An Atheist's Search for Meaning at Christmas

"I Need a Miracle!" The case for supporting believers

It's easy to dismiss people who believe in miracles, but my Psychology Today article today makes the case for supporting such people even if you scoff at "miracles."

A Meditation on Birth

While I was pruning a shrub, I noticed some pillow filling on the ground beneath. I pulled it away and saw pieces of cloth and more pillow filling. At the bottom, there were six pink squirrel or rat newborns. I replaced the nesting but feared that the mother, smelling my hand, might abandon the nest. Fortunately, the next day, I saw the mother squirrel burrowing under the nesting.

That reminded me of the miracle of birth and the life lessons that inhere. I share them as my Psychology Today article today.

Secular Spirituality Six approaches that may particularly appeal to atheists and agnostics.

People have long sought the spiritual. And although the Pew Center for the Study of Religion finds "no-religion" to be the fastest growing religion, many people, including some atheists and agnostics, still want spirituality to be incorporated into their life.

That urge may feel more pressing today amid COVID stresses and racial roiling atop modern-day’s normal challenges.

My Psychology Today article today offers six ways in which even an atheist or agnostic can build spirituality into their lives.

The Fact-Centered vs the Feeling-Centered Person: A debate in the time of coronavirus

Yesterday, I had a conversation that illuminated a core difference among people. My Psychology Today article today shares that conversation’s essence so it will provide an opportunity for readers to self-assess their openness to differing but responsibly held positions. That may be more important today than ever.
 

The Only God is The One Inside Ourselves

A Spiritually Oriented Person's Search for Meaning

Yesterday in PsychologyToday.com, I offered a short-short story about a scientifically oriented person's search for meaning. 

Today, I offer a spiritually oriented person's search.

The psychology of gardening

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies. My PsychologyToday.com article today explores why it deserves its popularity. HERE is the link.

How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school

I've just written THIS article for Mensa's national magazine, the Mensa Bulletin. It contains some of the best ideas from my recently completed book manuscript, How to Do Life: what they didn't teach you in school.

It offers not-obvious but helpful ideas on career, recreation, money, education, coupling, parenting, spirituality, plus a few all-purpose tips for living the life well-led.

Spiritual Atheism

There is no God worth praying to--How can anyone find comfort in a God who would allow literally billions of people, including infants, to die of horrendously painful diseases such as cancer?

Yet, a secular spirituality informs nearly everything I do:

-- As I supervise my assistant, I feel an almost sacred responsibility to make her worklife as rewarding as possible--after all, she's giving me some of the best hours of her life.

-- As I decide what projects and clients to take on and what to write about, I feel a secular spiritual obligation to choose the things that would make the biggest difference in the world.

-- As I decide what to buy, I remember that, even though my individual contribution is trivial, it's cosmically right to live lightly on the earth, to leave it better than when I entered it.

-- That I have a secular spiritual obligation to enrich the lives of everyone I meet, from the Comcast repairman to my wife. With her, that often includes staying out of her way, so she can fully flower and enjoy, although it also includes giving unwanted advice when I feel the benefits of doing so outweigh the liabilities.

Someone asked me, "How is spiritual atheism different from people whose motivation is to make the world better?" The reason I do the things I do go one step beyond "trying to make the world better." My core motivation is more universal--cosmic, if you will--a responsibility to make the biggest possible impact during the time I am alive. Simply because that's just in the cosmic scheme of things.

One liability of spiritual atheism: I rarely have what I call "Christian glow"--those Christians who walk around with an beatific look on their faces. Spiritual atheism usually doesn't make me feel good. It just feels like the right way to live, an obligation.