Most of all, there are some stellar explanations of Buddha’s teachings, and Osho’s wording has made this one of my favorite Buddhist books. So, instead of writing a review, I’m going to share some of my favorite snippets from the book. If you share any of these please attribute them to Osho:

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Buddha is a rationalist. He’s not like Jesus and he is not like Krishna — he’s absolutely a rationalist. Einstein, Newton or Edison would not find any flaw in his reasoning. Any scientist will be immediately convinced of his truth. His approach is purely logical, he convinces the mind. You cannot find a loophole in him.

You can look for loopholes in Jesus, there are many–because Jesus believes, trusts, he has faith. Jesus is like a child. . . . But not so with Buddha.

Even a man like Bertand Russell, who was an atheist, purely logical, has said, “Jesus I can fight–with Buddha I start feeling hesitant.”

No belief is required to travel with Buddha. You can come to him with all your skepticism.

He [Buddha] never talks about God.  H.G. Wells said about Buddha, “He is the most godly and the most godless man in the whole history of man.”

Buddha says once you understand that you are lost and you have to find your own way and there is no help coming, you become responsible. Prayer is irresponsible. To pray is just to avoid responsibility, to pray is to be lazy. You can meditate, you cannot pray.

Nothing belongs to you, nothing can belong to you. Once is a homeless wanderer in the very nature of things. . . Buddha says to understand this homelessness is to become a sannyasin. There is no necessity that you leave home.  . .  You can remain in the home, but it is no longer a home for you. You know you don’t possess it.

If you go on rationalizing your errors . . . and all errors can be rationalized, remember it. But Buddha says, such a person is bound to become more and more unconscious, more and more deeply unaware.

There seems to be tremendous guilt. Just think if Jesus were not crucified, there would have been no Christianity. It is not Jesus that has created Christianity, it is the cross. That’s why the cross became a symbol to Christianity. I call Christianity Cross-ianity. In fact is the cross, it is the death that created the guilt.

A man like Buddha has to be contradictory. He has to contain all contradictions because he contains all the possibilities of humanity.

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One of the things I really like about  this book is Osho starts each chapter with a segment from The Sutra of 42 Chapters, then goes on to give his interpretation which is quite different than anything I’d think of on my own. For those of us in the West, particularly we science types, it’s difficult not to read everything as literal.

For instance one of the chapters starts with “Those who shave their heads and faces become shramanas . .  .” Osho says, “These are just gestures, don’t take them literally. The only meaning is that you are ready to go with Buddha.” Quite often, Osho will say, “Don’t take this literally. It means this . . . ” I found that very helpful as I tend to take words literally.

Osho was the subject of controversy in the US, and I’m not surprised. He taught against the idea of God and his talks were also turned into this The God Conspiracy: The Path from Superstition to Super Consciousness book form.

All Osho books are from talks he gave. I also really enjoyed Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance (Insights for a New Way of Living), Zen: The Path of Paradox, Tao: The Pathless Pat. The one on Tao was really good!

Here is a list of books based on his talks: Books by OSHO

(If you want to start a Buddhist practice, or revive your current one, join our Weekly Practice on the Secular Buddhist Association site)

Orthoceras Fossil

I like rocks, or rather, I am endlessly fascinated by rocks. While many people simply walk over rocks, kick them out of the way, skip them over calm waters, I spend a lot of time looking at, reading about, and studying rocks.

In fact, I often carry them in my pockets, so they eventually end up getting bathed in my washing machine accidentally. But that’s ok, because one thing that strikes me over and over is that rocks don’t suffer. No dukkha of any kind for rocks!

Rocks go through amazing physical changes through heat, pressure, erosion, mixing with other rocks, having their atoms rearranged, being ground down by wind and rain, washed to sea, compacted back into new rock, sucked down into the earth, reheated, liquified, then changed again numerous times over in the course of a few billion years. Through all that, the rocks don’t care.

In fact, even though we pick up rocks, can even own them for a long period of time, a rock is never a rock per say. It’s current state is temporary, like everything else. Over the billions of years and the many forms rocks take, change is never a problem for the atoms that make up rocks. Rocks can hang around long enough to be history keepers, or in a the blink of an eye they can be blown to smithereens. It doesn’t matter to the rock.

