Outsourcing Religion Part 3: The Internet

I believe the internet is encroaching onto the purposes of religion in several significant ways.  As for finding a community of like minded people, websites like Reddit are forming a multitude of arenas for people with shared interests in whatever field.  Thanks to the internet, people are no longer forced to be corralled into a community group because of local practicality.  In remote small towns, the church, mosque or what have you, used to be the only place where the community got together and talked about ideas.  If you were someone who thought differently than most people in the community, the house of worship may have been a lonely and alienating place.  Even in very remote communities, you can no longer be intellectually alienated in the age of the internet.  You can find a group of very like minded people in practically any specified interest.   Although I can obviously concede that the internet community has its drawbacks.  Of course the internet cuts off a huge part of community, namely the actual physical human interaction.  The internet also can be a hotbed for fostering radicalism in any kind of ideology.  Since you can find such specific interest groups, it is much easier to create your own sphere of influence without any of the checks and balances of outside criticism.  As a consequence you can have a type of radical ideology festering worldwide.  Such is the case with many terrorism inciting, brands of Islam. 

Personally I have found the internet to be an indispensable resource for finding people who are like minded as me.   I have found many niches of thought that would be rare to find in real interpersonal communication.  Also, I have found that the internet has created several virtual Gurus for myself.  A phenomenon in many eastern religious traditions like Hinduism, a Guru is a kind teacher or guide in a Master-teacher relationship.  Now through the technology of the internet, the free exchange of uncensored opinions and ideas can be broadcast through podcasts, YouTube and so on.  It has allowed for eccentric and charismatic people to have to ability to be great role models for millions of people

Through the internet I have found People such as Penn Jillette, who has taught me the value of celebrating the preciousness of life as an atheist.  He is an incredibly open, true to himself and honest person.  Qualities I respect in people more than any others.  His weekly podcast “Penn’s Sunday School” offers an hour and a half exploration of a totally free expressive mind offering his life experience, free of charge for the world to hear.  He has been instrumental in being a guiding influence on my very optimistic idealistic, political and moral ideologies. 

Comedian Joe Rogan is another one of these virtual role models.  His podcast The Joe Rogan Experience has be an incredible guide for my Intellectual, physical, emotional and interpersonal improvement.  A motivational and unconventional personality such as his offers a form of the ideal fulfilled, happy man.  A stand-up comedian such as Joe, is someone who is also unashamedly himself in the ways he expresses himself online and onstage.  On average he produces 2-3 shows per week and each show being around 3 hours long.  It would be very difficult to produce that much conversational material without being totally true to oneself.   He is someone who above all expresses unconditional love towards his family, friends and people around him.  He is someone who is uncompromisingly able to pursue his passions in life with martial arts and comedy.   He has the utmost respect for the physical vehicle of life, the body.  He has helped me understand the incredible importance of feeding the body properly and keeping it in peak physical shape.  His podcast demonstrates an insatiable hunger for knowledge.  He continually has incredibly interesting, ideologically varying, intelligent guests such as Sam Harris, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Graham Hancock on the show.  Complimentary to that, he expresses total humility of knowledge to what the possibilities of what the universe can be.  Without being tied to the very often compromising restraints of academia he is fearlessly able to admit his responsible exploration into the nature of consciousness through introspective meditation and mind altering substances.  By no means does he unconditionally encourage their use, but can objectively realize the potential of the physical, chemical realities of consciousness, positive and negative. On my quest to find a definition of secular spirituality, I believe Joe Rogan’s personality expressed through his podcast represents an ideal model for what I am searching for.  

Looking introspectively, this slightly resembles cult and religious like behaviour, but having great intellectual role models in life doesn’t mean a solid adherence to everything that person does and believes.  My admiration of Joe Rogan or Penn isn't WWJD (what would Jillette or Joe do?).  Their personalities act as more a guide to pursuing a happier and fulfilled life. If Muhammad, Jesus or Buddha were alive today, would it be out of the realm of possibility for them to have free life coaching podcasts? I think much stranger things have happened

One field regarding the secularization of religious functions that must be investigated further is the parallels in the stories of modern day science fiction and fantasy and the myths of ancient religion.  The theory of the “Monomyth” presented by Joseph Campbell is one that is fascinating and I must do more research into it.

All and all it is looking as though the purposes of religion in western society is changing no doubt.  But into what form is definitely yet to be seen.  I believe I have demonstrated that those who are of an atheist mindset, it can be possible to fill the functional properties of organized religion almost entirely.  Now according to theists, the only thing left to be fulfilled in my own life is a god and faith shaped hole somewhere inside me.

Here's an interesting video demonstrating the networking power of podcasts

Outsourcing Religion Part 2: Spiritual mysticism without religion

As the mystics of any of the traditions will attest to, the manipulation of the conscious mind can produce effects that would be called mystical experiences.  But these experiences certainly are not exclusive to those who are pious.  Most practices of mysticism involve the manipulation of thought through physical actions and mental concentration in order to achieve blissful states of inner peace.  Most religious practitioners of this kind of mysticism to would attribute these altered states of consciousness to the ethereal realm.  Practices of Buddhist meditation are exercises in achieving states approaching Nirvana.  Sufi dervishes practice rituals of physical asceticism in order to experience closeness to Allah.  The whirling dervishes of the Sufis spin in around in circles attempting to achieve a kind of pre-mature death in order to achieve ecstatic states that they would attribute to a close approximation to God.  Hindu ascetics will starve themselves and disown any worldly possessions and achieve states that we might call “happiness”.

            

Feelings of happiness and ecstasy are attributes of certain periods in our consciousness.  We all have to admit that the thing that we call consciousness is extremely plastic, and can easily change to experience a plethora of alternate realities.  On a daily basis we experience reality in totally different ways which are clearly caused by physical things.   Many of us alter our reality with coffee every morning by making us more alert.  What we consume for our meals have an effect of our mood and how our bodies feel.  Some of us suffer from diseases like Schizophrenia which vastly alter the realities we experience.  Consequently, some of us take pharmaceutical drugs to alter our altered behaviour.  Anti-depressants have a clear effect on the way an individual views the world.  Most of us spend a sizable chunk of the time we are alive in a state called sleep.  It is a state of semi-consciousness where our bodies are at rest but our minds experience something different.  The thing we call “me” drifts in and out of consciousness in a totally hallucinated realm.  Time is often experienced differently as it is very difficult to discern when a dream begins or ends.  Happenings that would seem bizarre in a waking state often seem commonplace in a dream.  Dreams are demonstrably a physical occurrence in the brain, but it doesn't make dreaming any less worthwhile.  Dreams can cause people to have inspirations and epiphanies regarding their physical life.  They can be greatly entertaining and emotionally powerful.  Could this not also be the case with practices of traditional mystical experiences?   The fact that all forms of mysticism are practiced with physical actions shows that these experiences can be achievable without any kind of belief in dogmas or unproven superstitions.  Some can even be experienced without any kind of mental concentration or physical asceticism.  Psychoactive substances such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT have the ability produce incredibly unique experiences comparable to any religious mystical experiences.

Sam Harris is one of the few of the “new atheists” who speak highly of the practices of the eastern religions.  In the book The End of Faith, Harris outlines why concentration of thought on the experience of consciousness, is monumental in achieving truly content states of mind.  He compliments the eastern religions for having the wisdom of these practices.  He suggests the use of these meditative tools for anyone religious or not, wanting to find inner peace and happiness.  He regards mysticism as a rational enterprise but religion is not.

“A kernel of truth lurks at the heart of religion, because spiritual experience, ethical behaviour, 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.”

-Sam Harris-

---