts of ourselves on sleepless nights, no one is immune, rich or poor, young or old.

some find mystery enough gazing at the stars, and wondering how we got here, and why, others feel a love permeating the universe that equally mysteriously is able to enter the deepest folds of our inner sanctum, and make love for/from creation something extraordinarily, all-logic-defyingly personal.

some do, some don't, easy as that.

some sleep easy as babes, some toss and turn. some feel happier in their certainties that a god as portrayed by others must be a myth, a hodgepodge of derelict baloney, weak crutches for foolish, disordered minds, unable to face reality without an imaginary friend, (one whose oft-presumed omnipotence permits the most bloodcurdlingly appalling events to occur daily, incidentally).

no proof or need for magic sky bunnies! we have what we need in a material, rational sense to conquer our challenges without wasting time praying for things to change or occur, we can plan them and execute our plans, see? no voodoo there!

maybe god was a hologram of our collective conscience, passed down along with cosmologies, genealogies, and maps to the dreamtime, and now since we are risking the moral highwire of life without the balancing pole of traditional religions, do we really need any othere divisive superstitions to take their place? sure there's still a phantom limb pain or two, and a bloodsoaked black hole in our guts where we had them pulled out, but we are still human, aren't we? we still function, live, love, work, play, go to movies and wish we weren't so lonely sometimes and someone strong and kind would pick us up and hold us, like when we were babies, and trusted the world to be soft and pleasurable, warm and joyful.

going forward? how? communist-INO consumerism? low footprint producerist communal mini-centres, all noded?

without a healthy planet, we will not have the luxury to debate these salons about existentiality, metaphysics, teleology and such, fun though they can be. i'd love to see a future where these divisions in how we perceive and practice our divinity are understood as primitive fumblings in the cavern of our curiosity, and now we have a planetary imperative that is frankly orders of magnitude more vital and awe-inspiring than all the religions' messages, (90% proprietary DRM on an originally simple, homespun, a child-can-figure-it-out simplicity).

science, an incredible set of analytical and consensus building tools, is clear that we are on an unsustainable path as the world-affecting species, and suggests other alternatives than prayer to try and solve the problems facing us, and how to deal with the fabric of life as we have numbly known it being ripped by events far beyond our control. if prayer is the best we can do, then fine! let us pray for the wisdom to get out of this mess, and do honour to That which created this awful, yet redeemable situation knowing we can make a happy ending to this chapter of life's tale, if (once) we collectively bend enough our our collective minds to it.

whether your co-pilot has a name and a face, or whether you fly with only humans for companionship, we are all on this flight together, and the reserves are dwindling while we argue about the silliest of things, and often miss the ones right in front of our noses that we could be doing to bring a peaceful world for our descendants.

mormons have funny underpants, ooo. hindus walk on coals, oo.

so freakin what? is it that which will guide us to where we want to go?

thanks for letting me rant on your diary, lily.

this chosen ones business is what sows the cain abel rivalry, imo. every decent parent knows better than to set siblings off with favouritism, god is not an idiot.

this chosen thingy is pure human deviltry.

lily, you are smart and educated. do you really think if jesus came here to show us better way as he did, that he would want others who had found the kingdom of heaven within themselves to feel perhaps that their choice of ways was being devalued by claims that his way was the best, like some brand promotion for soap powder? if it is the best for you,  why not share that with others as your testimonial?

to my mind this apple of discord (specialness) is being transplanted from the area of race (jews are somehow more interesting to god), or geography, (our temple is under your temple, therefore is the true one), and now it's your Portal choice that has to be THE one, and the BEST and how would/do you feel when someone comes and bores away at your beliefs with their conviction that saturday is really the day of reat, and only 144000 are going to survive the apocalypse?

i sympathise with atheists, it's a no-brainer to reject a priori any kind of response to the affliction of separation that involves acts of cruelty, (religions go for this stuff bigtime, ever notice?), great stores of riches and fine apparel, so jesus-like, lol).

it's a hard roe to hoe, defending religion these days.

but not spirituality, however you may wish to define it. whatever floats your boat as long as it's not crashing into the others and trying to sink them.

the fear that comes through when christians/catholics talk about provinces of the subconscious we are counselled to avoid, or leave to experts trained in the necessary discernment, is quite tangible. so what if some are throwing cards or gazing into crystal, whatever, if they care about their fellow man, why not leave them get on with it?

the way, the one and only way, yada yada, why can't you admit the world can figure things out for themselves without Your Special Brand Being the Only way forward for everyone? it's irritating, comes off sanctimonious and snobby, excluding and judgmental rather than judicious. no religion is so pure it can claim patent on truths that have been around a lot longer than mankind and will outlive us... least of all a church with such a bloodstained history of turning free thinking souls into martyrs.

peace to all the loving catholics i have met, who have transcended their addiction to superiority-waving. and to all other sentient beings!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

Your religion appears to amount to "We don't understand some stuff, so we made some stuff up." Fables for those too arrogant and too insecure to say "We don't know some stuff. We may not be able to know some stuff."

Seriously, "science can't come up with an explanation for intelligence or love"? Science can come up with a lot of explanations, the problem is winnowing them - it's pretty hard to do without knowing the precise historical circumstances in which either intelligence or love evolved. Note also that science is required to provide a full explanation whereas religion can just waves its hands and mumble mystical, allegorical noises

But even if we couldn't explain it, that doesn't justify the leap to imaginary sky people or etheral bodies or chakras. It would just mean out explicative powers were limited, which is hardly surprising.

Yet (weak) atheists are the arrogant ones?

First, there are no "Darwinists" left anymore. There really hasn't been since the modern synthesis in the mid-20th century.

Second, the Big Bang has nothing to do with evolution, Darwinian or otherwise. Were steady-state cosmology, or even geocentrism, to pull some startling new discovery out of a hat that overturned big bang cosmology, it would do precisely nothing to change evolutionary biology. Cosmology stopped being biologically interesting a few hundred million years before the last universal common ancestor(s).

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.