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Why Reality needs a Religion
~ The History of Realism as a Religion ~
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Some of you might be wondering, "Why is Marc Perkel starting a new religion? What does he hope to accomplish? Is he trying to change the world and manipulate the future?
The short answer is - Yes I am.
I am a person who is in many ways dissatisfied with the world I exist in and I have decided to try to change it; or at least lodge a complaint and try to find people who agree with me that there’s room for improvement. Here’s some of my ideas about how to get it done.
I want to live in a world where people are smarter than they are today. I want to live in a culture that appreciates thinking, understanding, invention, curiosity, and philosophy. I want to be able to talk to lots of interesting people who live interesting lives and have interesting things to say.
Imagine a world where politicians are smarter. People who are elected by a society who expects them to take reality into consideration when making the important decisions that affect us all as a society. Imagine a world where you can get on an airplane knowing that someone isn’t going to try to blow it up because he thinks his invisible friend told him to do so.
I want to live in a world where people take their Life Story seriously and put out the effort to own themselves and decide what role they want to play during their brief existence in this world. I want to live in a world where people have some sort of appreciation and respect for the fact that the way they live their lives affects all of us.
My Bible is the Star Trek series. The Christian Bible is a collection of fictional stories about the past that were designed to create a system of ethics for which to form the basis for a culture. The Star Trek series is also a collection of fictional stories but about the future, rather than the past, that were also designed to create a system of ethics for which to form the basis for a culture.
Star Trek fires my soul because I to envision that day when the mind of humanity stretches across the universe to explore and understand greater and greater things. I want to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations ... to boldly go where no one has gone before.
I want the Star Trek future. A future that gets better from one generation to the next. A future from where we can look back at our new history proud that we took the time and were thoughtful enough to get it right so that humanity can thrive and prosper.
People of the world; is it not better to believe in what actually is real and not what isn't real? Do we need to have wars over "My God is tougher than your God"? Can't we give up the Bullshit and all just agree that believing in what actually is real is important? This world, this universe fascinates me. I want to know it all, explore it al, understand it all.
People of the world; isn’t it time that we put an end to stupidity when it comes to electing our government leaders? Would it not be better if smarter people were in charge? Can we continue to pay the price of getting it wrong when we could have done the right thing if only we had the courage and took the time to think it through?
How many of you turn on the news convinced that the news media is actively trying to make your brain rot? Perhaps the government wants us all to be stupid people. They want us to believe that there isn’t an absolute reality out there, that we are a part of, and that reality created us. I say, let us rise up then and be smart people just to be sure they aren’t up to something.
I don’t know why I exist but I know that I want to continue to exist and I want the human race to continue to exist. There is a lot of work to do to ensure that the future of humanity stays on the right track. It’s going to take a lot of smart people because we need all the help we can get.
I am starting this reigion because I want also to share my appreciation for reality with others. Reality is truth and truth is reality. There is no higher truth that that which is real, the way it really is. That is my world view and I hope to inspire you to bring reality into your belief system and make contemplation of the Sacred Question, "What is real?" part of your daily life.
I want to ask everyone in the world a question, what we call the Sacred Challenge, "Where does reality fit into your belief system?" It is my goal in starting this reigion that I inspire you to think about that question.
I’m tired of living in a world where one group’s deity is at war with another group’s deity, especially when they are referencing the same deity. It makes the deity look lame and I would be embarrassed to be that deity even if I didn’t exist!
My message in this religion to my fellow members of humanity is that it’s time for humanity to grow up and take Responsibility for our own existence. Humanity does not need an imaginary invisible daddy figure telling us what to do. We have evolved to the point where we are aware of our own existence. We now have a good idea who we are and how we got here. Now it is time for humanity to decide what we will become, what we will evolve into
I ask all of you to take personal responsibility for your life. I ask all of you to own it. I want you all to understand that what you do will become what you did. I ask that you accept that what is, is; and that what is not, is not! To accept that "to be" is the opposite of "not to be" This it is not the question, that is the way it is.
I want everyone to understand. I didn’t create reality. Reality created me. And I’m just trying to understand and appreciate my creator the same way all other religions are.
