Church of Reality

Edicts of Doctrine

Menu of Reality

Edict Date: 04-19-2007

In response to today's ruling by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart the Church of Reality today reasserts several of our religious principles as to why we take strong exception to the decision of the court. These principles include:

A woman has a fundamental right to choose to terminate her pregnancy.
Everyone has a fundamental right to health and that the rights of the living take precedent over those of the unborn.
That women are fully equal to men in every way and that they are not subject to inferior social status as imposed by majority religions.
That medical decisions are a private affair and that they are between a patient and the doctor and are not to be used by the majority religions as a way of imposing its standards on people of other religions.
That our Principle of Compassion requires any of us who are doctors to disobey the law when the law puts the health of the patient at risk.
Laws created my the majority religions to enforce the values of their religion on members of other religions, impose a substantial government burden on our religion and violates our First Amendment rights under the Free Exercise of religion clause.

The Church of Reality is based upon the religious commitment to pursue the understanding of reality as it really is. In order to do that we have adopted a set of Sacred Principles which form the basis of our moral and ethical standards. In the darkness of space there is no right and wrong. Whatever happens is what happens. It is we as humans who invented right and wrong as a way of promoting what we consider to be in the interest of the greater good. Morality is based upon that which the community considers to be the overriding values of society from their religious perspective. Some follow the teaching of ancient texts with stories of deities that issued commandments and demanded blood sacrifices. Our religion puts value on the continued evolution of the human race and the quest for the understanding of our existence and our continued evolutionary progress.

Our values are based on the Principle of Inclusiveness and the Principle of Justice which make women and men 100% equal partners in the human experience. Women are not the property of men and men are not dominate over women. We don't recognize superior social position based on sex. We also value Self Ownership, that everyone owns their own life, makes their own choices, and takes Responsibility for their own choices. Even if the choice is wrong, it is your choice to make. We Respect each other's rights and we respect each other's Privacy. We see ourselves as all part of humanity and we are Compassionate towards individuals. We take care of each other. We keep each other healthy and relieve suffering.

We Realists live in a society that is dominated by theistic religions that worship a variety of invisible deities according to ancient texts that the believers follow without question. These texts give the male domination over the female. She is his property. She exists to serve then make and bear him sons. The deities are often cruel and demand blood scarifices and their standards are based on the idea that the deity sometimes causes suffering and that there is injustice in this life that the deity will make it up in a next life.

Because the majority religions controls the legislature, they are in a position to impose there values as if they were absolute truths. Sometimes they to this innocently, sometimes it is to appeal to the majority of voters who share these artificial values. In enacting these religious values into law, they appease the masses and they get reelected. Thus democracy creates laws that tend to impose the majority religions on the minority.

An example of this includes slavery. That black people are 60% as valuable as white people. It took America 150 years to figure out that women were people. Women weren't allowed to vote and were considered not much more than property. That's because the laws reflected the role of women as depicted in their religion. America however has moved away from that and law now tries to give women equal standing as men as full participants of society. The dominate religion however has not given up the fight. They are still trying to impose biblical law on everyone, including us, and this Supreme Court decision is actually an expression of the religious values of the majority religions. They are however views that we Realists do not share.

The values of the majority religions treat women as property. The woman exists to give the man sons so that he can continue his name. The woman is expected to take the name of the male as part of the required bonding ritual and prior to having sex. The female sexual desire is vilified and she is expected to control herself so as not to arouse the innocent males who are seduced into betraying the deity by eating the fruits of forbidden knowledge. From the very creation of humanity, the roles were established. The man is created first, but he is incomplete. So the deity creates a female to serve him. The female is weak and she is tempted by the devil and is responsible for corrupting the male. Therefore it is established that the female is responsible for the bad behavior of the male.

This ancient story is still part of our society today and these values were ruled into law by this Supreme Court decision. This decision wasn't a decision based on law but rather on religion. The dominate religion sees the woman as the sexual temptress who must be controlled for the good order of society. They can't have unmarried women going around having sex with anyone they please. That is sin and it's the woman's fault when it happens. The woman must be punished for allowing the demons to manifest through her.

Women are unique in that they get pregnant. Some believe that the deity punishes the woman for the immoral sexual act by making her pregnant with a bastard child so society will despise her as the harlot she truly is. This is the punishment that is rightly deserved for the sin of fornication. So modern technology like birth control go against the will of the deity and they allow women to have illicit sex and cheat their way out of the punishment that justice demands. And if birth control isn't bad enough, abortion is totally cheating the system. The dominate religions are fighting to make it stop.

