Let’s begin with a neurological reality: we humans are limited in what we can experience. The finite human nervous system can only absorb about 10% of the information around us. The other 90% goes unprocessed: unseen, unheard, untasted, untouched, unfelt–unimagined. Mind you, that’s only talking about what lies within earshot and vision. It’s not even […]
Reflections on Wind and Trees
“The world offers itself to your imagination,” wrote poet Mary Oliver. On good days, we can journey through the poem. It’s a big danged poem, but after awhile it kind of starts to make sense. Wandering the hills of southern Indiana, where I live, I marvel at the wind and trees. A microburst of wind heedlessly […]
Can an Atheist Have a Spiritual Conversation?
While I was away on my five-week “Great Western Pilgrimage,” my better half, Kate, entertained a longtime friend from the east coast. The friend appreciated that I was a minister, now retired. Upon hearing about my “Gentle Atheist” website, though, she was plainly taken aback. “How can a minister be an atheist?” She asked. “How can […]
What’s a God-Centered Atheist?
Many a year ago I interned at People’s Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. People’s Church had been a fierce bastion of Unitarian Universalist Humanism through much of the 20th century. A series of strictly Humanist Ministers eschewed pulpit robes or any kind of “God-talk.” They had not preached “sermons,” they had delivered “discourses.” Even while I was […]