We are not so lucky. The solar system is a big place. There are many rocks in various forms from solid planets and asteroids to icy comets cruising through, to tiny grains floating about. Wandering about our sun, eight planets orbit along with tons of rocks and bits of ice. But only on one planet is there suffering; the planet that has life, life with consciousness, with self awareness.

It’s amazing to me that rocks can undergo such massive change over billions of years without a squeak of complaint, yet we go through changes for a mere 75 years or so, and we complain from the moment we are born until the day we day we die.  We are here but a blink of an eye in geological time. Yet to us, it is a lifetime.

That which is without consciousness, awareness of what is happening to it, does not suffer. It’s easy to discount inanimate objects, and those living things without brains/consciousness. Yet, who is going through the suffering, the pain, the angst? How much of our suffering is worsened, even created out of the “advanced” cognition of our big brains, those thoughts and emotions that remind us how miserable we may be? The stories we form in our minds that worsen situations?

True a rock does not experience pleasure and beauty, but neither do they cling to such experiences, grasp at the opposite of suffering to prevent suffering, which of course, just brings more suffering.

As I walk among the edges of a riverbed, I am enamored by the stillness, the peacefulness, the wonder of the rocks and trees just being. I realize the noisiness of thoughts in my head, the judgements, the expectations, and yes, the appreciation, the gratitude.

I climb onto a granite boulder. The surface is rough and cool. I see bits of mica among the quartz. This rock has been through so many changes to reach its current temporary state, thrust up through the crust, only to be weathered and roughened by rain and wind. I sit on it without worry of disturbing it, feeling the quiet of this massive clump of atoms, and I appreciate what it is, but even more what it is not.

Cold water flows over the riverbed, polishing the river rocks smooth and clean. All is well. The many changes taking place before my eyes do not disturb the rocks. Can I ever be so accepting and adaptive to change? Consciousness, while it’s absolutely necessary for a human being to function, is quite unnecessary to the inanimate objects and peace that surrounds me. They are not burdened with self awareness.

One day my atoms will return to the earth, maybe some of them will join other atoms that make up rocks, trees, the clouds in the sky. It’s a soothing thought to me, a wonderful feeling, like knowing my atoms had come from the crucible of a star that died in super nova long ago. We are just star stuff after all. All the suffering we experience is but a temporary problem of consciousness.

The Buddha seemed to think, and spent a lot of time teaching, that this consciousness can be trained to let go the attachment to self awareness, the suffering the mind tends to create, and instead cultivate equanimity.  Perhaps . . .

The need for such a site came up over and over again in conversations on Facebook, in Second Life, and in person. Secular Buddhism is gaining popularity, but people have been floundering for good expert information via articles, videos, and interviews, and people have asked for a community (sangha).

As Community Manager and computer geek by profession, I have been eager to work on this project for some time. The planning stages were difficult for me, and an excellent lesson in patience, the virtue of forward thinking, and right timing. Maybe Right Timing should be added to the Eightfold Path:-)

This morning Ted and I did a podcast about the site and community, which will be published next weekend. The site and community, however, are open and ready to serve the Secular Buddhist Community. It’s an exciting time, and I am more than pleased to be one of the facilitators of the new wave of Buddhism in the US.

Please visit the site, enjoy the content, and interact with others in the discussion forums and comments on content pages!

Visit The Secular Buddhist Association.

I’ve considered myself mostly free of beliefs, until recently.

In my early years, mathematics and I were not friends. I didn’t understand it. No one seemed able to explain it to me. And it took until I was in the 9th grade before I finally passed basic arithmetic. Throughout my life I have successfully avoided math, or found ways to get other people to do the calculations for me. Resourceful I am!

But in recent years my love of science has exposed me to people who not only could do math well, but they consider math beautiful, essential, and “the language of the universe.” I’ve had a growing curiosity over this reverence for math, especially how it applies to the universe and everything in it. A budding desire to understand math began to emerge.

There was a big problem though. My mind harbors the beliefs that math is hard, if not impossible (based on experience), that math is useless (apparently based on ignorance), and that I can’t learn math (again previous experience). Beliefs can feel like a tall brick wall, impenetrable and frustrating. How could I learn math with beliefs creating this kind of mindset?