So if you are wondering if I’m up to something it’s pretty obvious that, in fact, I am. I ask that all of you turn to reality for guidance; that you establish a personal relationship with reality; that you take the time to look around at the reality around you and contemplate your existence, our existence, and existence itself. Brothers and sisters of the planet; reality has changed my life. Reality can change your life too. Every time you think about reality who you are is transformed. In that moment you become a little smarter, and the universe becomes a little smarter.
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One definition of a religion is: "System of beliefs and practices concerned with sacred things and or symbols uniting individuals into a single moral community."
Religion is a statement of one's identity and one's belief system and how one evaluates truth. It is about one's morals and ethics and one's community. How one evaluates right and wrong; to identify with a religion is to associate oneself with a common world view shared with others of the same religion. In society, it identifies you in the larger culture of people who care about those sorts of things.
The Church of Reality gives Realists a religious identity.
Religious identity is important in society. Many wars are fought over religious issues - "my God is stronger than your God." People want to know what religion you identify with so they can evaluate your moral code. It gives people an idea of what deities you do or don't believe in. What rituals you practice. To be associated with a religion is to make a statement about who you are, what your values are, what you are committed to, and what you care about.
You don't need to believe in a deity or the supernatural to be a religion. All that is required is to share a common world view and doctrine.
I am a Realist. I believe in Reality the way it really is. I practice Realism. I try to live my life in a way that is as realistic as possible. I make my life choices based on what is really real. I seek to know the truth about the way things really are. I commit to the purpose of furthering knowledge and uncovering the truth. This is who I am and in becoming a member of the Church of Reality I am making a statement to the greater community that I agree with and identify with this world view. That by having the Church of Reality as my religion that is (or will be) commonly known, I can state that I am a Realist and have others understand what that is. That's why it is important to establish reality as a religion and give identity to those who share our common world view the same way that other religions give their world view a public identity. |
I - Marc Perkel - First One of the Church of Reality - came up with the idea of the Church of Reality on November 7th 1998 and registered the domain name "churchofreality.org" the next day. The idea came from discussions about atheism and agnosticism and the idea that there were a lot of people, including myself, that these terms failed to really apply to. Yes, I am an atheist, but that's not a religious affiliation. I was not a member of "The Atheist Church". Atheism spoke about what I didn't believe, not what I did believe. I could be identified as a "scientist" but that was more of a job title than a world view.
If not for Reality, I wouldn't be here.
Would my religious affiliation then be "nothing" or no religion? Perhaps that was closer, yet it didn't really express what it was that I did believe. I believe that the universe was created some 15 billion years ago in something that we describe as "The Big Bang" and that the earth is a speck of dust in the universe and that life evolved here into what we are now. I also believe in society, right and wrong, codes of ethical behavior, the concept of morality and wisdom, and that these concepts can exist in the absence of an omnipotent father figure who supposedly produced a "holy book".
Among all the thousands of religious choices, shouldn't reality be included?
Therefore - the concept of "no religion" implied that religion was something that I didn't care about; as if the realm of belief wasn't important to me. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet there was no religion that was remotely close to what I did believe, leaving me and people who think like me in a state of limbo. We believe strongly in reality and want to understand reality the way it really is - but there is currently no religious identity associated with that - and it occurred to me to start the Church of Reality as a way to give Realists an identity and an organization dedicated to the pursuit of Realism.
As I wrote web pages for the Church of Reality web site, a lot of ideas came together. At first I wasn't sure that it would ever be a "real" religion because - like most people - I had the idea that in order to be a religion, you had to believe in things that aren't real. I had the idea that there would have to be rituals involved or that I would have to define reality and then later learn I was wrong. I thought that I would be severely limited in terms of a religious identity in that I could only incorporate undisputed universal truths into the belief system. But that's not the way it is. As I continued to write and explore, the ideas crystallized and I realized that a Church that believes in Reality not only can be as complete and full as any other religion, but even fuller - because after all - it doesn't get any more real than reality. |
Religion and Logic have been considered to be mutually exclusive. Logic being reality and science and religion being the world of make believe. Many people from the world of logic look at religion as a form of mental defect that undermines the principles of science. However pure Atheism doesn't tell us what right and wrong is or how we should live our lives as humans exploring reality. The Atheist community is aware of the fact that it doesn't fill this void. Religion provides more than just a fictional doctrine. It provides a community. It provides a moral compass to determine what is right and what is wrong. It's a blueprint of how to live our lives.
