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Love, Life, Meaning, Zen, and Science, by Norm Bearrentine

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Review of Ray Jackendoff’s, A User’s Guide to Thought and Meaning

July 12, 2013 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

We are so immersed in language from infancy onward that most of us take it for granted, never looking closely at what we do when we think and talk. We assume that the connection between the world and the words we use is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013

Review of Alex Rosenberg’s “The Atheist’s Guide to Reality”

January 15, 2013 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Full disclosure: I am an atheist; I don’t believe in the supernatural; science is my guide to reality; and I believe morals are a biological/cultural phenomenon with no ultimate justification. Given all that, you’d think … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013

The Self: Reality and Illusion

January 2, 2013 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

This is a comment on Susan Blackmore's talk, The Self Illusion, given at the Science and Nonduality Conference 2012 in The Netherlands. It might be helpful, though perhaps not essential, to watch her talk first: … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Unpleasant Brain Surprises; Toward Coping With Them Naturally

October 11, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

I had a mildly traumatic experience in the Westfield Plaza Food Court a couple of days ago, and it’s been reverberating with me ever since. I was having my usual Roadhouse salad with chicken, minus the onion rings, and was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Is Grief Necessary? A Naturalist Answer

September 27, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

As I was making my bed this morning, I found myself feeling sad about Cathy, a friend of mine who had died young. She’d been a delightful person to be around, and it seemed she’d been removed from the world much too soon. Why … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Life Without Free Will; A Progress Report

September 9, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

This morning when I opened the blinds in my bedroom, what first caught my attention was the breeze-induced movement of the fronds of the palm tree that’s intent on dominating my view. The more flexible tips with their thin, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Review of Thomas Metzinger’s, The Ego Tunnel

August 28, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Sorting through all the contradictions and nebulous references in this book is probably a better exercise for your brain than Sudoku, and it would take a sizable book to unravel them all. I’ll scratch the surface to give you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Sam Harris And Me On Death

June 21, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

I watched a great video by Sam Harris on “Death and the Present Moment,” a valiant attempt to find consolation in the face of death that might replace the consolation people find in religion, but without believing anything … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

Multiple Selves—Who’s In Control?

February 18, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Trying to understand how it is that our experience of our self derives from the brain is an involved, intricate subject, because, after all, that’s where we live. The brain is what makes us and our experience, and trying to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

“Fight Club” and Radical Change

February 13, 2012 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

  I woke up this morning and began my usual routine—washing my face, drinking tea, etc.—but it soon became clear that something was different, or at least it felt different. It felt like I was watching myself perform … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2012

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What This Site Is About

When I realized that the idea of god was a joke, I thought that was the end of the story. Later I found that Christianity had shaped my values, and while some were worth keeping, many had lost their foundation—the meaning of life, for example. Something similar happened when I realized that the idea of free will was a joke, and I’ve spent the decades since both those realizations discovering and editing what Julia Galef calls the “orphan beliefs” they left behind. It’s a tricky business, and this blog has been a chronicle of my efforts to puzzle it all out, including reviews of related books. I hope you find it helpful.

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