Jacob Medina’s Reviews > Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious > Status Update

“People have the same kinds of experiences they once had in a more religious age… but rather than having a conceptual framework, in which the experience immediately makes sense, it becomes a mysterious signifier, to be interpreted through a purely personal framework or, as in many such cases, not interpreted at all.”

“For all the advances in brain mapping, the mind itself is still irreducible, an enigma, a mysterious substance unto itself.”

“Instead, we are building machines that are simulating the output of the human mind… through internal mechanisms that in their design lack any perceptual eye, any self that can step back from the flow and recognize its own mistakes, or hold a thought unspoken in its mind.”

“It seems clear that our universe is held together by a set of seemingly excruciatingly carefully chosen values, that, were they arranged infinitesimally differently, ‘would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty’ per Stephen Hawking.”

“The spiritual and supernatural never really go away.” “Already mystery, and magic, and enchantment seem to be rushing back into the world.”

“But my aim is for this book to be useful to readers who may take many different religious paths.”

“Reason still points Godward, and you don’t have to be a great philosopher or a brilliant textual interpreter to follow its directions. Ordinary intelligence and common sense together are enough.”

“That joining and practicing (religion) is fundamentally a rational decision, not just a ‘trust your friends and intuitions’ jump.”