In modern times the scientific and atheistic communities have made some progress towards addressing the human side of Atheism. Humanism is a good start towards addressing these issues. Atheists who want to eliminate churches and religion often realize that they will never succeed until they have a working substitute that fulfills the legitimate functions of religions to form community, to care for one another, to create a basis for right and wrong, to perform weddings and funerals, to provide spiritual counseling, and to provide a sense of belonging. Fiction based religions provide these services and often do so in a very flawed way. But fiction based religion is the only source of this type of community, until now.
Most people say that it can never be done, the task of creating a religion based on reality that supports logic and reason as its standards for creating the guidelines for humanity to live by. But I say that it can be done, and it must be done. As a scientist I can not accept the premise that a fictional based worldview is required to perform the legitimate and necessary functions of a church. Therefore there must be a model for a religion that functions as a church but is based on reality. If we assume that such a model can exist then it becomes a puzzle to be solved. How do we do that? How do we create a religion based on reality? How do we unite the two?
That is one of our missions. We are the Church of Reality and we have to live up to our name bringing the Church and Reality together. And we have to do it in a way that stays true to the standards and requirements of both worlds. On the Reality side the Church of Reality must be scientifically pure. We can not compromise science for example by accepting a deity just because it's popular. On the Church side we have to create a sense of right and wrong, provide guidance on how people should live their lives. We have to create a moral code, a community, and address the spiritual needs of the community without having to resort to spirits to do so. The Church of Reality is primarily a church which is based on reality. We are a religion first. We are about people and the human experience. We are people exploring reality as it really is.
By taking the name Church of Reality we have accepted as an axiom that the problem is solvable and that it is our dharma to solve the problem. |
The Church of Reality is a "Natural Religion" based on Reality. What this means is that if the Church of Reality didn't exist and a wise person was given the task of creating a church based on reality that they would come up with a religion that is approximately the same as what the Church of Reality is now. It is our position that the Church of Reality is, or at least should be, a reflection of the natural laws of reality.
We have the Sacred Principle of Scrutiny and Doubt to keep this church on track. Self scrutiny directs us to examine what we are doing in such a way that we can discern whether we are on track or off track even if we become corrupted. How do we do that? One of the tests is to see if the Church of Reality were reinvented from scratch whether it would come out the same. What would be the same and what would be different, and why would anything be different?
The Church of Reality is not about Marc Perkel. I am just a guy who came up with an idea. The Church is about Reality
The parts that would be the same reinforce the likelihood that we are on track. However, the parts that are different raise the question that perhaps we are not on track. Of course, it depends on what the difference is or how serious it is.
The Church of Reality as it now exists is for the most part an attempt by me, Marc Perkel, the First One, and my friends and the feedback of the current membership, to create a natural church based on reality. Since none of us are perfect, it has to be assumed that errors exist that will hopefully be corrected in the future when they are hopefully discovered. I have no supernatural powers to rely on. I am just a guy who came up with an idea and try my best to do as good a job as I can with the resources I have to work with. The problem is that I am just an individual who is writing this from a limited perspective and am therefore limited in my ability to be accurate.
We should always ask, "If someone else invented the Church of Reality - would they come up with the same thing?"
Some things by different authors wouldn't be the same no matter how accurate everyone was. Everyone has their own personality and the personality is often injected into the writings. That is normal and acceptable to some extent as long as the personality issue doesn't affect the overall functioning of the church. As the First One I get to add some artistic elements to these early writings. I get to select the jokes. But I don't get to alter reality based on my personal whims. So it is a good idea to constantly test the presumptions of the Church to make sure that it sticks with reality and doesn't degenerate the way the theist religions do. |
The Church of Reality is unlike most other religions. The Church of Reality is a forward looking religion that envisions a better future than we have today. Realism is more than just believing in what's real - it's a commitment to the truth and reality the way it really is.
