One of my favorite anthropology professors taught an introductory level class in anthropology which centered around three ideas… What is it that makes each of us like all other people, like some other people and like no other people? I put it to you, dear reader, that the characteristic is our self perceived relationship with ultimate reality (defined as that which is unchanging or fundamentally real). Remember from ninth grade physical science, all things exist in a frame of reference. That is the point of all those train leaving Miami problems. The answer lies in finding the common frame of reference. Ultimate reality then can be misunderstood as one frame of reference for everything else. Here is where things get tricky. If, ultimate reality is to be thought of as a frame of reference, then what other relationships can it have with everything else? The answer is …none. Any relationship in any way imaginable changes ultimate reality, therefore rendering it not unchangeable. If it is changeable, then, by defi

One of my favorite anthropology professors taught an introductory level class in anthropology which centered around three ideas… What is it that makes each of us like all other people, like some other people and like no other people? I put it to you, dear reader, that the characteristic is our self perceived relationship with ultimate reality (defined as that which is unchanging or fundamentally real). Remember from ninth grade physical science, all things exist in a frame of reference. That is the point of all those train leaving Miami problems. The answer lies in finding the common frame of reference. Ultimate reality then can be misunderstood as one frame of reference for everything else. Here is where things get tricky. If, ultimate reality is to be thought of as a frame of reference, then what other relationships can it have with everything else? The answer is …none. Any relationship in any way imaginable changes ultimate reality, therefore rendering it not unchangeable. If it is changeable, then, by def

One of my favorite anthropology professors taught an introductory level class in anthropology which centered around three ideas… What is it that makes each of us like all other people, like some other people and like no other people? I put it to you, dear reader, that the characteristic is our self perceived relationship with ultimate reality (defined as that which is unchanging or fundamentally real). Remember from ninth grade physical science, all things exist in a frame of reference. That is the point of all those train leaving Miami problems. The answer lies in finding the common frame of reference. Ultimate reality then can be misunderstood as one frame of reference for everything else. Here is where things get tricky. If, ultimate reality is to be thought of as a frame of reference, then what other relationships can it have with everything else? The answer is …none. Any relationship in any way imaginable changes ultimate reality, therefore rendering it not unchangeable. If it is changeable, then, by def

To the question of prayer, I would say introspection, meditation and focus. To the question of worship, I would only say for the greatest majority of mankind, self delusion. A very few will see worship of ultimate reality as worship (veneration) of that ability in all of us to aspire to the truth in ultimate reality, and to see past the failings of human perception. I am not really talking here about social relativism, except in the sense that reality is ALWAYS more complicated and our worldview is NEVER adequate to encompass ALL the nuances in ANY given situation. Religions then, have the primary function of steering the masses toward the conclusions that those few have worked out through a lifetime of thought, meditation/prayer, and introspection.