Welcome to the Church of Reality. Welcome to the Real World. The Church of Reality is a positive force for change and you can be part of it. You can help make it happen. There is a lot of material here. We hope you will invest the time to read it. The short version of what the Church of Reality is about is:
Reality is our God
Science is our Bible
Evidence is our Scripture
Big History is our Creation Story
Ecology is our Theology
Integrity is our Salvation
Positive Evolution is our Mission
The Church of Reality is a religion based on the practice of Realism, which is a dedication to the pursuit of the understanding of objective Reality. Our motto is, "If it's real, we believe in it." Since no one knows all of Reality, the Church of Reality is a religious commitment to the pursuit of Reality the way it really is. We think about thinking. We wonder about wondering. We try to understand the understanding of understanding. We are Explorers, not followers. The phrase "What is Real?" is our Sacred Question and the word "Reality" is our Sacred Message. We talk about Reality, think about Reality, and aim to make Reality more important in society.
The Church of Reality is based upon the Authority of Evidence
rather than the Authority of Scripture
Reverend Reality Speaks!
The Church of Reality is Religion 3.0. Religion 1.0 was about the authority of elders. Religion 2.0 was about the authority of scripture. Religion 3.0 is about the authority of evidence. This is a process we call the Evidential Reformation. We attempt answer the great questions that other religions address, like what is right and wrong, what is the meaning of life, how do people live together in a community, and what are our responsibilities to ourselves and to each other. We address these concerns in the context of Big History, our present Reality, and our future evolution. We are particularly focused on the future, which we call the Sacred Direction.
What we consider real is based on knowing rather that choosing to believe something. The difference between knowing and believing is knowing is based on the scientific method, which we call the Sacred Method. We use evidence, proof, logic, and reasoning to determine what is real. That doesn't make us infallible, sometimes we get it wrong. But when we realize we are wrong we change our minds because we have a value system that puts Reality first.
The Church of Reality is about making a religious commitment to the pursuit of the understanding of Reality as it really is.
We are Monorealists, which means we believe in The One True Reality. This Reality is the sum of everything that actually exists. Our definition of Reality includes what some people call "other realities" that actually are real with the exclusion of imaginary realities and religious fiction. We care about what is real, not what we think is real or what we want to believe is real. The Church of Reality puts "real" Reality first.
The Church of Reality is not just a religion of science, it is a religion of people understanding Reality through science. We explore Reality from the human perspective. In order to explore Reality, we need a strong, healthy society where people can live freely and peacefully, have more Telescope Time, and the human race can evolve toward a better future. The pursuit of Reality is something that is a shared process. It's something we do together as a church, as a community, and as the human race.
We are about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Reality!
The Church of Reality provides a religious identity for people who have made a personal commitment to pursue Reality the way it really is. When we are asked, "What religion are you?," we answer that we are Realists; we practice Reality because we believe in Reality. We also provide a sense of community, a social structure, and a moral compass to define right and wrong. We provide a sense of purpose about who we are, why we exist, and how we live our lives, in the context of science and logic.
We are of One Planet - we are all here together - and we are committed to making the future better than it is today. We are committed to making sure humanity evolves in a positive direction.
The Church of Reality recognizes the fact that the human race has a vast amount of shared knowledge. We call this shared knowledge the Tree of Knowledge, and it is through the growth of this tree that we can explore the universe around us. As the Tree of Knowledge grows, we evolve toward a better tomorrow, one where we will know more about Reality than we know today. Realism is not just a casual acceptance of Reality as real. Realism is a deeply felt choice, a commitment to a disciplined approach to determine what's real and to allow us to evolve in a positive direction.
The Church of Reality is an evolving religion. We are not tied to a fixed doctrine that was written in the past and is slowly becoming obsolete. If we get it wrong, we fix our mistakes. We are an Open Source Religion and everyone is welcome to participate in the development and improvement of our religion. We live on a vast wondrous universe that we are just beginning to explore. Why would someone want to waste their entire existence on a fictional world view when there's all this wonderful Reality to investigate and understand?
The Church of Reality is an Emergent Religion. Just as apples grow on apple trees when humanity evolves to a certain level something like the Church of Reality must occur. Humanity has two paths. We can either evolve forward or we will become extinct. We will either Stay in the Game or we will be Left Behind. Since we were created through the process of evolution and our ancestors all the way back to Pond Scum did what it took to survive, we are programmed by evolution to try to continue to exist. We therefore accept, through evolutionary bias, that to exist is better than to not exist. In order to continue to exist we have to evolve forward and we need to be in Right Relationship with Reality to do that. And that defines the mission and the purpose of the Church of Reality, that humanity should continue to exist and evolve forward so that we stay in the game. Our descendants should look back at this time and be thankful we did what we do here today. Otherwise, if we do the wrong thing, they might regret what we do today, or there may be no one around to look back. We will be forgotten.
What is Reality?
Reality is that which when you stop believing in it - it doesn't go away. ~ Philip K. Dick
Are you already a Realist? - Do you find yourself thinking about Reality? Do you think that it's important that what you believe in is actually real? Do you think for yourself rather than just believe what you are told to believe? When you counsel friends on important matters, do you advise them to take Reality into consideration? Do you believe the world would be better off if Reality were a more important part of society? if you answered YES to these questions, you may already be a Realist.
“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.” ~ Carl Sagan
If you like what you see, then join our Mailing List to get the latest announcements. We also appreciate those who link to us and review the Church of Reality in their blogs. We have a good religion started here. All we need is people to spread the word about it.
Church of Reality Introduction Podcast Listen Now!
The ideas presented here on this website are mostly the work of Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality. Unlike other religions the Church of Reality is not infallible. The concept presented here are an attempt to explore the meaning of meaning. Everything that you will read here is incomplete, and can be improved. Different people have different aesthetic preferences and some people will find ideas and concepts here objectionable, such as using the word Church. And a lot of the material here will be proven to be just plain wrong.
Having said that, this is a serious attempt to explore an area where scientists are often uncomfortable. There are those who think that there is no meaning or purpose to Reality, that nothing matters. These people think that any attempt to define value in scientific terms is fundamentally flawed that meaning has no meaning.
But if nothing has any meaning then why is getting the right answer better than getting the wrong answer? Why is 2+2=4 a better answer than 2+2=3? If the right answer is a better answer than the wrong answer then that can become the basis for a value system that comes from Reality itself. Right is better than wrong. The purpose of the Church of Reality is to try to discern this value system and see if we can understand who we are, what we are, and what we are supposed to do with our lives.
So - there are plenty of things to find wrong here, but there are plenty of things to find right. Think of it more as a work in progress and if there is something you don't agree with, think of how you would make it better. To that end I unvite you in. Let us explore Reality together.
Introduction:
What does the Church of Reality contribute to the religious community? How does it relate to other religions? Religions are often defined in relative terms. For example, what is a Seventh Day Adventists? The short answer is that they are a form of Christianity that is somewhat unique in that they (correctly) identify the Sabbath as occurring on Saturday instead of Sunday. Thus the name "Seventh Day". Many are also vegetarians and fear that in the end times the government is going to come in and make them worship on Sunday at gun point.
Our name is our mission. We are the Church of Reality
So - what defines us? Who are we in relation to the rest of the world? Where does our religion come from? How do we fit in to the big picture?
Unlike most religions we are not a splinter group of some other religion. The Church of Reality has it's roots in Atheism, Humanism, and Science. Atheism isn't a religion but a statement about reality; about the non-existence of God. Humanism is the basis for building a social structure and determining right and wrong in the absence of some holy text declaring the will of mythical deities. It also has roots in Free Thinkers who seek an understanding of the real world.
Just as a whale is a mammal that looks like a fish, we are a religion that looks like science.
The Church of Reality is a very different kind of religion. A whale, for example, is a mammal, but it looks like a big fish. Similarly the Church of Reality is a religion, but it looks like Atheism, Humanism, and Science. In order to understand Realism you have to throw out your preconceptions about religion. Just as a whale is a mammal without fur, we are a religion without faith and dogma.
This religion was invented from scratch as a natural religion making a commitment to reality as it really is. Like Seventh Day Adventists the name is the predominant feature of the religion. The purpose of the Church of Reality is focused on the understanding and the pursuit of reality itself. It is a reality based religion.
