Gil Fronsdal | The Short Version

Let’s Get Real; Clinging to “Impermanence”

March 4, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 05-18-07: When I was 17, I read a book by Philip Wylie that changed my life. Why an adolescent would be attracted to a book named, An Essay on Morals, is a little mysterious, and how such a book came to … [Read more...]

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.