Fortunately, I also knew from past experience that beliefs are not truths, even when they may emerge from personal experience. Beliefs are emotional reactions, and often from the past. I realized I would have to overcome these beliefs with new experiences, with determination, and with a whole lot of mindfulness.

Because I’ve had such a noxious feeling towards math, I decided I needed to seep my mind in the experiences of those who love math, who think math is the most wondrous thing in the universe. I needed to read the point of view that was opposite of my beliefs.

So I bought books by authors who wrote about math with love and adoration. I listened to scientists talk about how beautifully math explains the universe. These new positive viewpoints piqued my curiosity even more. I wanted to see what the scientists saw. I wanted to understand math, not just learn how to do math.

Little by little, I over-rode the belief that math was horrible and impossible. The people I exposed myself to convinced me. But still I needed to learn it, and how would I overcome the belief that I personally could not do math? Like anything else, I needed to start at the beginning. I needed to rewrite my experience of learning, doing, and understanding math. Most of all, I knew I had to be patient and gentle with myself.

As I’ve been watching countless videos with math teachers explaining equations and formulas, reading a textbook and doing the problems, my confidence grows as I get the right answers. But mindfulness plays a huge part here. I noticed when I got to equations that included fractions, my internals would tighten up. I wanted to skip that section. So many years of mindfulness practice just won’t allow for that.

Instead, I realized wherever I felt squeamish, instead of avoiding the uncomfortable feeling, the rising of those ugly beliefs coming to discourage me, I had to face them down. I took extra time watching videos on fractions, reading over and over in the textbook, and doing additional problems. It helped in heaps. Squeamishness was replaced with confidence and knowledge.

Now, instead of feeling fear when a problem gets sticky, I can turn that into a challenge to overcome. Always I have to be mindful of the initial reaction, the feelings that arise, and correct my response accordingly. In this way I am creating new experiences and overcoming old beliefs. I’m seeing the beauty of math, understanding how the equations work in addition to knowing how to do them.

Beliefs are natural. We create them in response to our experiences. But rarely do beliefs prove useful over the course of time, and beliefs don’t automatically speak of truth. In fact, if you really examine your beliefs, you’ll discover they are fiction. Beliefs can be manipulated.

What it comes down to is that it’s not a matter of whether or not a belief is true, but whether or not it’s serving you well so that you are seeing reality for what it is. Math is math. Math as a monster was a belief.

Fortunately, through mindfulness and determination, beliefs can be overwritten through new behavior, new information, and new experience, and intense attitude adjustments. Without the filter of belief, we can see things for what they really are. Reality.

Read the second article on this topic Mindfulness of the Engaged, Busy Mind which details what math is teaching me about how I think, etc.

There are studies being done on why people have beliefs. One article that explains belief really well in evolutionary terms is Why Bad Beliefs Don’t Die. That article is a must for anyone wanting to understand how beliefs work, and why some people cling so stubbornly in spite of evidence to the contrary.

But what I find really interesting as I speak with more atheists is why young children who are raised in religious households drop the god belief by age 12. It turns out there are many of us out there, and what fascinates me is that we didn’t have atheist influences. On the contrary, many, if not most of us, didn’t know anyone who didn’t believe in god, and we, like the children around us, were being raised with religion, went to church, said grace, and spoke our nightly prayers.

Yet, in spite of strong religious influences from family and friends, we had doubts as early as 5 years old. It seems from discussions I’ve had that what pecked at the edges of our own beliefs were the contradictions we saw or heard, and the obvious immorality of a god who punishes with eternal damnation. For instance, the racism my family expressed bothered me morally, yet they justified their discrimination with our religion. Additionally, I recall being really upset that god had flooded and killed everyone on the planet except for Noah and his family, and ark of animals.

Next, flaws in logic bothered me. I felt it bad enough to kill off a planet of people, but how was Noah to prevent the lions from eating the deer. How could he have enough food for all the animals and his family? And how could all the races of people come from Noah’s family? And did Noah have children with his daughters?  This was ONE family after all?

