A bird's eye view of psychology today shows three major fields, each headed up by three major psychologists. They are Sigmund Freud's Depth Psychology, with its id, ego and superego; B. F. Skinner and Behaviorism, teaching that humans are conditioned by their experiences like the rats Skinner experimented on; and Carl Rogers of the Third Wave Psychologists, who believe in the basic goodness in the human heart and the importance in finding yourself by looking within.

I recently picked up The Ways of Religion, edited by Roger Eastman, at the library. In it, essays by religious experts and leaders are mixed with actual excerpts from sacred texts to do the explaining of each major world religion.

Interestingly, the introduction to the first chapter, Hinduism, mentioned that many Hindus believe Christianity to be a type of one of their own particular paths to enlightenment, bhakti yoga. I started reading through the sacred texts of Hinduism and came to very different conclusions. See for yourself.

The Matrix
In this movie, the characters are trapped in a virtual computer-world built by robots, in which human minds are simulated to give the people impressions of reality.

The Gnostics were one of the first groups of heretics to detach from the Christian church. Their heresy stemmed from the fact that they believed that Jesus was all God, no man.

In modern times that seems like a silly thing to do - people are more apt today to believe the opposite! But the Gnostics were doing exactly what many modern folks are doing; they were trying to keep their Christianity culturally relevant.

In the book The Spirit of Islam, from which Smith quotes liberally in this chapter, author Ali writes, “The glory of Islam consists in having embodied the beautiful sentiments of Jesus in definite laws.” Smith himself goes so far as to write,

“If Jesus had a longer career, or if the Jews had not been so socially powerless at the time, Jesus might have systemized his teaching more. As it was, his work ‘was left unfinished. It was reserved for another Teacher to systematize the laws of morality.’ The Koran is this later teacher.” (Smith, 249)

Two major Muslim groups exist, the Shi’ites and the Sunnis, and their differences are largely historical in origin. But Smith takes a moment to describe a more minor, mystic sect of Islam, one that other Muslims may regard as heretical. Choosing to omit the details of the Shi’ites and Sunnis, he

“take[s] up instead a division that has universal tones. It is the vertical division between the mystics of Islam, called Sufis, and the remaining majority of the faith, who are equally good Muslims but are not mystics.” (258)

Muhammad claimed that Gabriel commanded him to proclaim. The Islamic creed that spread as the great proclamation was “La ilaha illa ‘llah!” which means, “There is no god but God!” In more words, the Surah embodies the Muslim spirit and is part of their daily prayers:

In continuation of my review of The World’s Religions by Huston Smith, I have now left the strange waters of surreality and false optimism of the Eastern religions and near more familiar shores. In his book, Smith begins the Western religions with Islam, a belief near enough to express some similar philosophical ideas but still foreign in many respects.

I just finished watching a video entitled "The War on Humans" from the Discovery Institute (a video you can watch for free on the web). Somewhere around the time when the narrator mentioned law schools training future lawyers to protect animal rights so that they could rise up and sue cattle ranchers for slavery, I found myself laughing. Scenes more ridiculous than the pious speeches of Animal Farms's Squealer came into mind. It went on to mention plant rights and the 'dignity of plants.' Can anyone possibly think that this is a serious threat in society?

Philosophers, who love to see paradoxes in things that the rest of us take for granted, have long realized that in order for the world to make sense, there must be a connection between unity and mechanics. There has to be a way to explain why the laws and absolutes and concepts of the universe (unity) connect to the particulars of our everyday life (diversity).