Pregnancy is not God's way of punishing women for being sluts.

The dominate religion has engaged in what we would call a fetus fetish. The fetus becomes a person with as much or more rights than the mother. This reflects the attitude of ancient male dominated cultures that would slaughter the woman during childbirth if they thought it was good for the male baby to be born. But this is only an excuse to stop abortion because the threat of pregnancy and the social shame from that can be used as a tool of the dominant religion to control the sexuality of the females within the culture.

We in the Church of Reality also value life but our values are different. We take responsibility for ourselves and if a man and a woman have sex, it is not her fault. We have no restrictions on sex outside of marriage or and other committed relationship. Fornication is not a concept within our religion. We do not take the position that society has to control women through oppressive imagery and labels of immoralit, to repress a woman's natural and instinctive desires. Women in our church are full participants and have equal standing in society. We are also a culture that makes our own decisions and takes responsibility for our own choices. And because Realists have the same religious rights as the dominant religion, we do not have to live under their religious law.

In this decision the Court failed to recognize our position that doctors are more qualified to make medical decisions that the legislature and that we have the right to choose our own path when it comes to health related matters. We also think it's reasonable to assume that a doctor is better qualified than a politician to make those choices. We therefore have a religious right to preserve our life and our health so that we can contribute to the Tree of Knowledge and that our Life Story will be remembered when we are gone.

This procedures that is referred to as "Partial Birth Abortion" is a medically necessary procedure that is performed on both pro-choice and pro-life women in cases where there are pregnancy complications and the baby will die and needs to be removed from the mother to preserve her life or her health. Sometimes in cases where the problem with the fetus is that the head has swollen to an abnormally large size, you are putting the mother's health at risk not using this procedure. Not performing this kind of abortion in these cases could leave her in a state where she can never get pregnant again.

In this decision, the Supreme Court chose to ignore the medical facts or chose to devalue the health of the mother so that politicians can use people as political props to get votes. It is a question of values. They value the power of the legislature over the health of women. We in the Church of Reality put the health of women ahead of politics. Are we to be expected to require Realists doctors to obey a law that compels them to do something that is not in the best interest of the patient. That would force us to go against our core religious values and we therefore refuse to do so.

This decision, from our perspective, concluded that the legislature has the right to assign value to human life and that they have concluded through voting that the life of a fetus is more important than the health of the mother. That the legislature has the power to impose the moral values of the dominant religion over those of the minority religion. It is our position that the First Amendment, as clarified by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, is a barrier to the state imposing their values on our religion and that we are immune from these laws on a constitutional basis. Our position is that it is not the job of the legislature to legislate sexual morality and create laws to enforce a religious agenda. And that is what happened in this decision.

Our values differ with those of the legislature and the court in several ways. The court government puts the value of the fetus ahead of the health of the mother. We put the health of the mother ahead of the fetus. The government does not recognize a fundamental right for a person to relieve themselves from suffering, to own themselves, and to have the freedom to make their own medical decisions. We do. We believe in personal privacy and self ownership and that personal medical decisions are outside of the jurisdiction of the legislature to enforce public morality. Our moral values include the practice of giving and receiving compassion and respect. We therefore find it to be a substantial burden to require Realist doctors and other Realist caregivers to obey the law when their medical judgment of what is best for the health of the patient conflicts with the law. We can not accept that our doctors be required to forgo the health of a patient of any religion to obey the legislature's moral standards.

We in the Church of Reality recognize that this planet is a finite size and that if we overpopulate this world, we will have massive famine, war, and disease. We cannot continue to overpopulate this world and avoid the consequences of what will happen. Unlike the dominant religion that sees the future in terms of Armageddon, we see the future in terms of continual progress. But progress doesn't just happen on its own. We believe that only through good judgment and a forming a covenant with reality can we fulfill the promise of Positive Evolution.

In order to limit the population, we need to find ways to control our reproduction. One step in reproductive control is to encourage women to have children when they are ready, not only to reproduce but to properly care for the child. We therefore take the position that women who choose to have children are probably in a better position to have them than women who wish to terminate their pregnancy.