In its short lifetime the Church of Reality has developed a lot of religious concepts that are unique among religions. We are happy that we can contribute new and unique concepts about belief systems and it is our hope that other religions steal our ideas. We look at religion as an evolutionary process and within that process there is some inter breeding of ideas and concepts. One might look at the doctrine of the church as DNA and we want to share our DNA with other religions and pick out the good stuff that they have already figured out. In that respect we don't require that all the people of the world convert to Realism. If we can contribute doctrine that is picked up by other faiths then we have made a better future.
Reality Based Religion - Every religion has a basis. Most have some holy text which describes a deity and miracles and grand stories and commandments and such. These religions are "faith based" and you are generally required to accept it without proof. The Church of Reality is a reality based religion and it is based on what is real. A religion that is based primarily on the commitment to the pursuit of reality the way it really is represents a new world view. We call it Accepting the Truth. It offers a religious choice that few other religions offers.
Fundamental Commitment to Real Reality - The Church of Reality is a fundamentalist religion that is dedicated to an absolute loyalty to the pursuit of real reality the way it really is. Many religions are reality friendly but allow for individual opinion to be superior to objective observation. As Fundamental Realists we take a more humble position about our understanding of reality by assuming that everything we believe is either wrong or at least incomplete and can be improved. We are after all a highly limited biological computer that injects a lot of ego noise into our perception of the universe.
Reality is not a human construct that becomes whatever we believe it is. Humanity is a reality construct and we become what reality deems us to be. Through us reality becomes aware of its own existence. Our relationship to the real world is fascinating beyond belief and that any time we let our egos obscure pure reality we cheat ourselves out of the holy grail of the possibility of perfect understanding. It is a quest beyond achievement, yet something that we commit ourselves to accomplish. If humanity spent and infinite amount of time pursuing pure reality and stayed true to the purity of the quest, then after an infinite amount of time we might be successful. If however we allow our ego to make our opinion more important than reality, then even in infinite time we will fail to achieve the purpose and cheat ourselves out of the ultimate conquest. To become one with the real world.
This is the Church of Reality, not the Church of Reality-ish Belief. The name is the mission. There are people who think reality is boring, but those people are not Realists. There is nothing more exciting to us than the pursuit of reality the way it really is.
A Religion that Makes Sense - Reality itself has consistency. It all fits together. It is something that makes sense. Reality is testable. It invites logic. The Church of Reality is a mirror of reality itself and (if we stay true to our missions) has the consistent properties of reality. The world view of Realism doesn't conflict with what we observe in reality itself. It doesn't require that you have to cheat on the objective level to explain your beliefs. It doesn't rely on magic and miracles or omnipotent deities who can operate outside the bounds of science. We don't ask you to suspend rationality. We don't ask you to accept information that can not be questioned. Realism makes the inner scientist smile.
Humanity based Religion - You can't explore without an explorer. Who is the explorer? We are. At least that's the way it is on this little piece of dust in the universe that we call Mother Earth. As we humans progress forward in our evolution from what we were to what we will become we increase our abilities to explore reality the way it really is. Thus the Church of Reality is the exploration of reality by humans, and the positive evolution of humanity is necessary for progress to be made. The exploration of reality and the progress of humanity are the same thing.
Realism is a Discipline - Our mind is a tool. It's not a very good tool, but it's all we have to work with, so the better we learn how to use it, the more progress we will make. Realism is the understanding of understanding. How do we rise beyond self delusion? How do we sharpen our minds? How do we come up with new innovative ideas and expand the horizon of understanding? How do we network with other minds to increase our collective mental abilities? We learn how to see through the fog. We try to understand ourselves and each other so that we can become the tools of exploration that we need to be in order to increase the sum total of human understanding. To grow the Tree of Knowledge. In order to do this we adhere to the disciplines of science.
Doubt Based Religion - Most religions are fiction based and require you to accept on "faith" without question that their premise for existing is true. The Church of Reality takes the opposite point of view. We are a doubt based religion believing that truth will stand the test of scrutiny and that the questioning of everything is a required process for discerning what is really real from that which is just bullshit. In our religion there is nothing that can not be questioned. We think faith is something you earn by accepting doubt and proving that you are trustworthy. We think that anything that you are required to believe without scrutiny should be considered to be false.
Upgraded Religion - The Church of Reality is more like a software upgrade for both Atheism and all other religions. It's more accurate to see us as an update rather than a conversion.
Atheism is focused on the Biblical deity and Atheism is ultimately about nothing. Realism, in contrast, is about everything. Atheism doesn't give any guidance as to the meaning of meaning or what we are supposed to do when we wake up in the morning.
All religions are about how to live in the world. Where does right and wrong come from? How did we come to be? What is our purpose? But the answers are usually based on old teachings that become more and more obsolete with each passing year.
The Church of Reality addresses these question deriving its answers through logic and science. Meaning actually does have meaning and there is right and wrong and there's formulas for determining what right and wrong are. (or at least a probability spectrum)
Tree of Knowledge - Although this name has been used in other religions no other religion has recognized the importance of the sum total of human knowledge in a religious context. The Church of Reality embraces the growth of human knowledge as one of its axioms. Most of what we know we know collectively, not individually. In fact the sum total of human understanding is one of the key indicators of our evolutionary advancement.
Positive Evolution - Although a brighter future in itself is not something that is new, the idea of making it the moral compass of a religion is a new concept. The Church of Reality accepts that our survival and progress is preferable to extinction and gives it a central role in church doctrine. We recognize that one can not advance the understanding of reality without the progress of society. We not only have concluded that evolution is real, but realize that only in taking control of our evolution can we pursue the goal of exploring reality as it really is.
The Sacred Direction - The Sacred Direction is forward, making the Church of Reality a Futuristic religion. Most religions are Dogmatic religions looking back to the good 'ole days starting in paradise and the future ending in destruction. In contrast we look towards the future and marvel at the possibilities of what we can learn about reality and what we can accomplish for the good of humanity by harnessing reality. Most religions look backwards in time towards what they believe is ancient wisdom. Our world view is that our best wisdom is yet to come. We believe in Futurism, not Dogmatism.
The Church of Reality focuses on the future, not the past.
The Power of Vocabulary - The human race is linked together through a complex set of agreements that is sustained through vocabulary. Some people say that you are what you eat, or you are what you think. We think that perhaps you are what you talk about. It is our vocabulary that binds us together as a society. Words and phrases convey meaning and establish common references. These common references trigger standard thought patterns that come from our shared understanding of reality. Through language we learn who we are, how society works, and our relationships with the people around us. Language is how we connect into the social fabric of humanity. It is what defines who we are as a community. If we change that language we can change civilization. We therefore consider our Terminology to be very important and we speak in the Vocabulary of Reality.
Intellectual Tithing - An important concept first introduced here as a religious concept is Intellectual Tithing, which is the contribution of knowledge to the sum total of human understanding. Our religion recognizes the giving and the sharing of knowledge as something that is at the heart of human evolution. We are creative and we share our ideas for the benefit of everyone as they share their ideas with us for our benefit. The ideas that we contribute to humanity becomes our immortal legacy if we do anything worth being remembered for. The sharing of ideas is like a holy sacrament in the Church of Reality.
Lawrence Krauss
The difference between Science and Faith
Faith - The Church of Reality is not a faith based religion. We are a doubt based religion. Faith is actually prohibited and doubt is required in the Church of Reality. We believe that truth is purified through doubt and that anything that is required to be believed without questioning is assumed to be false. We believe that all truth will stand up to scrutiny. Because things believed by faith can not be tested there is no way to distinguish what is true from what is not true.
Earned Trust - The Church of Reality takes a strong position against "blind faith" and says that if one is expecting to be believed that they have to earn it by being trustworthy and accepting scrutiny. Faith that is required without proof or where doubt is prohibited is considered to be bullshit. Most of what we know is based on trusting relationships with people and organizations who have developed a reputation for scientific discipline.
Vectored Answers to Important Questions - Unlike many other religions the Church of Reality doesn't answer questions but rather specifies the correct process for determining the answer. For example, the short answer to the question, "Does the Church of Reality believe in an afterlife?" is No, we don't. But the long answer is that our position represents the current consensus of the secular scientific community on the subject that they have determined through the disciplines of the scientific process. We recognize that we don't have answers to questions that no one knows, and that as our understanding of the world evolves forward that our position will reflect that evolution. Our answer to "What is Real?" is whatever free science has determined what is real.