But the Church of Reality goes far beyond just believing in what's real. We are Explorers who actively seek out knowledge. And to do that we explore the understanding of understanding. We take on the big questions in life. Especially the Sacred Question - "What is Real?"
The belief system is based on the positive evolution of the human race. That it is the Tree of Knowledge - the sum total of all human understanding - that separates us from the animals. We believe that our understanding of reality is what defines us as a species and that we improve ourselves through the discovery of knew things.
The Church of Reality is more than just a static science book. It's more than just a declaration that reality is real. It is a commitment to a process of learning and to the greater community to create the environment in which learning can occur. It is to accept responsibility for our choices as a species and realize that we can control our destiny and choose our future. We choose to believe that what the human race becomes is important, and that we should apply the principles of Realism to our decision making process.
We explore ethics and morality and law and justices. We explore the questions about what is the best way for people to live. What is right and wrong? What is morality? What Sacred Principles can be declared as universal concepts. We seem to exist - therefore - what are we going to do while we are here?
Reality tells us that this planet is a spec of dust in the universe. There are 100 billion trillion galaxies and there are billions of stars in each one. We are but a spec of dust in the universe. We live for merely a moment of time. We are born, eat, reproduce, and die. This is science and this is reality.
The Church of Reality goes beyond mere science. Science just give us the bleak facts, but the Church of Reality adds color and depth to these facts. It adds the perspective of who we are and what we should do now that we exist.
We are here. We may be insignificant but this is our planet. We are individuals, yet we are connected to each other through the Tree of Knowledge. As individuals we would be no different than most other animal life on this planet. But we as a species have a common knowledge base that makes us a sort of a group life force. Just as bees are individuals, they are also part of a hive. And the bee can't survive without the hive. It can be accurately viewed that the hive is itself a life form made up of bees just like the bee is a life form made up of cells.
The Church of Reality is more than just believing in what's real. It's the exploration of reality by humanity as a whole and a personal commitment to the disciplines of pursuing the truth.
We too are parts of a greater life form. We have communities, countries, religions, political parties, and ultimately, we are one species. The entire human race is part of a "super being" that contains vast stores of information that we all rely on. Almost everything we do is related to things that came from other people. I created nothing in the house I live in. Very little in the world could be considered uniquely mine. This church itself - although it is "my idea" is really less that 1% mine. It is built on our common knowledge. I use language to describe it - words that came from other people. Einstein is long dead - but I can talk about Relativity because his knowledge is preserved. His ideas were built on mathematics that he was taught that was discovered by other people. He built his theories on the foundations of those who came before him.
Thus - the Church of Reality is more than just reality - it's the dharma of reality realizing itself. It is reality becoming self aware through our act of exploration. It is reality exploring itself through us. It is us - on this planet - with nothing else to do but to expand what we are as a species - as a super being - and to grow that into something better.
Pure reality doesn't care about us. If this galaxy exploded today it would take 2.2 million years before anyone in the next closest galaxy even saw it - assuming that there were anyone there to see it in the first place. But in going beyond pure cold reality the Church of Reality makes certain assumptions that gives reality a religious context. We are exploring reality from the human perspective. We have a will to survive and to grow. We have our selfish perspective that our little speck of dust in the universe is valuable to us and that our survival is important to us, and that our exploration and understanding of the universe is important to us.
So - the Church of Reality isn't just science. It adds the element of humanity. It presumes that we are important to us and that growing is a good thing and that annihilation and extinction is a bad thing. In the universe itself there is no good and bad. There are just rocks bumping into each other and stars exploding. But Realism goes beyond that in that it's about us. Realism isn't just understanding - it's about people understanding together. And since our understanding is collective in nature - Realism is about community, ethics, morality, law, justice, freedom, responsibility, and all of the social issues necessary for the exploration of reality as it really is. The Church of Reality is about us. It is about who we are, where we are going, and how we are going to get there.