Additionally, to have children is a life changing decision. We are driven by our instincts, just like the animals, in our evolutionary history. We are the descendants of those who have had sex. It's a desire that our brains and bodies are programmed to perform. Although we have some control over who we have sex with, that control is limited. If humans had ever achieved self-control, then we would already be extinct. Our compulsion to mate is actually designed by evolution to override good judgment. We therefore sometimes get pregnant because of instinct rather than making a rational choice.

We however are different than the animals in that we have developed the ability to share knowledge and create common technologies that give us dominion over the life on this planet. Because of the Tree of Knowledge we can now fly, visit the moon, and talk to people on the other side of the planet. We can comprehend our own existence, our destiny and choose what we want to evolve into. We also take responsibility for our futures as we have chosen to be the custodians of tomorrow. But to fulfill that role, we have to take responsibility for our choices and we do that by defending the right of a woman to not be forced to reproduce.

Like the dominant religion, we too value life. But we value it from a realistic perspective and not as a tool to manipulate the behavior of women. We view it as taking responsibility for the future by evolving into a species that reproduces by choice and not just as a side effect of evolutionary sexual instincts. Our position is therefore that the choice to respect the reproductive decisions of women is more "pro-life" than those who use the issue as a political wedge to gain votes.

Therefore our position is that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment allow our members to have free access to abortion in spite of the law. That these laws don't apply to us. We have the right to receive abortions and to allow our doctors to treat all women in a way that is in the best interest of the patient, whether the treatment is or isn't legal. We are not going to obey the laws of the majority religions to the extent that it imposes their religious values upon us. If they expect us to respect their right to self-oppression, then they have to respect our right to freedom and self determination.

Realists have a Religious Right to Medical Marijuana

Edict Date: 03-16-2007

The Church of Reality doctrine already covers the use of illegal drugs by church members in general, but recent court decisions regarding the use of medical marijuana have now made necessary a stronger and more specific statement about our position on medical marijuana in particular. This edict is in response to the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Reich v. Gonzales in which the court failed to infer a fundamental right for a person to take measures to alleviate their pain and suffering. They denied the petitioner's bid that, as a matter of law, she has the right to use marijuana to preserve bodily integrity, avoid pain, and preserve her life.

The Constitution provides a right to exercise one's religion, yet not the right to preserve one's own life. We therefore are declaring that preserving one's own life is part of the exercise of our religion.

Governments and Law are part of an evolutionary process. As with our Doctrine, the constitutions of nations are designed to serve the people and to give people as comprehensive a set of rights as they know how to at the time. But also as with our Doctrine, sometimes they leave important rights out and sometimes they just get it wrong. For example, here in the United States it took our nation almost 90 years to realize that black people are humans and to end slavery. It took almost 150 years to recognize that women are humans and have the right to vote. Governments are often slow to respond and the job of the courts is to interpret the law, and not to write the law, even when they know the law is wrong. Fortunately for those of us in the Church of Reality, we are able to more quickly respond to things that just don't make any sense. Our evolution is faster than that of the governments. As it should be.

The courts however have upheld the right to religious freedom under the First Amendment and recognized the strict scrutiny test when it comes to the imposition of federal law on religious freedom. So even though you don't have a Constitutional right to break federal law to fight for your life, you do have a right to break federal law when it comes to your religious rights. Because religious law trumps federal law, we in the Church of Reality are not dependent upon the courts and the legislature to figure out that we have a fundamental religious right to break federal law in order to preserve our lives and avoid pain and suffering. We are legally entitled to grant that right ourselves and therefore we hereby do so. This edict is intended to provide a clear and unambiguous statement as to where this church stands on this issue.

Members of the Church of Reality have an absolute right to use Marijuana for any medical purpose that they see fit regardless of whether or not it is lawful to do so.

The Church of Reality recognizes the vast amount of scientific and medical data in support of the medical use of marijuana and the fact that at this time 10 states have passed laws allowing the use of medical marijuana in spite of it being illegal under federal law. We are not subject to the greed and politics behind the opposition to this harmless drug which is the only reason it remains illegal. Nor do we ignore the fact that thousands of licensed physicians are prescribing marijuana to patients, in some cases advising them that it is worth obtaining marijuana illegally because it has unique properties that no other known substance has.

It was never the intent of drug laws to prevent people from receiving the medications they need.