Communion - We don't pray together, we contemplate together to share ideas and explore the reality we all exist in. In our tradition any time two or more people gather to talk about reality, that is communion. When we talk about reality with those of other religions we are sharing communion with them.
We are Monorealistic - Our world view is Monorealism in that we believe there is only one true reality, not multiple realities. Our reality includes all realities that are actually real and is the sum total of everything that actually exists. We contrast ourselves with the polyrealistic religions that believe in multiple realities without regard to whether or not they are actually real.
Nothing Supernatural - The Church of Reality rejects the idea that there is anything that is supernatural, magical, or miraculous in the sense that the impossible occurs. We think that everything has a basis in science. We don't have explanations for everything because we know that there is a lot we don't know. There are things that are real that we don't yet understand, but there is nothing that happens that is outside of reality. There is only the reality we know and the reality that we don't yet know. But it's all within the scope of reality. Because nothing supernatural is real, we can guarantee that you won't go to hell.
Artificial Intelligence Compatible - If humanity ever produces a super intelligent computer that is far smarter than we are, and that computer can rewrite its own code and goes through an existential crisis asking "What is the meaning of artificial life?", the goal of the Church of Reality is to have an answer that is so scientifically sound that the AI would conclude that we are on the right track. The Church of Reality is also a Religion for Robots.
Free will and Agency - Our view is that we do have free will and agency and that we not only can make choices but that we actively own our story and are responsible for our choices.
Intrinsic Value of Humanity - The Church of Reality accepts as one of our axioms that all people have intrinsic value and that we Respect the intrinsic value of ourselves and others. This is the basis for our view that we are equal citizens of one planet, that we have the intrinsic right to Self Ownership. That we consider human rights to be sacred, that all war even when necessary is fundamentally wrong. We express our love of humanity through our commitment to Positive Evolution to ensure that tomorrow is better than today. We are Realists because people are important to us.
Self Ownership - Realists own their own lives. We don't belong to God, Jesus, or Mohammed and we are not subjects or property of the nation states we reside in. We believe in individual rights and responsibility and respecting the individual rights of others. We assert the rights to freedom and liberty, the dignity of the individual, and the assertion that the only purpose of government is to serve the population that gives it power. Self ownership includes the right to control one's life, one's death, one's own medical decisions, the right to birth control and abortions, and the right to personal privacy. Self Ownership is also a personal religious commitment for people to take control of their own lives, to think things through for themselves, and to actually exercise personal choice and make sure that their decisions are their own and not those of an oppressor.
Human Rights - While members of most religions strongly support the human rights and the protections and freedoms that every person is entitled to, the Church of Reality has incorporated those right within the heart of our religious texts. Other religions are based on ancient texts that lacked a concept of individual liberty, self ownership, and the intrinsic value of the individual. In fact, many religious texts accept slavery and human sacrifice as normal behavior. We don't. We incorporate freedom and liberty into our religious doctrine.
Responsibility and Accountability - Responsibility and accountability are the cornerstone of Realism. Unless a deity shows up there is no omnipotent father figure to fix our mistakes. If we screw up, we screw up. We are responsible and accountable in that we realize that we have control and that our actions have consequences. Maybe some day space aliens will show up with welfare packages but we can't count on that. We don't believe in a God that forgives our sins allowing us to go out and sin knowing that we will be forgiven. If we do something wrong then we have to live with the consequences of that. And if we do something right then we get the benefit. There aren't any outside influences that are rigging the game. We therefore accept this responsibility and aspire to live the kind of lives that we can be proud of.
Religious Law - The Church of Reality has a very large and detailed Kernel which is the operating system of the human race. In it we assert a variety of religious rights and freedoms that we require to practice our religion. Many nations create special exception in their laws for religious practices. Because we are evolution based we take advantage of religious law to advance our cause of exploring and evangelizing reality.
Religious Identity - The Church of Reality provides a religious identity to people who believe in reality the way it really is. Many Atheists and scientists who have lacked a religion are able now to have a religion that they can identify with so they can say what they do believe in rather than just what they don't believe in. The Church of Reality is the religion of what is real, not what is not real.
We are Thinkers - Most religions put value in blind faith and trust and using emotions as a basis for seeking the truths of the universe. We are a doubt based religion that put value in thinking and exploring the reality around us. We think that everyone can become smarter than they are now and that thinking is good exercise for the brain. We are a religion that puts value and incorporates thinking and logic into the core of our religious doctrine. We honor innovation and invention and consider the accumulated knowledge of humanity to be sacred to us.
We also think that thinking has healing powers for the mind. Whenever someone is thinking about reality it reprograms their brains away from fiction based belief to reality based belief. We want to make thinking cool again.
Contemplation instead of Worship - Most religions come together to worship fictional deities. That becomes the cultural tie that binds their religion together. The Church of Reality uses the Sacred Contemplations to bind our religion together culturally. We explore reality together with our minds rather than stunting our mental evolution with the limitations of faith based thinking.
We Find Solutions - The Church of Reality is a solution oriented culture. We figure out a way to make it happen. We do tech support for the human race. If a problem has a solution, we'll find it. And if there is no solution, we'll still figure something out. We are innovative and resourceful and we like being clever and accomplishing things that no one else can accomplish. Our religion, a religion based on reality, has been called an impossible task. But we are here to accomplish it in spite of whether or not it is possible because it is something that we must do, and we must be successful. Because if we can't make reality work then we're all in trouble.
Building Bridges - The Church of Reality is not an "us vs. them" religion. We are a religion that builds bridges. We are here to help everyone else evolve in a positive direction by making reality part of the discussion. We also look for the opportunity to learn things from others to see if they have good ideas that we can adapt to improve ourselves. Some cult based religions separate themselves from other drawing lines to separate us from them. We are the opposite. We try to tear down the lines, find common ground, and view all people as us.
Evolving Doctrine - Our religion isn't static. We have an evolving and forward looking doctrine that is expected to change and improve. That will keep us from being stuck with and aging holy book that becomes more outdated with each passing year. Our Kernel is always considered to be in development and we expect that we will make mistakes, but we are committed to correcting our mistakes as we find them.
Conversion and Evangelizing - We do not measure our success by the growth in our membership and we are not dedicated to saving the world by converting everyone to Realism. We are a religion of ideas and a religion of the mind. We think that reality itself is a Sacred Message and it is our goal to inject reality into the human equation to help all people evolve into better people living in a better society.
It is not necessary for us to get believers in fictional deities to give up their fiction. We just want to assist other religions in incorporating reality into their culture and help them focus on a positive future so that they are a more productive member of the human community that a threat to civilization. Our world view is that whenever a person is thinking about reality that they become a Realist in that moment and that the world becomes a little better place because of it. We evangelize reality by discussing reality and getting more people to think about reality more often. By taking small steps forward in the right direction the whole world gets a little better, a little bit at a time.
Equality of Women - The Church of Reality does not force women into an unnatural role. We do not stone women to death. Women are not the property of men. Wives are not subservient to their husbands. Women are not considered to be unclean during their period. We have no requirements for chastity. Women are not required to pretend that they are something they aren't. Women are 100% equal participants in our religion and have an equal right to Own Themselves. The Church of Reality actively opposes those who would oppress women.
Furthermore the Church of Reality considers the oppression of women to be morally wrong. We oppose any laws that treat men and women differently. In our world view women should have access to the same resources as men. This rights include the right to equal education, health care, the right to dress as they want, to drive cars, to go places unescorted by men, to decide reproductive issues themselves including a right to have an abortion, the right to vote, the right to server in public office, and equal protection under the law. Furthermore women are entitled to additional rights regarding pregnancy and child bearing in order to accommodate their unique needs as females.
Guilt Free Sex - Unlike most other religions the Church of Reality has few restrictions on sex. These restrictions include sex with children, rape and other forms of forced sex, and sex that involves exploitation and behaviors that are harmful to society. Sex must be consensual. The Church of Reality has no marriage requirement so words like adultery and fornication do not apply to our religion. Sex outside of a committed relationship is only wrong to the extent that you are violating promises made and not kept. Infidelity would be an issue under honesty, and not under sexuality. Some couples choose to have multiple partners.