Understanding doesn't exist in the vacuum of outer space. Understanding requires an understander, one who understands. There has to be something or someone out there that is doing the understanding. Where does understanding occur? Is it in the mind of the individual? Only partially. Most of understanding is a community effort. I come up with a brilliant idea - the Church of Reality for example. But my idea is based on things I learned from society. So - what do I do with my brilliant idea? I tell other people. I post it on the Internet. I share the idea. If I don't share the idea then the idea dies. Knowledge doesn't live in the vacuum of space - it lives only if it is passed on and stored; it only lives if it becomes part of the Tree of Knowledge. It only lives if our ideas merge into the oneness of human understanding. Only in this is it that who we are - from an intellectual perspective - survives our physical existence.
The Tree of Knowledge goes beyond the sum total of the minds of human beings. Long ago this was not the case. People had to teach knowledge to other people and all knowledge was stored in the minds of those currently alive. If knowledge wasn't passed on verbally, or was not accurately remembered, it was forever lost. Eventually humans discovered writing and knowledge could be stored in books. Inventions like the printing press and transportation made the storage and communication of knowledge far better allowing the Tree of Knowledge to grow more quickly. Now we have telephones, television, radio, computers, and the Internet that have greatly advanced the processes of storing and communicating ideas.
These new tools add to the sum total of human understanding. The Tree of Knowledge goes beyond the sum of all the living brains on the planet. It now includes all books, computers, tape recordings, and communication systems. And it includes the societies that support the technology, who has access, and who can use what. All this adds to who we are as the "understander" of understanding.
Thus - it is the premise of the Church of Reality that there is a super being that is made up of all of us and our devises for the sharing and storing information. It is our premise that we are all part of this vast network of people and machines, and that we are all members working together as one race to improve ourselves. We are the Tree of Knowledge just as bees are a hive. And the hive is not just the some of the bees - but it is the hive structure itself and it is the honey.
And just as the hive includes the honey, the Tree of Knowledge includes not only the people, but also our houses, roads, bridges, airplanes, cars, computers, networks, books, countries, governments, religions, schools, hospitals, communication satellites, money, power distribution, dams, lakes, boats, trains, trucks, the things that make life work for us. And we are all part of that from the smallest villages to the vast cities.
But - who controls the super being - or does it control us? By the way - I am not referring to God here. Who decides what will be next? The premise of the Church of Reality is - we do. We believe that we as individuals can make a difference. Will our future be happy and prosperous? Or - are we heading for ultimate destruction or a hideous future where we become slaves to the machines we build - assuming the machines don't exterminate us. Some religions envision Armageddon. What will our future be and who will decide it?
The Church of Reality takes the position that our future depends on individuals making the right choices for the right reasons. We believe that we are ultimately responsible and are for the most part in control of our future. We believe that it is our responsibility to be responsible. It is up to us to decide how we are going to make decisions. To decide that we have an obligation to choose to choose rather than let things just happen. And that the process of making those choices should be done based on reality and not mythology. We believe that if we choose wisely were are far more likely to have a better tomorrow than if we choose poorly.
In order to choose wisely we have to be able to know how to be wise. We need to explore better ways of doing things and have some principles as to what better is. We need a sense of community and of purpose. The Church of Reality provides purpose to reality. The purpose is the Dharma of the Church to do the doing and know what needs to be known. In order to guide us, we create the Sacred Principles that define the concepts for which the Church of Reality is guided. These principles define our purpose and our method for achieving that purpose and provide a framework to accomplish the dharma of the church - which is the pursuit of reality by the human race. |
What is the different between someone who is into science and someone who practices Realism? There is a lot of difference. There are a lot of people who will state, "Of course I believe in reality, who doesn't?" But - does that make them a member of the Church? No - it doesn't.
To be a Realist and practice Realism requires a greater commitment than just acknowledging that reality is real. The Church of Reality isn't just about what you believe in - it's what you do. Realism goes beyond just giving lip service to reality. To be a Realist you have to dedicate yourself to the cause of promoting Realism, publicly identify yourself as a Realist, and actively participate in growing the Tree of Knowledge. This church isn't about what you believe - it's about what you do.