So, while much of the world seems to think religion is the bases for morality, it seems that many of us became atheist because we feel a stronger sense of ethics than the religion we were having foisted on us. And that is true not only for young atheists, but most who become atheist in adulthood.

Atheism does not happen overnight, as it seems to be with some born again Christians, but instead is a progression from doubt, which leads to questioning, and eventually for most of us, a lot of reading of the bibles. In fact, a poll in the US showed that on a poll of 32 questions about religion Atheists and Jews scored the highest, while Christians scored the lowest. Question about the Bible: Ask an Atheist.

Many atheists say that what killed their belief in god was reading the bibles, but for many of us bible reading didn’t come until later in life, often after the god belief was dropped. I didn’t actually read the bibles until four years after I’d declared myself an atheist. Then reading the bibles, many versions of them, simply affirmed for me the stories were immoral and myth.

I’m hoping that psychologists and socialists will do studies on atheists who dropped their believes before the age of 12. It would be interesting to know what factors triggered doubt about god in some children while not at all in others. Perhaps there is something neurobiological going on there, or perhaps it is simply tied to that period of time between 8-12 when most of us realize there is no Easter bunny, Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus.

At any rate, I hope studies address belief, and what happens in the brains of those of us who drop belief. With the 7% of scientists who believe in god, I’m betting that they were doused in religion as small children, and they simply have not been able to let go of the fear of not believing. I think the article I mentioned above, Why Bad Beliefs Don’t Die, explains those scientists well.   But I could be wrong, and I do think the study NDT has suggested would be an interesting one, as well as studies on why religious children become atheists.

Cannon on hike

On a local hiking trail, there is an amazing little grove of madrones, tucked away among a variety of oak trees. I told my friend Heather once that she should check them out, as they seem a great place to allow the emotional floodgates to open. “Of course, they are,” she said. “Madrones have a similar past-life history like redwoods, so they help take your sorrows and transform them.” I don’t know about that. But I’ve been going to the woods for solace since I was a child.

Starting from about age six, when the weather was nice, I’d feel myself grow tense as the adults had their after work drinks and arguments. The noise was overwhelming, so I’d slip outside, hop on my bike, and ride up to the El Cerrito hills. At the base, I’d drop my bike and hike up to the trees. Children don’t need trails, and it didn’t matter where I climbed. I’d sit near the trees and watch the sky change as the sun began to set. When stars came out, I’d hear my mom from down below yelling my name, and I’d return home for dinner.

These days, when things get tough, I still seek the company of trees. Today Cannon and I went to New Almaden Quick Silver. The trails there are beautiful, and since this was a weekday, we had the park nearly to ourselves. Somehow when I’m overcome with sadness and fear, it always helps to move, to walk, to release physical energy. And the woods is a place of peace and calm for me.

The weight of grief hit me, though, when I came to the madrones, as I thought of Heather and how much I miss her, how funny she was. I realized I had to stop thinking about her in terms of missing her, but instead just view it as reminiscing about her. Still, it’s hard.

Heather shared my love of trees, but her view was always more colorful and imaginative. She knew several of the redwoods of Big Basin by name. At my laughter, she’d smile. “Well, Dana, if you ever thought to ask them for their names, they might tell you too!”  They never had and I’d long since stopped asking.

Madrone Tree

Yet, my fascination and love of every tree continues. They are amazing plants. If ever we could consider some form of life as “intelligently designed” it would be trees. They get all their nourishment from the sun above and the ground below. Naturally, they generally grow where the water is just right for them. And in the event that something goes wrong and they wither and die, they don’t care, they don’t suffer, because there is no consciousness to notice. Though I’m sure, Heather would heartily disagree with me on that. Heather felt trees were far wiser than we are.

I’ve watched my responses to various types of trees. Heather would say that I had definite past-lives with some of them. But my interpretation is that trees are symbolic for us, through their appearance, their texture, their colors. CA Oak trees seem to symbolize strong, kind, old men, while the tall redwoods are majestic and mysterious with the way they reach upwards towards the Heavens.

Whenever I hike in the company of trees, I always feel better at the end, somehow relieved of at least a part of the burden I’d been carrying with me. Heather said trees are always willing to help us, to absorb any negative energy we have, in the same way they absorb our expired carbon dioxide. I don’t know that that’s true, but we are certainly going to be in trouble if we don’t save our forests.