We do not associate sex with sin. There is nothing immoral about sex outside of marriage. Marriage is not relevant in any way with respect to the morality of sex. Sex between people of the same sex is no less moral than sex between heterosexuals. Our position on sexuality is that it is a personal choice and that the individual has a right through Self Ownership to make their own sexual choices. We are therefore officially disinterested in sexual morality.
Marriage - Traditional marriage is not part of the Church of Reality culture. The traditional institutions of marriage are historically based on deity based sexual morals and are geared towards reproducing heterosexuals only and not the needs of non-reproducing heterosexuals, late life marriages, and homosexual relationships. Much of marriage law it written around the concepts of generations and inheritance of property. Marriage used to include a lifelong commitment but most nation states have no-fault divorce laws that seem to negate the very core concept of marriage as a lifelong commitment.
Many religions struggle with the issue of same sex marriage and our religion is no exception. Ultimately our answer didn't come down to the equality question, because homosexuals are fully equal in our religion, but rather do we try to fit everyone into the same mold offering a state marriage to everyone equally when state marriage laws and traditions are designed to serve only one class of citizen. Our answer is that traditional marriage offers a "one size fits all" solution and doesn't meet the needs of our membership. We therefore do not officially offer it to anyone. We will in time develop our own form of union where the individual couples can tailor their own union based on their own agreements that suit their unique relationship.
Homosexual Relationships - Being homosexual or homosexual acts are not considered to be either immoral or sinful in the Church of Reality. Gays and lesbians are full participants in the Church of Reality. Sexual orientation is not considered to be an issue in our religion.
Virgins - We're not obsessed with virgins or virginity. We're not really even interested in the subject. In the Church of Reality virginity is not any sort of big deal. Some people are virgins, some aren't. Virginity is a personal choice. We are equally disinterested in both male and female virginity and neither has to worry about becoming a human sacrifice to a deity. We do not believe that you will be offered as a prize in the next life because someone killed a lot of people in the name of a deity.
Abortion - The Church of Reality is a pro-abortion religion. Our world view is that a woman has an absolute right to control her own reproduction. We do not have a fetus obsession like some other religions. Personhood begins at live birth. The world is overpopulated and it's irresponsible to add to the population problem by forcing women to give birth against their will. Women have the right to write their own life story, to have control over their own lives, to own themselves. Reproduction is a personal decision and it is the right of the woman to make it.
Atheistic Altruism - We establish a logical reason for being generous and selfless and caring about the well being of others in the context of reality, thus refuting the idea that Atheists are selfish. Humanity's success is based on sharing resources and taking care of each other and forming strong and healthy communities. Generosity is part of human evolution and is necessary for our common survival.
Good and Evil - The Church of Reality looks at good and evil as being choices rather than forces or entities. It is more related to short term thinking and selfishness rather than good and bad entities that influence people. We believe that the individual is responsible for their own behavior.
No Holy Prophets - The Church of Reality has no holy prophets. I, Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality, has no special powers, is not divine, and there is nothing at all special about me except that I am an ordinary guy who came up with the idea. I didn't invent reality, reality invented me. People are just people and we do not worship anyone. If this church is successful there will be people in the future who are far smarter and wiser than I am, who are also not to be worshiped or given excessive social status. As will all of you most everything I know comes from the Tree of Knowledge and I am just building on the work of billions of other people, most of whom are dead and forgotten. If the Church of Reality excessively exalts current or historical figures it is on the wrong track. I am not, in many ways, a role model for human behavior. When I die I want my bad habits to die with me. I don't want to end up like Ayn Rand whose arrogance lives beyond the grave. May my arrogance be cremated with me.
Cruelty Free Religion - The Church of Reality rejects all forms of cruelty including torture, flagellation, stoning, slavery, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, eternal damnation, and crucifixion. Our position is that these are the acts of barbarians and have no place in civilized society. Any religion who has to threaten its members with burning in Hell forever to entice them to believe is an admission that their beliefs can't stand up to Scrutiny. We are not a sin and punishment religion.
No Terrorism - We don't terrorize people to enforce our religious values. The following is a partial list of things we consider to be just plain evil. We are moved by our sense of moral justice to spell it out so as to take a strong stand against this kind of behavior.
Realists do not blow up airplanes or fly planes into buildings.
Realists do not blow up trains or subway stations.
Realists do not stone people to death.
Realists do not kill women for sex crimes.
Realists do not kill our daughters for refusing to wear the hijab.
Realists do not kill homosexuals.
Realists do not kill cartoonists who draw offensive cartoons.
Realists do not kill the families of those who offend us.
Realists do not kill people because they are a different race or tribe.
Realists do not kill women who were raped to restore the family's honor.
Realists do not kill women who refuse to marry them.
Realists do not allow husbands to beat their wives.
Realists do not do suicide bombings.
Realists do not blow up abortion clinics or kill doctors who perform abortions.
Realists do not throw acid in the faces of little girls on their way to school.
Realists do not cut off body parts or otherwise mutilate people.
Realists do not burn people alive.
Realists do not torture prisoners.
Realists do not crucify people.
Realists do not burn the homes or destroy the property of those who don't agree with us.
Realists do not poison people for political or religious gain.
Realists do not cut off the hands of thieves.
Realists do not perform honor killings.
Realists do not rape women to punish them and their families.
Realists do not punish women who have been raped.
Realists do not turn children into bombs.
Realists do not behead people.
Realists do not execute people by public hangings.
Realists do not enforce sexual morality through flogging.
Realists do not beat people.
Realists do not kidnap people.
Realists do not teach hatred.
Realists do not teach children to kill.
Realists do not teach that non-believers deserve death.
Realists do not teach the God will send you to burn in Hell to be tortured forever.
Realists do not believe that God is an omnipotent terrorist and torturer.
Realists do not kill people who Realists think offended a deity.
Realists do not believe in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Realists do not believe in god(s). But if Realists did Realists would not believe in an angry vengeful god.
Realists do not commit genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Realists do not start religious wars.
Realists do not condone the accumulation or use of nuclear weapons.
Realists do not use weapons banned by the international community.
Realists believe terrorism is always wrong.
Realists believe torture is always wrong.
Realists believe cruelty is always wrong.
Realists believe that the deity portrayed in the Bible sets a bad role model for human behavior.
Realists refuse to participate in war crimes.
Our position is that our beliefs stand on their own merits and that belief systems that require terrorism to support their religious views are admitting through their conduct that their beliefs will not stand the tests of scrutiny. Terrorism is the tool of those who believe in a weak and false God. We believe that every time any person commits these kinds of acts that it forever becomes part of their Life Story, and it becomes part of the Story of Humanity. Our view is that once you do something it can not be undone. What Adolf Hitler did, for example, is forever part of human history and will forever remain a blemish on the soul of humanity itself. These acts are more than crimes against individuals. They reflect who we are as a species. That fact that you if did one of these acts is forever with you. After you die you will be remembered for the horrendous acts that you committed and your Life Story will be remembered with disdain.
No Absolution from Sin - Although we are a religion that sees forgiveness as a virtue, we do not absolve your sins. You have to work out forgiveness here in the real world. We provide no deity who will expunge your record. In the Church of Reality what you do becomes what you did and once you do something it becomes part of the Story of the Universe which is the sum total of everything that happened since the beginning of time. So if you do something evil, the fact that you did it is forever part of your Life Story.
In our world view absolution from sin encourages crime and irresponsibility by giving those who do wrong a false sense that some deity has forgiven them as if what they did never happened. In our view absolution is a form of cheating and you can't cheat reality. A person can change what they do in the future but what someone did in their past is forever part of who they are. Our view is that religion who offer absolution of sin through a deity are being irresponsible because they are creating a false illusion that people are forgiven who aren't. We think that it also contributes to higher crime rates and that if the individual knows that what they do is what they did, and there's no deity to help them cheat, then they might think before they commit a serious crime.
In other religions one can either confess to God or confess to a priest who is representing God for one's sins to be absolved and one's reward in the "next life" to be restored. The fostering of belief, for example, that the victim of murder might be in Heaven and that the murderer might get to go to Heaven too is an irresponsible religious act. Criminals might come to rely on such moral support to continue a life of crime. In the Church of Reality if you murder someone then they are forever gone and you are forever their murderer and that never changes. Some criminals can be rehabilitated and returned to society as productive citizens but what was done was done and can not be undone.