The Church of Reality in general is a law-abiding religion that recognizes that law and order are necessary for a well functioning and stable society. Likewise, we recognize the real dangers of drug abuse and we have a moral position to be functional members of society and that drug abuse can cause injury to this individual, their family, their community, and the public in general. We recognize that there is a legitimate government purpose to prevent the abuse of narcotics. We support obeying the law even if the law is imperfect, as nothing is perfect, as long as it is reasonable to do so. However, when laws cross the line of reason to the point where the restrictions of law pose a danger to the health and safety of our members then we have both a right and a duty to break the law. Medical marijuana restrictions cross the line where it is unreasonable for us to endure its illogical encumbrances on our religious freedoms.

We cannot pursue the understanding of reality if we have to worry about being arrested over sick people needing medicine.

The Church of Reality is a religion based on the pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is. In order to pursue the understanding of reality, we support the Positive Evolution of the human race so that the expansion of the Tree of knowledge, which represents the sum total of human understanding, can progress. In order to have a stable community, our members have to be secure in their persons and their individual security and liberty must be protected. This includes the person's right to treat their illnesses and alleviate their pain and suffering so that they can recover and be a productive member of society. It is also necessary that other people who are currently healthy are secure in the knowledge that they have access to life-saving drugs without fear of arrest and imprisonment. A Realist is not required to give their life to the government to support a false description of reality that flies in the face of science. Marijuana laws are political laws and have no basis in the real world.

The Church of Reality is also a community of strongly individualistic people who come together as Explorers to explore reality. Our worldview is that this is the only life we have and that we are in control of our Personal Evolution and the writing our own Life Story. Thus we value our religious right to make our own choices and make our own mistakes. In short, we have the right to be wrong. Sometimes people make bad choices, but they are our bad choices to make. Our religious cultural values include the right to be in control of our own lives and to take a higher level of Personal Responsibility for our own choices. This is particularly important when it comes to our health, our bodies, and treating our illnesses. We understand that laws that apply to people in general do not necessarily apply to individuals in particular and that reasonable people can make reasonable exceptions in reasonable circumstances. Thus we respect the right of people to make their own medical decisions because it is after all, their life. The concept of Self Ownership is one of our fundamental values.

The Church of Reality is a unique religious culture in that evolution is central to our core worldview. We pursue reality as a community and the pursuit of reality is an evolutionary process that by definition involves change. We define ourselves as the caretakers of the future of the human race. It is our job to think ahead and be the experimental branch where the important concepts for future generations are developed. It is our task to make people aware that humanity is on the verge of taking control of its own evolution and that we can and should choose to determine what it is that we are going to evolve into. Because this is central to our religious mission, the members of our religion require a greater freedom from the rule of law so that we can explore new directions and correct the mistakes of our past. We in the Church of Reality value Intellectual Tithing where we contribute new ideas to the Tree of Knowledge. New ideas require an environment where individuals are free.

The law allows for exceptions so that religions can evolve, and the evolution of religion allows the law to evolve. The law is dependent on law breakers for its own evolution.

It is our view that the purpose of religious freedom is to create the kind of environment in which humanity can evolve forward. Rigid and inflexible laws lead to rigid and inflexible cultures in which human evolution becomes stagnant and the Tree of Knowledge rots. Without freedom, governments and law can't evolve and the law itself requires law breakers in order to improve itself. In 1670 William Penn was arrested and put on trial for illegally preaching a Quaker sermon. Even though the judge demanded a guilty verdict the jury refused, leading to the birth of the concept of jury nullification (of law) in which a jury can decide to acquit a person who is clearly guilty of breaking the law. The law itself now recognizes the importance of protecting the public from its own flaws by allowing people to legally break the law to serve a higher purpose. Had it not been for the law breakers, preaching a Quaker sermon might still lead to imprisonment. Were that the case, religions like the Church of Reality would not be allowed to exist.

Thus the use of drugs for medical reasons, whether they be legal or not, is a logical extension of our religious lifestyle. Through the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government has recognized that religions have the power to assert exceptions for religious practices over federal law if the law puts a substantial burden on the religious act. As the First One of the Church of Reality, I have the authority to issue edicts in the name of this religion and I hereby do so.

It is obvious that individuals possess a fundamental right to alleviate their pain and suffering, and just because the government has yet to figure that out, it doesn't mean that we are subject to the same restrictions. I therefore declare specifically that the Church of Reality recognizes as a religious right that church members have access to marijuana specifically and any other drug in general that they determine has medical value to them.