Finding God Again, For the First Time

A reader recently posted a comment that really resonated with me, so much so that I had to write a post about it.  The comment was in response to John’s post asking readers what have been the most difficult aspects of transitioning away from Mormonism.  Here’s what reader “itscomplicated” had to say: “Feeling I’ve been ‘Catfished’

East Meets West: Science, Spirituality, and Religious Humanism

Sometimes we unexpectedly find heroes in unlikely places.  When I resigned from the LDS church in 2011, I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me that four years later one of my heroes would be a Hindu monk who lived from 1863-1902.  I had never heard of him, and my guess is that you

Through the Veils

A concept common to both Eastern and Western religions is the idea that we can’t perceive reality completely and accurately because a “veil” obscures our view.  In the West, the veil has a more literal meaning: it is something that prevents us from seeing God and the angels and demons around us.  In the East,

Spiritual Nourishment in Nature

For thousands of years, humankind as built cities to escape the hardships of nature, but has turned to nature for spiritual nourishment.  The rishis (seers) who wrote Hindu scripture lived in the wilderness.  Old Testament prophets sought God on mountaintops.  The Buddha and his disciples sought enlightenment in the forests.  After taking their vows, Hindu and Buddhist