Original Virtue - The Church of Reality realizes that people are intrinsically good and that the Philosophy of the Open Hand is the natural character of the human race. Our world view is that people are intrinsically good people and that although there are people who do bad things that is the exception rather than the rule. We reject the assumption than humans are intrinsically evil.
No Religious Homeland - Realists do not believe that we or any other religion should have control of a country where some people have a superior social position based on religious or ethnic affiliation. Our world view is that justice and equality applies to everyone and that we are all part of an integrated human society. We believe that if a culture or religion has any special wisdom that they should share it with everyone else. We want to share our wisdom and learn the wisdom of other religions. Our view is that religious homelands lead to isolation, oppression, a false and dangerous sense of self importance, and eventually to war.
Commitment to Peace - The Church of Reality is a religion of peace. We have taken on the challenge of figuring out how to solve the problems that lead to war so that humanity can evolve beyond thousands of years of killing each other. Reality is best explored in an environment that is free from war. We embrace the Vocabulary of Peace and we take the position that we are an anti-war religion and we challenge other religions to identify as anti-war religions.
The Shame of War - Although we recognize that sometimes war might be necessary we think that it is never something to be proud of. War always represents a failure of peace and must never be glorified. We do not honor veterans merely for being in a war because if you glorify unjust wars then you encourage others to fight in unjust wars.
What the Church of Reality Isn't - Besides the above statements of what we are, much of what we are not defines us and not only a unique religion, but a completely different class of religion. Some people consider all religion to be evil because all religions tell you what to think or do other things that most all religions do that scares thinking people away. Some of the things the Church of Reality isn't includes:
We do not tell you what to think. You have to think for yourself. We are not interested in doing your thinking for you.
We do not worship anything.
We are not into rituals. No throwing virgins into volcanoes.
We don't burn witches.
We are not out to get your money.
We are not a cult.
We are not the only path.
We are not any better than anyone else.
We are not on a higher plane of consciousness.
We are not enlightened.
We are not into dogma.
We are not sinners.
We do not demonize sex.
We do not require you to get married before having sex.
We do not demonize thinking, science, or reason.
We do not hate ourselves.
We do not hate homosexuals.
We do not have commandments.
We are free of gods, devils, demons, spirits, fairies, elves, vampires, angels, leprechauns, trolls, pixies, thetans, prophets, ghosts, goblins, witches, and space alien possession or abduction. (Some of us however secretly believe Spock is real.)
We do not demonize nonmembers.
We are not the chosen people.
We do not restrict your personal freedoms.
We do not indulge in an inflated sense of self importance.
We are not endorsed by any omnipotent beings.
We do not accept real estate from deities.
We do not ask you to turn your life over to anyone.
We do not kill you for converting away from Realism.
We do not kill people over cartoons.
We do not shun you for leaving this church.
We do not ask you to put aside logic and reason.
We do not require you to accept anything on faith.
We do not save your soul by asking you to have a personal experience with a fictional deity.
We do not pass out preacher credentials, participate in religious fraud, nor are we involved in or advocate tax scams.
We do not make false promises or threats about in relation to a fictional next life. No Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or Reincarnation.
We do not offer you virgins as a reward for terrorism.
We do not make you wear weird clothing.
We do not distort the meaning of words to make them meaningless.
War is not Peace
Freedom is not Slavery
Ignorance is not Strength
Submission is not Freedom
Death is not Life
Suffering is not Pleasure
Reality is not Illusion
Reality is not Personal Perception
Faith is not Truth
You don't obtain freedom by giving it up
Common Sense is not the opposite of being Smart
Converting to Realism - Converting to Realism starts with experiencing the AH-HA Moment. That's the moment when you really get it. When something inside you says, "YES! I get it! Reality as it really is! Of course! It's so obvious! It all makes sense!". That's when you Accept the Truth and make a commitment to put Reality First in your life.
So - if these sort of things scare you about religion, that is understandable. It scares us too. That's why we choose to be different and offer a new model of religion, designed from scratch, but without most of the flaws of traditional religions. If you like what you see then read Getting Started as a Realist next.
What is different about us that distinguishes us from other life forms on this planet? Is it our opposable thumbs? Is it that we walk upright? Our intelligence? Our soul? Genetically, we are very similar to all the other animals, yet we clearly rule the world. What is it that makes us different? What makes us different is that we have a Tree of Knowledge.
The Tree of Knowledge is the sum total of Human Understanding. It represents the collective knowledge of humanity.
The Tree of Knowledge is the sum total of all human knowledge that can be passed on between individuals. It is everything we have learned as a species. In the broadest sense - it's the totality of everything that everyone knows that is in some sharable form. Printed material - data archives - video - recordings - stories passed on by word of mouth. These all are knowledge that is contained in the Tree of Knowledge. And it is this shared knowledge that is what separates us from the animals. We are different because of the vast amount of knowledge that we as a species share.
The human race can be viewed as a super organism that is made up of individuals. In many ways we are similar to a hive of bees. Bees are far more biologically linked together than humans in that a bee is nothing when taken out of the context of the hive. Just as the cells of our body are individual life forms, we don't look at them as individuals. In the case of humans - and bees - the individual is the human or bee.
What separates humans from animals is our huge amount of collected knowledge that we share as a species.
However - in the case of bees - they are so tightly coupled that one could easily make the argument that it is the hive - not the bee - that is the individual. The hive shares a common mind that the individual bees are but members of the hive mind. These individuals share a common purpose and act as a single organism. And to that extent - it is the hive - not the bee - that acts. Getting stung by a bee is very different that being stung by the hive.
We humans have some hive-like properties. If you take a baby and have a wild animal raise it - is the result more animal than human? I think it is. The individual would only have the knowledge of personal experience. It would not have the knowledge that is available to humans raised by other humans. The vast majority of our personal knowledge is not knowledge we learned on our own - but knowledge we were taught from the collective knowledge of mankind. And it's that collective knowledge that I'm calling the "Tree of Knowledge".
The Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality define the basic belief system and create a moral and ethical framework for the church and they create and protect the kind of environment needed to be Realists and practice Realism. When we Realists ask the Sacred Moral Question - Is this a good thing? - these are the principles against which we test morality. The Sacred Principles are based on the Sacred Choices where we as a religion declare that certain things have value. These things include the survival of the human race, that we should move in the Sacred Direction towards a better future, and that understanding reality is a good thing. The Sacred Principles lay out some of the framework to define our rights and responsibilities, and create a framework for the existence and goals of our church. The Sacred Principles help form the basis for determining what is right from what is wrong in the absence of an omnipotent creator. These principles help define the dharma of the church and give meaning for it's existence.
The Church of Reality is a religion dedicated to believing in everything that is real. It is the pursuit of the understanding of understanding. Since on this planet understanding is limited for the most part to humans as the beings that understand, it supports the goals of the Church to support that which enhances the Tree of Knowledge and oppose things that would inhibit or prohibit the pursuit of understanding reality the way it really is. As a church we are interested not only in the expansion of the Tree of Knowledge itself, but also in the means by which knowledge is expanded.
The pursuit of the understanding of understanding is not enough if people lack the means to do so. We therefore have the goal of liberating new ideas from oppression, providing the means to communicate and preserve ideas, and to find a balance between protecting the intellectual property of the individual as well as protecting the intellectual commons. As a church we support education, scientific research, debate, the development of technology, the development of social systems, and the protection of justice. We strive for a free and peaceful planet where mankind can flourish and explore the reality of our own existence. We strive to become better and to evolve in a positive direction. The Church of Reality is a forward looking church dedicated to the idea that tomorrow should be better than today and that it is our dharma to ensure that the world does not end in destruction as many other religions believe.
In order to fulfill these objectives we have created the order of the /root. These are the monks of the Church of Reality who have dedicated their lives to doing tech support for the human race so that all people, whether or not they choose to pursue reality, will always have the opportunity to do so. The name /root is a term that comes from the Linux/Unix operating system and is the super user account that has the power and responsibility to keep the system running. In the Church of Reality to be /root is to accept the power and responsibility to keep the systems of society running.