I’m grateful to live so close to amazing woods from the great CA oaks, the Madrone, and the Redwoods. When times are tough, it’s always good to be reminded of what’s right in the world, and trees are definitely always right.

San Jose Suburbia

As we hiked back, I stopped at the top of the hill and looked down between the trees at the sprawling suburbs below. I felt that old, inner clench in my stomach, like I did so many years ago at the calling of my name. It’s hard to leave the forest for the mayhem that stirs down there, the uncertainty, the sadness. But just as I knew as a child, there is no avoiding it.

Life brings it share of changes, ups and downs, and later I can return to the company of the trees.

You can see more tree photos from this hike if you’re interested.

Even if you are religious, no one can tell you what the meaning of your life is. Anything they say about this is going to be guesswork, or words that come from some old book. Needless to say, it’s not going to apply to you personally in any shape or form. You can go ahead and believe that what has been said is the meaning of your life, but how can you know this to be true?

If you are someone who needs to have meaning in your life, then in the words of the late, great Carl Sagan, “Do something meaningful!” If you continue asking yourself the question, “Why am I here?” the answer is simple: because your parents had sex and you came out of those conditions. Beyond that, any meaning you want your life to have, you are going to have to provide. Seem grim? Not at all.

From a scientific and secular Buddhist viewpoint, everything arises based on previous conditions. We can’t always know what the previous conditions were, and it’s perfectly ok to say, I don’t know. For personal meaning in our lives . . . well, we have to decide that for ourselves, determine what is worth getting out of bed for. People thrive in response to many different types of things. So the meaning of life is a personal adventure you are going to have to discover on your own. I can share what meaning I derive from life, but my life is not yours. And it’s perfectly ok also not to need meaning in one’s life. Some of us are not concerned with Why am I here?

As for morality . . . one can most definitely be atheist and have high morals and values. In fact, those of us who were born into religious families became atheist largely because we were more moral than the religion/god we were indoctrinated into. Having stronger ethics than that of your religion causes you to question the immorality of a “jealous” god, of a god who kills off a planet of people, of a god that would ask a man to kill his son to prove his faith. One who has inborn ethics questions a god that would burn someone in Hell forever because they did not believe. One who has a sense of humanity questions a religion that is divisive and judgmental, a religion that does not view us all as human beings but instead those who are chosen and those who are sinful.

So, I assert that not only are atheists moral, but high ethics is a prerequisite to coming around to doubting beliefs that clash with one’s morals.

I’ve noticed an interesting trend with my Christian friends. They are my friends because they are good, caring people. Yet they still hold onto a god belief. However, when questioned, they admit they don’t agree with much of the bible, and they don’t believe in the old Testament (where god was a raging lunatic), and over time they have developed a definition of god that is nebulous,  yet warm, fuzzy, and loving. This transformation is based not on any kind of interaction with said god, but instead on their need for god to be loving and forgiving. I’m guessing that their own inborn sense of morality has become uncomfortable with the religion they had forced on them, and because of fear they don’t reject it outright, and instead create in their minds a more acceptable god.

There are studies that show atheist countries have lower crime rates, lower incidence of teen pregnancy, fewer prisons, and on and on. The most religious countries have more violence, higher crime rates, and high teen pregnancy rates. Additionally, atheists more and more are giving to special causes to overcome world hunger, to human rights, to provide aid to poor countries.

It’s high time we expose religions for the immorality they try to impose on the world, and recognize that people can be and often are moral and ethical without god. And even without god we find meaning for our lives, and we do things that are meaningful to make it so.

Morality without God on YouTube

In my research on Buddhism, I have found no compelling evidence that Buddha himself was once a live, breathing human being. I’m confident that Buddha himself was simply a character of myth. It’s ironic, given many of the teachings, that the myth was turned into a man, and in some cases a deity. The teachings of Buddha ended up enfolded in culture and religion, squeezing out and even contradicting many of the teachings themselves.

Buddhist myth is rich in symbolism, metaphor, and story. Enlightenment, as I see it, is an ideal, and impossible place to reach, yet in striving to get there we improve ourselves in countless ways, become closer in the stories of our own lives, and learn to be in every second of it, regardless of circumstances.

The wisdom of the teachings is impressive, especially given the times in which they were written. No other myth or religion examines the nature of mind so thoroughly, provides the tools for objective inner exploration, or creates solid ways of understanding the importance of ethics and how to measure them.

But if you take the teachings and make a religion of them, turning the words into stale dogma, you can quickly end up contradicting yourself, and confusing what would otherwise be a simple concept. Modern day renderings of Buddhist teachings have complicated the crap out of Buddha’s simple, honest looking. We try to read meaning into each sentence, when in fact, Buddha was continually telling people to just look for oneself.

When we look at the teachings symbolically or metaphorically, then we can see how a concept such as rebirth fits into our current life and understanding. We need not stretch the meaning into our imagination, extending the idea of rebirth after our deaths. In fact, that idea of reincarnation conflicts with the teachings of not self and the end of suffering. Unless you are willing to let go of faith, let go of belief, and see the metaphor in your own life, you are going to cling to a literal meaning that may make little sense in the context of everything else.

While Buddha did speak of gods, and how humans were above the god realm, we also have to remember that the people he was speaking to in those stories were mired in god beliefs, including the writers! Were a modern day Buddha story to be written, mention of gods would be less necessary. When I read these stories, I can see how the intent was to help free the mind of god beliefs entirely, including those of an afterlife mumbojumbo.

Buddha pointedly ignored cosmological questions. Now, in modern times, we have astrophysicists to help us figure out the cosmos. And we KNOW that when someone we love dies, they are gone from our lives. This is also true of everything else that dies: trees, grass, animals. Why speculate beyond the death of the body? Because under the desire to know more is clinging, attachment. When you see that, the questions about death fade away.

I see Secular Buddhism as making an honest attempt to get to the kernels of the teachings through practice, observation, and contemplation. Secular Buddhism views Buddhism as a wonderful myth, full of wisdom, free of religious rituals like praying, faith and beliefs.

While atheism and science taught me to be skeptical of the claims of others, Buddhism has taught me to be skeptical of my own mind/body processes. Buddhist meditation (as opposed to transcendental meditation, etc.) is the practical tool that teaches one to be mindful of one’s own interaction in the world, internally and externally, while the ethical Eightfold Path prevents one from creating yet more suffering for oneself and others.

That all of the above is based on myth and not a historic man doesn’t matter. In fact, it frees us to explore more deeply and without expectations.

Wisdom stems from all kinds of sources, and myth certainly is one of them.

Clearcutting of Forests

“To understand why deforestation is such a pressing and urgent issue, forests must first be given credit for what they bring to global ecosystems and the quality of life that all species maintain. Tropical Rain forests presently give a place to call home for 50% – 90% of all organisms, 90% of our relatives, the primates, and 50 million creatures that can live no place but the rich rain forests. Not only are other species at risk, but the human race also benefits from what the trees give.”

“Additionally, trees improve the quality of the air by trapping carbon and other particles produced by pollution. Trees determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. As more water gets put back in the atmosphere, clouds form and provide another way to block out the sun’s heat. Trees are what cool and regulates the earth’s climate in conjunction with other such valuable services as preventing erosion, landslides, and making the most infertile soil rich with life.” ~ The Choice: Doomsday or Arbor Day
According to the World Resources Institute, more than 80 percent of the Earth’s natural forests already have been destroyed. Up to 90 percent of West Africa’s coastal rain forests have disappeared since 1900. Trees are natural consumers of carbon dioxide—one of the greenhouse gases whose buildup in the atmosphere contributes to global warming. Destruction of trees not only removes these “carbon sinks,” but tree burning and decomposition pump into the atmosphere even more carbon dioxide, along with methane, another major greenhouse gas.~ National Geographic, Deforestation

During the lifespans of trees, they grace us with their beauty, they shade us on hot days, and they provide us with necessary oxygen, they consume carbon dioxide, and they throw much needed water into our atmosphere. As we walk among these towering giants, they stand sentinel as we unwind and let go of city stress and daily angst. ~Nothing More Noble Than Trees

So, what can we do to help stop deforestation? One thing is to understand that there are alternatives to using tree products. Industrial hemp, for instance, can replace all tree products, including paper, rope, cardboard, and plywood. Unfortunately, while industrial hemp products can be sold in the US, it’s not legal for farmers to grow it as a crop. That has to change, and we can educate the public and our government about that.

