Thinking Out Loud

I had a dear friend and family member reach out the other day concerning my departure from the faith. I appreciated her loving concern. I referred her to my previous post entitled Holy Treason to bring her quickly up to speed. She read it and replied,  " Hey Janelle thanks for letting me read that; I see what it means to you. Either it's the curiosity in me or the therapist but I am interested to know the "road to the unraveling of your faith". I hope you are able to navigate this "being not on the same page" time with your husband as it appears you make one another happy." To which I replied: Yes, the "another article for another day"... I should probably write that as I wrote this summary blog post one year after my decision to no longer actively participate in the church. I spent considerable time journaling my journey along the way and notating the insights that "opened my eyes." Have you ever read the works of Wayne Dy...

I don’t know if you’re like me or not, but I was born into the one and only “true” religion of God. I spent my entire life studying and living the principles and teachings of my faith. I knew the doctrine, and I believed it to be true. Until I didn’t. The road to the unraveling of my faith is a rather long one—definitely another article for another day--but suffice it to say, I began studying other religions and realized that all of them contained beautiful truths. I felt as uplifted and inspired while reading their scriptures as I did reading mine. I understood why some referred to religion as a “faith culture” for I was now aware that had I been born and raised in a different religion, I’d have believed that religious tradition to be true. I came to see religions as merely vehicles leading us back to God. Surely God didn’t care whether his children drove jalopies or Jaguars so long as they were moving along the superhighway back to Him. Or could it be her? Or perhaps there wasn’t ju...

Happy Thanksgiving! Having one day a year where you focus on what you are grateful for is good, but for me, living in gratitude daily, is better. Did I inherit gratitude or learn it? I have no desire to engage in that debate. I'm just grateful I'm grateful. I was reflecting this morning on my newfound beliefs, or perhaps my recently discarded beliefs, and I realized that if I had to choose one changed belief that that has most dramatically changed me, it would have to be my belief that people are good. Yep, I no longer believe in Satan or sin. And even though I don't believe the Bible to be any truer than any other book, I do love how the author had his God declare all his creations "Good."  No one is evil. Yes, some people commit horrible, nasty acts, but not because they are evil, but because they are not well. Hurting people hurt others. This realization is far more empowering than believing that some people are simply corrupted. We can help heal hurting...

So I started writing a book and man if I'm already bored of it, what does that say about any one else wanting to read it? I feel like I don't really need to write a book, but just a bunch of blog posts. For me, it's so freaking hard to write a book peice meal. Just when I get into the groove, I get interrupted. If I'm going to ever write a book, I need to go to a deserted island where I can have 30 days of uninterrupted, totally focused writing time. It takes too much time for me to get into the flow to only write for 30 minutes per day. By the time I warm up, it's time to wrap up. That's not optimal for quality writing. But on a fun note, I started reading a most excellent book by Richard Dawkins called The Magic of Reality . Rather than allow religion and myth to promulgate untruths, Dawkins presents scientific truths to answer some of the most pressing human questions--questions concerning creation, evolution, life and death, and more. It's freakin...

I had never heard of musical hallucinations until I started reading  Musicophilia . I guess I've heard of people who claim to hear choirs of angels, but I, like them, thought this was some signification that they were chosen of God or spiritually blessed. Musical hallucinations, however, are neurological. They have nothing to do with divine signification and everything to do with skiwampus neurological pathways. Musicophilia  is written by renowned neurosurgeon Oliver Sacks, made famous by his earlier book  Awakenings .  In fact, if you've never seen the  movie , I highly recommend it. It's a true story featuring Robert de Niro and Robin Williams. I loved it the first time I saw it, and now that I'm enthralled with the brain, and our relatively pygmy understanding of it, I relish it even more. Witnessing the radical transformation of the lives of the patients who received the miracle drug L-dopa, gets me excited for the day when we have er...

I was watching some calisthenics videos on youtube when a video ad for  silicone rings  appeared. The ad was for  Groove Rings and was super clever. It showed burly men lifting heavy weights, waterskiing, operating machinery, etc. And guess what? All these "real men" were wearing groove silicone rings. Fast forward to the next scene which featured a bunch of old men sitting around smoking cigars in suits. Of course, they looked quite outdated and wussy. They were captioned as "dad" and "granddad." Quite naturally, they were all wearing "precious metal" rings.  The gist of the ad was this: replace your dangerous, daddy rings of 'ole with the functional, comfortable rings that allow real men to get things done. Basically, Out with the old; in with the new! It made me think about the book I started reading today:  The End of Faith   by Sam Harris.  I first discovered Sam when I was watching The God Delusion  ( a fantastic docum...

I'm thankful today for my mindfulness meditation mentoring group. It's my cohort that meets bi-monthly to discuss our Power of Awareness  course. Several in my group were also accepted into the 2-year Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Certification Program so I'm looking forward to getting to know many of them better over the next few years. Anyhow, today we had some extra time to discuss whatever we wanted so I decided to take advantage of the cumulative wisdom and asked if anyone else had found their mindfulness and meditation practice to be a doorway leading them out of their current faith culture. I wanted to know how others in our group were able to negotiate the awareness that there is no one right way and every religion is fundamentally the same?  I was especially eager to get everyone's take considering we have a Quaker, a Jew, a Buddhist, a 12-Step Devotee, a Shaman, and who knows what else, in our group. I am keen to know how they are able to remain devout...

I can hardly wait to pen this post for my fingers are afire with the "Puzzling Truth." And I must give credit where credit is due for my friend Stephen Palmer stimulated so many thoughts of mine today with his morning post: The Puzzle of Humanity You should seriously go and read it before reading on as it will provide some context for why I sent this email to a coworker: Hi [Co-worker], Here is one of my friends. I forward this post because in it, he beautifully explains how I feel about truth and world religions. I was raised LDS, and am well versed in scripture. I love the beautiful truths contained in the LDS faith, but I don’t believe it is the only true church. I believe they all contain beautiful truths and that at the end of the day what will matter most is how we lived, loved, and served our fellow brothers and sisters.  It took me awhile to come to this realization for I was raised staunch LDS-- by very devout parents, but as soon as I realized it, I had to ...