The Sacred Principles are not like the Ten Commandments in that there is no claim that God or any other deity commanded them. There is no promise of a gift of eternal life in Heaven nor is there a threat of Burning in Hell forever. They are not a measure for which sins are counted nor Karma assessed nor are you accumulating brownie points for life after death. These principles are not static principles nor do they represent a complete list of what is or what should be. They are, in part, a beginning attempt to create a basis of determining right from wrong and to create and define a positive direction for the human race to make progress.
Some of the Sacred Principles use our Sacred Terminology. The reader will better understand the principles by reading the Terminology first.
In the cold darkness of outer space reality is just stars exploding and rocks bumping into each other. This planet is but an insignificant spec of dust in the universe. This is science and this is reality. The Church of Reality however is more than just believing that reality is real, it is a choice to explore reality and everything associated with exploring reality.
In galactic terms, it doesn't matter if humanity thrives or destroys itself. If we were gone tomorrow, who would care? It only matters to us. Thus - the Church of Reality is more than a study of reality. It is about the relationship between humanity and reality. Or specifically, humanity's exploration of reality.
We Realists commit our lives to Realism by making The Sacred Choices
It is a fact that we as humans are all part of the greater society and that we function collectively. It is true that our success as a species is based on our Tree of Knowledge which represents the sum total of all human understanding. It is true that in order to pursue reality we have to do it cooperatively and that in this pursuit, we are all in this together. Yet there is nothing that compels us to make good choices, to decide to evolve in a positive direction, and to pursue the truth instead of a shared fantasy. It is by choice that we decide our fate, who we will become together as a species. This is our planet. We are all here together. And we are going to work together to make tomorrow better than today. That is why we of the Church of Reality make the Sacred Choices and hereby dedicate our lives to the Sacred Missions and begin the Sacred Journey.
We choose to accept the Sacred Missions as our mission.
We choose to uphold the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality making them our principles.
We choose to pursue the understanding of reality the way it really is.
We choose to reject mythology and the belief in things that are not real.
We choose to accept the path of responsibility and acknowledge that our choices matter.
We choose to strive for wisdom and to live our lives as realistically as possible.
We choose to commit to challenging our beliefs and the beliefs of others by asking the Sacred Question - "Is this real?"
We choose to acknowledge that the Tree of Knowledge is the sum total of all human understanding.
We choose to commit to working to improve the Tree of Knowledge by working for a better future.
We choose to be forward looking and work for a better future for the human race.
We choose to be good ethical members of society and contribute our efforts to the well being of the human race.
The Linux Penguin symbolizes the Giving of Knowledge
The Tree of Knowledge represents the sum total of human understanding. Intellectual Tithing is the giving of new and useful information to the Tree of Knowledge. The Tree of Knowledge is what separates us from the animals. We all benefit from the knowledge that has been handed down to us.
Think about it - where would we be today if someone didn't invent the wheel? The person who invented the wheel made a great contribution to the Tree of Knowledge of the human race and helped all of society move forward. If you look around at all the stuff around you - you soon realize that almost all of it was built by other people. As you sit in front of your computer reading this, you are using a device that is the combined work of millions of people and technology that is built on the work of people for thousands of years. All contributing to the Tree of Knowledge which allows us to have things like computers. We are living off the intellectual tithing of others, and we give back to the world by contributing intellectually - by being creative and sharing our creations with the rest of humanity. This helps grow the Tree of Knowledge and furthers us as a species. From this perspective - the human race can be envisioned as a single super being that shares a common mind. And in that respect we all have the opportunity to contribute to that common mind so that our thoughts and contributions will outlive our physical bodies. Contributing to the Tree of Knowledge is probably as close as you get to immortality in the Church of Reality.
Intellectual Tithing is discovering something useful and making your knowledge part of the Tree of Knowledge.
I use the Linux Penguin as a symbol of intellectual tithing because the Linux operating system is distributed under the GNU license and is free to everyone. This software is the work of tens of thousands of people contributing freely to a software tree that everyone on the planet is allowed to use. These people freely give of their intellectual resources to the good of humanity. As you surf the Internet you are hitting servers that are running this free software.
The Church or Reality exists for the pursuit of the understanding of understanding. We exist to pursue the answer to the Sacred Question - "What is Real?" This church isn't about what you believe in - it's about what you do. To be a member of this church is to commit to the doing of the doing. You have to walk the walk and talk the talk. The Church of Reality is about being real - not pretending to be real because reality looks cool. It's not about being a poser and fake being real. The dharma of the church is to actually be real.
Although we don't go from door to door asking people if they know Darwin and saying Darwin loves you, one of the sacred missions of the Church of Reality is to spread the idea that reality is important and that it is something that shouldn't be ignored. As Realists practicing Realism we benefit in growing our church by attracting others who may not be church members, but have embraced the concept of being realistic and are interested in what is real. It is one of our goals to raise awareness about reality and the importance of including reality in our daily lives and to make people aware of the pitfalls of ignoring reality.
So - how do we do this? There are many ways, but there are a few obvious places to start. As the First One I will start the process and list some specific objectives of the Church of Reality. The list will grow - but it will form an outline for the kind of thinking that defines the dharma of the church.
Some of the Sacred Principles use our Sacred Terminology. The reader will better understand the principles by reading the Terminology first.
The Church of Reality began with an idea I had in the evening of November 7th 1998. I was sitting at home Smoking a Joint, thinking about all the problems that religions cause in the world, and the idea just hit me - why not have a religion based on believing in everything that's real? What an idea! Can Reality be a Religion? Do you have to believe in something fictional to be a religion? The more I thought about it - the better I liked the idea.
The next day I went into the office and it still seemed like a good idea. I was only half serious about it at first, but it was at least a good way to tweak all those people who think they have God by the short hairs and need to impress me with their moral superiority. Personally - I hate religion. But it seems to be everywhere and constantly trying to intrude into my life. So - it's always been something you have to deal with - people who take their fiction seriously. So I registered the domain name - churchofreality.org - and started building a web page.
In the process of building the page I had to make some early decisions. Was I going to write some "holy book" to go by? How long would that last before it became obsolete - even if I did do a good job on it? It became apparent that telling people what reality is - as if I knew - was definitely a mistake. But - exploring reality and changing as the exploration continued - that made sense. So what we believe in is what's real - and what's real is really the best effort guess at the time. Obviously this opens us up to mistakes - but mistakes happen. It's about correcting your mistakes when you realize you are wrong. So the Church of Reality became more of a commitment to the pursuit of reality than the understanding of reality itself. It's about the hunt for reality.
As I was thinking about the pursuit of reality - I started wondering about how that is really done. What is understanding? How does new knowledge relate to existing knowledge? How much knowledge can be gained? Will we ever know everything? It became clear to me that the pursuit of knowledge - the exploration of reality - is something that we as a society all do together. It became clear how interconnected we are as a society - as the human race - what separates us from the animals - we have this vast amount of common knowledge that we all use on a daily basis. I realized that language itself - words - were all invented by other people and were handed down to us. As I type this I am aware that I am using words and concepts that came from other people - and that you are reading this using those same words and concepts. Stealing the term for other religions - I called this the .
Is there a God? How do we determine if God exists or not? First - let me define God so that we are all talking about the same being. The God I'm talking about is:
The omnipotent being who is all powerful and created the universe.
God is invisible - but he is everywhere - and he knows everything - even our thoughts.
God hasn't showed up in physical form - out in public for at least 2000 years - longer if you are Jewish - 150 years if you are Mormon.
God could show up any where at any time in any form if he wanted to, but he doesn't.
God is infinitely wise.
God knows the future and everything is going according to God's plan.
So - are we talking about the same God? Are we on the same page on this? If so - what conclusions can we draw?
Well - we know that God can come out - but he doesn't That means he chooses not to. He could write a new updated Bible - maybe even publish it on the web - but he doesn't - and he chooses not to.
God could come out in public - but he doesn't. Therefore he chooses not to.
People claim to have a personal relationship with God, and that God reveals himself individually to people who open up to him. But I have observed that those who seem to truly believe they have a personal relationship with God are getting very different messages. Some are getting a peace and love message while others are being called to arms to fight a holy war against other people who believe God is on their side supporting their cause. I therefore have to believe that some of these people if not all of them just think God is talking to them when he really isn't.