Realists - and I use a capital R to indicate I use the term referring to church members - are expected to practice the disciplines of the church - which include growing the Tree of Knowledge. This involves such things as original thinking and communicating new good original ideas. It involves promoting the good ideas of others. It involves education, learning, communications, asking the Sacred Question, challenging beliefs on the basis of reality, insisting that decisions be made in a realistic way, contributing to the promotion of Realism, strengthening society through public service, charity, giving, sharing, and taking care of one another. A Realist is expected to be actively Realistic - not passively.
We choose to work to grow the Tree of Knowledge and we choose to work to cause humanity to evolve in a positive direction for a better tomorrow. It is these choices that make the Church of Reality a Religion.
The Tree of Knowledge is the central concept in the Church of Reality. The Tree of Knowledge represents the sum total of all human understanding. We are all members of the human race and we are all bound together as one being through the Tree of Knowledge. It is central to our belief that we acknowledge the reality that we are not - for the most part - separate individuals, in that our lives, our thoughts, our language, what we know, what we do, who we are, are all bound together in a vast matrix of information. And as Realists practicing Realism it is our duty to the Tree of Knowledge to improve ourselves individually, and as members of the human race for the good of all mankind.
The Church of Reality makes the assumptions that if life has a purpose - it is because we give it purpose. That we as a race have made the arbitrary decision to both survive and to prosper. That we choose to become better than we are today. That we should move forward into a better tomorrow. These choices do not come from reality itself. As far as the universe is concerned, we are just a rock in space.
But - the Church of Reality believes - through the Tree of Knowledge, that humanity as a race has made a choice to evolve in a positive direction. We as individuals and as church members stand for the principle that we want a better tomorrow; and that we want to know the truth. That we want to have a better understanding of who we are, why we are here, and why there is something rather than nothing. And it is our Dharma as Realists practicing Realism to ensure that humanity goes in that direction - forward - known to us as the Sacred Direction. It is this choice that we make that establishes the doctrine of the church.
To that end it is our discipline, our dharma, to make it our purpose, and to actively work to achieve the goals of the church. And in order to achieve this end - we create the Sacred Principles that form a practical foundation to achieve this purpose.
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People think of religious rights in terms of Theism. The idea is that a person is personally committed to worshiping a God and that the God requires the person wear or not wear specific clothing, or to attend a worship service on a holy day. Various nation states recognize the importance of religion to the individual and have reserved in their laws a process for exception to various rules for individuals whose ability to practice their religion would be impeded if they were forced to adhere to the State's rules and regulations.
You don't have to believe in God to have religious rights. Realists have the same religious rights as any other religion.
Religion is not limited to Theists. There are religions who do not believe in a deity or anything supernatural and who have a common religious world view that is just as sacred and holy to them as that of deity based religions. Religion doesn't require a deity to be a religion and under the rules of most nation states all religions are considered to have the same rights as all other religions. These rights include the rights of religions who are atheistic or religions like Unitarian Universalists who take no position on whether or not God exists.
Our religious rights are based on Church of Reality doctrine.
Like other religions the Church of Reality has a doctrine that we call the Kernel. Our doctrine is based on Axioms that we assume to be true. These axioms form the basis for our Sacred Missions and our Sacred Principles that lay the foundation for our moral code. The basis of our religion is to pursue an understanding of reality the way it really is. We have special needs in order to accomplish this and rules or laws that would interfere with our pursuit of reality would be an infringement of our religious rights.
For example, the Church of Reality has issued an edict against students in public school being forced to wear school uniforms because uniforms stifle creativity and infringe on individualism and freedom. A Realist can not be forced to learn Bullshit as science. A Realist has a right to choose to have an Abortion or to choose not to have an abortion. A Realist has the right to explore reality. We have the right to be individualistic. We have the right and religious duty to choose which wars are just and unjust. We have the right to be free of government and corporate tracking. We have the right to refuse military conscription. We consider personal choice and personal freedom to be sacred.
We have the right to speak out against injustice. No Realist can be compelled to give up their right to speak freely, to criticize any organization that they are a member of or not a member of, or be punished in any way for speaking out. We have the right to communicate with other Realists to explore reality together. We have a right to access scientific journals even if imprisoned.
