--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote: > > From atheist materialist Deric Bownd's MindBlog: > > Reinventing the sacred > > Those of us who are hard core materialists and have no use for > explanations of the natural order provided by any of the main > religions do have the problem of aridity. Being an atheistic > secularist is not as warm and cuddly as the warm blanket of religious > certainty and the social support provided by some religious settings. > Even though I agree with sentiments in such recent books as "The God > Delusion", "The end of Faith" and "God is not Great" I wish they > could come forward with more compelling alternatives for maintaining > the robustness of our evolved psychology. > > Stuart Kauffman, the guy who has done a number of books on chaos, > self organization, and emergence theory, has stepped forward to offer > a new book, "Reinventing the Sacred," in which he suggests that we > turn our reverence towards a "natural God" seen not as a supernatural > Creator but as the natural creativity in the universe - a universe in > which the unpredictable emergence of novelty is a daily occurrence. > > "If we reinvent the sacred to mean the wonder of the creativity in > the universe, biosphere, human history, and culture, are we not > inevitably invited to honor all of life and the planet that sustains > it?" > Noble sentiments, indeed, but still not developed into a form > accessible or useful to the vast majority of humans who crave > certainly and structure in their lives. "Unpredictable emergence of > novelty" is not exactly a warm blanket. I wish I had any better > ideas..... > > Get religious to improve self control? > > >  > > Here is a curious piece by John Tierney noting the work of Michael > McCullouch, who provides evidence that religiosity correlates with > higher self-control among adults. > > âBrain-scan studies have shown that when people pray or meditate, > thereâs a lot of activity in two parts of brain that are important > for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion,â he > said. âThe rituals that religions have been encouraging for > thousands of years seem to be a kind of anaerobic workout for self- > control.â > > In a study published by the University of Maryland in 2003, students > who were subliminally exposed to religious words (like God, prayer or > bible) were slower to recognize words associated with temptations > (like drugs or premarital sex). Conversely, when they were primed > with the temptation words, they were quicker to recognize the > religious words. > What should a heathen like myself do? > > Dr. McCulloughâs advice is to try replicating some of the religious > mechanisms that seem to improve self-control, like private meditation > or public involvement with an organization that has strong ideals. > Charlie Lutes pointed out religion and spirituality are not the same in one of his talks and, one of the ancient Chinese sages observed that organized religion is the last place to go for understanding. "Unpredictable emergence of novelty" looks like another term for Murphy's law and, people needing predictability, should maybe be working on their predicting. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere but I think that enlightenment would include Mr. Murphy working in your best interest. N.