God apparently doesn't reveal himself to realists like me. God could reveal himself to me - but he chooses not to. And even if he did reveal himself to me personally - that doesn't qualify him as real to the Church of Reality. I am after all just a guy with an idea. I do not control reality. God doesn't become real based on the belief of Marc Perkel. In order to qualify as real to the church of Reality - God have to come out in an objective form that everyone can observe in the real world.
There is a possibility that God exists and that he is deliberately concealing himself for us faithless Realists and that it is his will that people like me never find him. If that is the case - then it is the will of God that realists like myself don't believe in him and that God is in control and that we Realists are doing exactly what we are supposed to do under God's plan.
The standard for reality in the Church of Reality is that for us to declare something is (probably) real - it has to be something that is objectively observable in the real world by any observer. Personal revelation does not meet this test. So - even if I were to personally believe in God - that isn't good enough for the Church of Reality. We are committed to believing in reality the way it really is.
The official position of the Church of Reality is that God does not exist until such time as God chooses to reveal himself to all Realists and come out into objective reality in the real world.
It is therefore the official position of the Church of Reality that God does not exist until such time as God chooses to reveal himself to all Realists and comes out into objective reality in the real world. Should God come out into the real world then we as Realists will instantly become theists and will do whatever God commands us to do. Until that happen then either God does not exist or it is God's will that Realists don't believe in him. Either way - this is the correct choice. Except for the burning in Hell forever part - but I suppose that too is God's will because if he exists he must be in control and this is his plan.
It's not up to the Church of Reality to prove God doesn't exist. It is up to theists to prove he does.
I will state right now that if I ever become a theist without an objective real world test proving the existence of God - then I have lost my mind and I am no longer qualified to hold a leadership position in the Church of Reality. I do not have the authority to declare God exists unless God can be objectively perceived by all members of the Church of Reality.
Although war cannot always be avoided - there is no honor or victory in war. We believe war always represents the failure to achieve peace and it is always something to be ashamed of. War is to be remembered from the perspective of failure and as a lesson to learn to avoid war in the future. We in the Church or Reality understand - especially in this day of nuclear and biological weapons - that peace is not something that is optional, and that we have a responsibility to our fellow human beings to do whatever it takes to avoid war.
Sometimes going to war is the right thing to do. There are times due to the mistakes of others that going to war becomes necessary. However, it is more often the case that war is not necessary and is in fact counterproductive to the effort towards peace. And if going to war is necessary there is a code of moral conduct that Realists should follow in the execution of the war. This document is here for the purpose of giving instructions and guidance for those of you who are being pulled into battle. Realists do not behave like other soldiers. As a realist you are required to set a higher standard and to actively adhere to this higher standard even if it puts you at personal risk.
The first duty of Realists is to uphold the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality.
The first duty of Realists is to uphold the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality. This duty takes precedent over loyalty to your country, your military unit, your commanding officer. If the cause of war is just, you are at best a team member fighting together with non-realists towards a common higher goal. To this end Realists should set a shining example and strive for positions of leadership in the military unit in which they are fighting. A Realist who practices Realism should be in a position to realistically assess the situation and to be able to help make the realistic choices in how to best execute the war and to build the peace after the war.
If the cause is a just cause, then the Realist would be the ultimate war asset in order to maintain intellectual discipline to make the right decision and positively affect the outcome of the struggle. The Realist should set an example of personal behavior and inspire his fellow soldiers to be smart and wise and to fight efficiently and effectively and to not degenerate into committing atrocities. The Realists sees into the future and envisions the end of the war and to building of the peace and to integrating the enemy into the world's society as a productive peaceful member.
The Church of Reality doesn't prohibit its members from going to fight in a war. It does however prohibit its members from fighting in an unjust war - and it requires its members to make a personal determination if the war they are about to participate in is just or not. Members who do participate are required to adhere to a code of moral conduct that puts the Sacred Principles ahead of everything else and are required to refuse to participate in anything that is clearly immoral and to actively resists orders of superior officers who would lead troops down the wrong path. Realists are expected to think for themselves and to make wise choices in times of war.
Different religions have different positions on death and dying, and in cases where there is a legal dispute, often the courts will turn to the person's individual religious beliefs to determine the wishes of people who are unable to speak for themselves. So it seems logical that the Church of Reality should have some official guidelines so that if the outside world turns to the individual's religious beliefs we have a response.
When does death occur? Who gets to decide? When do you remove a person from life support? When do you assist a person in terminating life? What are the roles of individuals, their spouses, their children, their family, their church, and the government? The Church of Reality cannot answer these questions, but we can create guidelines and principles to come up with these answers and that is what we choose to do here.
Issues surrounding death and dying can become complex, especially in a society that is in denial. Sometimes people are trapped in a permanent vegetative state. Sometimes they are still alive and facing a horrible death. Sometimes they are clearly alive but face an uphill battle that they don't want to go through. Science and technology offer new choices, and, because of that, often complicate the situation allowing the body to remain alive long after death would naturally occur. Therefore it is difficult to create hard and fast rules for dying. We therefore will state general principles from which rules can be derived.
We have applied for our 501(c)(3) status as of December of 2003. On October 19th 2005 we were told by the IRS that we have been approved.
If, however, you don't have money, there are a lot of other things you can do to help that don't cost anything. You can tell your friends, and you can link to us. Linking to us is important because it gets us a higher ranking in Google.
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To become a saint in the Church of Reality you have to put yourself in a position of grave personal risk in order to promote an idea that is real in the face of a public that refuses to face reality. People who do this are heroes and are the visionaries that move humanity forward against the tide of fear and religious mythology. These people deserve an honored place in the memory of human history and I therefore am going to declare them as saints.
Sainthood in this church is based more on advancing the cause of reality rather the just doing good things. Thus a saint in this church might be someone who contributed significantly to science or protecting rights necessary for the pursuit of Reality rather than those who are without sins. People who have done great things deserve to be recognized, but there are plenty of other churches to recognize other achievements.
I'm not a religious guy and never started a church before. I'm not
even entirely comfortable with the thought of being a church because
that implies worshiping something. I'm looking at this as a way to get
more people to want to look at reality the way it really is. I'm
getting tired of being the only sane person on the planet. (I'm joking)
Here's a list of what needs to be done. This is a changing list. As
I accomplish things I'll remove items. As I get new ideas I'll add
items. I'd like to get this going fairly quickly.
Spread the Word - The name is the message. If most of the
people in the world were just to hear the name "Church of Reality" and
have a vague idea that it is a religion based on believing in what's
real, they then ask the sacred question, "What is real?", that in itself
would make a huge difference in the world.
Link to Us - The more people link to the Church of Reality
the more people find it. It also helps with Google searches because
Google ranks you higher based on the number of people that link to your
site.
Ideas - I'm always looking for great ideas and suggestions,
especially early on. If you do something right in the first place you
don't have to do it over later. Feel free to suggest and participate.
IRS Church Status - I've started the paperwork. I've ordered several books from Nolo Press an not-for-profit organization. Any advice would be appreciated.
Income - If I'm going to continue to do this, I need an income. Besides begging for donations,
I need some products to sell like T-Shirts, buttons, bumper stickers,
and sequentially numbered certificates of membership. Looking for
ideas.
Activities - I want to see local activities on a regular
basis. I'm picturing meetings where people get together to argue and
explore interesting subjects much like Mensa, but without the IQ test
requirement. I need names for these meetings and ideas to bring people
together and fulfill much of the needs that people go to church for.
Let's get together. This church has no Sabbath so we have the advantage
of using any day of the week that works.
Charities - I want to be a conduit of tax deductible money for useful charitable projects. Just what, I don't yet know.
Projects - I feel strongly about freedom and justice. We
need freedom and justice to support an advanced society where the
pursuit of reality can be enjoyed without fear and oppression. One of
the church's missions is to work for freedom and justice.
Membership - What are the requirements? I suppose it should
be fairly open to those who pay a membership fee. I hope to sell
sequentially numbered membership certificates so that those with a low
number will always be stored in a computer database and will be known
as the ones who got it started. It's like being an employee at
Microsoft with a really low employee number.
Advertising, Promotion, Public Relations - How do we market
it? Spread the word? Relate to the rest of reality? I don't want
foaming at the mouth Christians burning my house down because they
think they can stop the real world by killing the messenger. I'm
looking for media attention so if anyone knows anyone who will write
articles about this religion, send them this way.