We have a right to refuse to participate in harming the environment. We have the right to refuse to endure exposure to the teachings of other religions should we choose not to. We have the right to refuse to acknowledge the existence of deities or make any pledges to nation states that include a reference to a deity. We have a right to assert a message of peace. We have a right to share fellowship with other Realists or any group of people who express an interest in reality so that we can discuss the Sacred Question.
The doctrine of the Church of Reality is a living doctrine that is always under development. It is the right of all Realists to have access to this doctrine and to be able to communicate their thoughts on how to improve our doctrine for the purpose of Positive Evolution. Realists have the right to resources to aid in their self improvement. Realist have a right to practice compassion for others, to care for the sick, to give charity to the needy, to give medical aid to the wounded, to educate those needing education, to rehabilitate those who are imprisoned whether or not they are guilty of a crime. Our world view is the Philosophy of the Open Hand and we have a right to practice that.
Realists are expected to use Wisdom and Reason and to think for themselves. As with any religion sometimes Church of Reality doctrine doesn't cover every aspect of every situation. It is therefore up to the individual to think for themselves and to apply church law to specific situations that they encounter in their lives. The individual ultimately has the freedom to choose and to determine how church doctrine applies to them individually.
Because our doctrine is better than most deity based religions the Church of Reality gives Atheists stronger religious rights than those of Bible believers.
The Church of Reality actually provides more religious rights for Realists than most deity based religions do, which is yet another reason for you to become a Realist. Let us welcome you to the real world. |
Religious rights are rights that various nation states recognize as being superior to state laws. Individuals who are members of religions are given exceptions to the law regarding specific religious customs. States try to avoid forcing individuals to be required to do things that the individual considers to be "sinful" or in violation of one's conscience. Many laws have a religious exemption that allows people of specific religions the right to not comply with the law or to have special privileges such as days off of work for religious holidays. Muslims are allowed to wear head scarves. Jehovah's Witnesses can not be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Religious people have the right to practice their religion.
Religious rights were once thought of as applying only to people who believe in a God. But that isn't the case. Religious rights apply to people of all religions whether or not your religion believes in a deity or not. All religions includes atheist religions like Buddhism and Realism. It doesn't matter what your religion believes or what fictional deities it chooses. In the eyes of the law Jesus and the Flying Spaghetti Monster are equal.
Religious rights are based on the doctrine of the religion that you are a member of. These laws generally do not apply to people who are not members of a religion. The nation states seem to give preference to people who are members of a group as opposed to people who have their own private philosophy. As a member of a religion your religious claim is based on their documented religious laws. So if you are an individual making a claim for a religious right then you need to be a member of a religion that has a written creed that the state can reference that shows that your religious claim is actually supported by the religion that you are a member of.
Our Kernel gives Realists a fuller set of religious rights than that of any other religion.
The Church of Reality has a very rich doctrine for which to draw upon for religious freedom. We are not limited by the words of ancient text that were written by people who lived thousands of years ago. Our Kernel is a modern doctrine that is a dynamic and evolving doctrine that is expanding, fixing it's mistakes, improving, and is able to adjust to a changing world. In the future if cloning technology becomes commonplace then we will have doctrine relating to cloning. You would be hard pressed to find cloning in the Bible. but when the time comes the Kernel will cover it.
Our doctrine is based on the right of the individual to pursue the understanding of reality as it really is and to be part of a community that is friendly to such a pursuit. Our Sacred Missions and our Sacred Principles give us a very broad religious doctrine with a lot of specific religious protections. Our doctrine is far more specific than other religions and details issues in the modern world. It is based on a logical construction so that even if an issue isn't specifically covered it can more easily be logically constructed from existing principles. This is important because a Realist going into a court of law to assert a religious right has far more to work with than other religions. The strength of our Kernel empowers then individual to assert religious rights under law.
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Newsflash |
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The IRS has approved the 501(C)3 tax exempt status of the Church of Reality. |
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Please link to us, discuss us in online forums, and blog about us. Every time anyone thinks about reality the world becomes a little smarter.
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The Church of Reality is a non-prophet organization.
"Reality®" and "Church of Reality®" are registered trademarks of the Church of Reality.
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Religion of Reality