Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Playing hide and seek with G*D
Why we don’t look in churches anymore. Where do you go on Sundays if you are “spiritual but not religious”? Oft-cited Pew Research Center surveys report an increase in the percentage of respondents who answer “None” when asked to name their religious identity: from about 16% in 2007 to around 29% in 2018. Not surprisingly, their…
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Lessons from a year of writing on Medium.
A little more than a year ago, I started posting short essays and other thoughts here on Medium. Like many others, I have always loved writing in various vocations and avocations, and I was enchanted by the ease of this attractive, ad-free platform. After a few trial essays went off into the silence, as they…
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Stop looking. Start seeing.
Along with other inquirers, I’ve written in these pages about the “do it yourself” nature of many of our spiritual or religious journeys. I’ve reflected on the language we use to shape our beliefs and wondered cynically whether those beliefs might actually be merely aspects of our own personalities. But now I want to look…
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A rude and wild internal child
A few years back, it was popular to speak of “re-parenting” oneself; of getting in touch with your “inner child” and working through exercises of forgiveness and self-understanding. I got in touch with my inner child once. I immediately sent her to her room. I’m being deliberately flip to mask a serious subject, because even though I’ve…
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“Don’t know much about history…”
Sam Cooke wrote the song that begins with this line in 1960, and a procession of diverse artists have covered it since then. If you are from the right generation (the huge cohort that followed the “Greatest Generation” and thus were destined, by definition, to be inferior), then you have probably heard this song, and…
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Thinking with the mind of the world
It surprises me that I’m about to talk about some visions that I have experienced in my life as a self-styled seeker. I’m talking about actual visions that occurred while stone cold sober— scenes I could see perfectly that I knew no one else would be able to see. I never said much about them…
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What we talk about when we talk about G*d
At this stage of my life, I find myself increasingly seeking simplicity on many questions. While I’ve always been happy to analyze, over-analyze, and problematize important issues about life, language, religious expressions, and the best office supplies, I am now more interested in the irreducible questions at the core of these issues. Right now, I’m…
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Rev Dr Sparky on Real/igion 