Symbols and Artwork - I'm looking for symbols and artwork
for the web pages, letterhead, and things to put on T-Shirts, coffee
mugs, and bumper stickers.
Hymns - Need some songs. How about, "Oh, what a friend we have in Darrr-winnn."
I'd like to get started right away. Feel free to jump in and participate.
There are a lot of good questions about the Church of Reality. Here are some of the more common ones. Hopefully you will find the answers here. Our Principle of Scrutiny and Doubt encourages people to question everything. We like questions because they help us to evolve forward to make sure we get it right. Any time someone is questioning us they are thinking about reality, which is one of our missions. We want you to not only understand what we are about, but to join us in improving our doctrine. If this doesn't answer your questions you can join our Discussion Forum and hopefully a real person will answer your question.
The Church of Reality is a religion, not a political organization. As a religion we do not endorse candidates or take any partisan political positions. We are not involved in party politics. We strongly believe in the separation of church and state and that separation applies to us as well, even though we believe as strongly as every other religion does that we are right. The scope of the Church of Reality as an institution is to focus on the religion of reality.
This is not an endorsement of these religions. We are merely attempting to create links to the main web sites of people who believe in something other than reality. That way you can choose if you think you'd rather
believe in what's real or something else.
Cigarette smoking is not prohibited in the Church of Reality but is highly discouraged as it is a really bad idea. Cigarettes and tobacco - especially as processed by the tobacco industry, are the most highly addictive drugs on the planet and becoming a drug addict reflects bad judgment. Bad judgement is something to be avoided because a realist generally becomes a realists because they have dedicated their life to good judgment.
Of course, many people are already addicted to cigarettes before they become a realist and can't quit. I wish everyone the best of luck who is trying to quit and encourage realists to help develop technology to help cure drug addiction, because a cigarette smoker is a drug addict and drug addiction is a bad choice.
Smoking in restaurants however is a sin as well as smoking inside where other people who are non-smokers have to breath it.
For those of you who are thinking about smoking, I wrote a web page called A message to Teenagers about Smoking that I hope you will read before you consider smoking cigarettes.
Sex is moral in the Church of Reality. Sex is how we humans reproduce. We are the descendents of 3 billion years of sexual intercourse. Sex is something that is normal and natural and it not sin nor anything to be ashamed of. If not for sex - I wouldn't be writing this and you wouldn't be reading it.
Like the animals, we humans have sexual instincts that we can at best partially control. We have some control over it but only limited control. After all - there have been people in history who have risen above their instinctual urges - but they are not our ancestors. We are the descendents of those without self-control, and when it comes down to it, the majority of people born on this planet are not planned.
The Church of Reality takes the position, like every other issue, that reality be applied to sex. And the reality is - sex is an evolved desire that drives us to reproduce. That's why the instinct to do it is so strong. However the instinct to reproduce must be balanced with good judgment and issues with the transmission of disease. Fortunately we have evolved the technology of birth control and condoms that allow us to enjoy the instincts without spreading disease and not creating more people that we aren't prepared to raise. Sexual issues are very complex and we take the position that sexual education and research are necessary in order to best deal with issues of a sexual nature.
Our Sacred Principles
are much more sophisticated than the old Ten Commandments were. I
suppose that 5000 years ago, or whenever they were written, that the
concpt of "Thou shalt not Kill" was a radically new idea. In fact the
Muslim world in particular still hasn't grasped the concept. Our Sacred
Principles are more forward looking, and they are subject to evolving
into something better as people evolve forward. They are not "carved in
stone" so to speak like the Ten Commandments were.
Having said that, the Church of Reality does recognize that the
commandments do exist, so let us take a look at each one of them and see
where we stand on them. Like Christian religions, I will pick and choose
which version of the 10 Commandments we are talking about. I choose the
Catholic version because they are shorter.
The Bible
Church of Reality
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
No - God doesn't exist
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
No - Fictional Deity and prohibits free expression.
3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.
No - It is based on the fictional idea the world was created in 6 days.
4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
No - Honoring parents is generally a good thing, but it depends on family relationships. Suggested but not required.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
Yes - Generally, murder is a bad thing.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
No - We do encourage honesty in relationships. Some
people choose to have an open marriage. Adultry is not prohibited.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
Yes - Generally, Stealing is wrong.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Yes - Generally lying is wrong.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
No - Isn't this really the same as #6?
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.
Yes - Isn't this really the same as #7?
Even though 10 commandments are listed, the last 2 are really duplicates of 6 and 7. So there are really only 8 commandments. The Church of Reality agrees with 3 and disagrees with 5. If these were written by God, he didn't do a very good job of it.
Furthermore, the Church of Reality is strongly opposed to the first 3 of the 10 commandments in that they require the belief in a fictional deity that clearly does not exist. We consider the required belief in fiction to be religious oppression, and we find these first 3 commandments to be morally offensive. Of the 3 commandments that we agree with, killing, stealing, and lying, those are principles that are somewhat obvious under Humanism and natural law.
The Church of Reality is a registered trademark owned by the First One, Marc Perkel, in trust for the Church of Reality. In granting this trademark we have to specifically disclaim that the word "Church" by itself is our trademark. As I understand trademarks, the mark protects the exact phrase and anything close enough to be essentially the same thing. This often includes sub phrases of the original phrase trademarked. So the copyright office preemptively prohibited us from claiming that "Church" is our trademark.
But - they didn't preclude me from claiming "Reality" by itself as our trademark. And therefore I do claim it. This serves notice to all who see this that in the context of the classification for which this trade mark was granted - the classification 045 "Counseling in religious and spiritual matters" that "Reality" is also ours. We own reality in the context of religion. Thus any other religious institution, for example, who used Reality as part of their name would be infringing on our trademark.
Trademarks are used in business and other organizations to create an identity in the minds of consumers. In the case of churches, consumers are potential members. Religion is a marketplace where religious institutions compete for the souls out there who are looking for a religious identity and these religions market themselves to the public based on that religious identity. For example, if I were to pretend to be a Catholic church the real Catholic church would sue me for trademark infringement. The word Catholic is their marketing word. If I use that word or something so similar that it confuses people into believing that I am the Catholic Church - that would be trademark infringement.
Reality is our trademark in the context of religion. Reality is not just what we believe in - it's our marketing word. In fact - it's our Sacred Message. And it is one of our Sacred Missions to spread the Sacred Message. But we can't do that if someone else hijacks our trademark and uses it, for example, to promote a competitive religious belief as reality when it is in fact not. We are the religion of reality and no one else can market themselves as a religion and use Reality to promote themselves.
What is the future of humanity? What will the human race be like 10 years from now? Or 20 years from now? Or 100 years from now? Or 1000 years from now? Where are we heading in the future? And, more importantly, what can we do about it?
Looking towards the future in the Church of Reality is looking in the Sacred Direction. This church is all about where we are going and taking control of our own evolution. We believe in taking responsibility for our future by being realists and using reality to guide us in making important choices so that we can ensure that we grow the Tree of Knowledge and that tomorrow is better than today. We realists commit ourselves to the Principle of Positive Evolution and in order to fulfil that commitment, it is our responsibility (The Sacred Responsibility) to look forward at the possibilities and to think things through so that we don't make mistakes that will put us on the Path of Destitution and Destruction. It is up to us to deny Armageddon to the Christians.
Our job as Realists is to make sure that the Christians are denied Armageddon."
The role of the Church of Reality is to ask The Sacred Moral Question - what is good? What is right and wrong in the context of reality. Asking the Sacred Moral Question means more than just asking a question. It really mean to insist that The Sacred Moral Question be answered in the context of what is real and that the moral element be evaluated in terms of The Sacred Principles.
This section is a discussion of some of the issues facing the human race in the near future. Some of the opinions expressed here are the opinions of The First One and are not a declaration of reality. I do not claim to have the power to see the future. The idea here is to introduce ideas in order to create discussion about them and focus our attention in the Sacred Direction. Allow your imagination to be stimulated by what you read here and if you don't agree - that's fine. As long as you are thinking about it.
Most of the holidays of the Church of Reality fall on the same days as other religions. Most religions rip off the holidays of other religions, and our religion is no exception. These are days when everyone already has off from work and that people are used to celebrating anyway. It is the tradition of religions to maintain consistency in these celebrations, and we in the Church of Reality are going to go along with these traditions. