You Can Learn Something About A Person

A Kernel Of Truth Lurks At The Heart Of Religion, Because Spiritual Experience, Ethical Behavior, And Strong Communities Are Essential For Human Happiness. And Yet Our Religious Traditions Are Intellectually Defunct And Politically Ruinous. While Spiritual Experience Is Clearly A Natural Propensity Of The Human Mind, We Need Not Believe Anything On Insufficient Evidence To Actualize It.

It Is Time We Recognized That Belief Is Not A Private Matter; It Has Never Been Merely Private. In Fact, Beliefs Are Scarcely More Private Than Actions Are, For Every Belief Is A Fount Of Action In Potential.

Mysticism Is A Rational Enterprise. Religion Is Not. The Mystic Has Recognized Something About The Nature Of Consciousness Prior To Thought, And This Recognition Is Susceptible To Rational Discussion. The Mystic Has Reasons For What He Believes, And These Reasons Are Empirical. The Roiling Mystery Of The World Can Be Analyzed With Concepts (this Is Science), Or It Can Be Experienced Free Of Concepts (this Is Myticism). Religion Is Nothing More Than Bad Concepts Held In Place Of Good Ones For All Time. It Is The Denial-at Once Full Of Hope And Full Of Fear-of The Vastitude Of Human Ignorance.

You Can Learn Something About A Person By The Company She Keeps.

Morality And Values Depend On The Existence Of Conscious Minds - And Specifically On The Fact That Such Minds Can Experience Various Forms Of Well-being And Suffering In This Universe.