Additionally, there are a number of petitions you can sign to help prevent deforestation of specific areas, and forms online you can use to email government officials.

• Save America’s Forests
• How to Save Tropical Forests
• The Rainforests Site
• Protect an Acre
• VoteHemp.com
• Industrial Hemp
• Hemp: The Environmentally Sustainable Alternative (Part1)

In Mindful Modes of Thinking I talked a bit about the differences between knowing, trusting some information, believing, and faith. Believing in something is thinking or wanting something to be true, even though there may not be evidence to back up the claim. Sometimes people believe they have evidence, but don’t clearly understand what qualifies as evidence. Beliefs also hold a lot of emotion, conviction, or what people refer to as faith.

That’s not to say a belief is by nature wrong, but simply that you don’t know if it’s correct, or even close to being valid, yet the claim is made that it is true. Belief, by nature, is problematic.

In spite of the nebulous nature of belief, many people hold onto all kinds of beliefs from religious to superstitious to stereotypes to faulty memories. Along with belief is a certain amount of faith, determination boosted by some emotion or fear.

Personal belief may be a right, but it’s our right to let you know loudly when your beliefs infringe on our human rights, when your beliefs discriminate against us, when your beliefs hurt and demoralize us, when your beliefs are based on ignorance and oppression.

Arguing over beliefs

These problems often arise when the belief is around a god or religion. While people have the right to believe in a god, others have the right not to share that belief, and yes, even the right to criticize it. The second you make a personal belief public, it’s up for grabs.

The nature of belief is a slippery slope because of the lack of evidence. If there were evidence, it would be verifiable and belief wouldn’t even be necessary. It would be known. Scientists are generally careful to say when something is their opinion, when they suspect some information is valid, and when they propose a theory with hard core evidence that can be tested by peers.

Belief in itself operates in the opposite way. It can’t be verified, and therefore you can not expect others to accept it. I’d also go as far as to say you should question, examine, and tear down all your beliefs and be honest about what they really are.

Can we say something does not exist? No, we can’t prove something doesn’t exist. Because of that, the burden of proof is never on the non-believer. Proof must always be the burden of the one making the claim something exists or is true.

Evolution for instance has been proven to be true in a variety of ways:

• Inheritance has been proven within the personal experience of having children and seeing the similarities and differences, and recreating and testing in the lab.
• Domestic selection is common and well know in breeding plants and animals, so it becomes an easy thing for us all to observe natural selection in nature. This is also observable in the lab.
• Fossils going back millions of years for a wide range of plants and animals. We can all go to museums to see theses amazing findings.
• Genetic evidence in modern times looking at the changes in DNA for various species and seeing when they split off from each other (this evidence has been fascinating and overwhelming in proving evolution)

Evolution is not under dispute because of the overwhelming evidence, but some of the details within evolution are under interesting debate, such as why we evolved to walk upright, which primitive man developed cognitive abilities, why did certain species have various mutations.

The god belief is one that is particularly erosive to our society because it’s based in old customs and attitudes that are inappropriate for today.  When people with god beliefs feel they have the right to impose their beliefs on others through government and schools, then they violate the rights of others. God beliefs are often divisive and demoralizing to others, violating people’s human rights. This is when belief is no longer a personal right but become a public affront and menace. This is why we must protect separation of church and state, and keep religion out of schools.

You have the right to personal, private beliefs, and to share them with others. But when you cross boundaries and offend others by trying to take away their right to believe something else or not to believe you, such as in not allowing gays to marry, shaming women for various reasons, removing a woman’s right to her body, etc., name calling at atheists, then your belief is going to come under harsh scrutiny and attack.

I urge people to be as skeptical of their own thoughts and beliefs as they are of others. Examine your view every time you say something is true, or you believe in something. Examine the very nature of belief itself and see how it feels to just let go of the beliefs you’ve been carrying around.  Is a belief really worth all the angst it causes? It really is ok to say often, “I don’t know.”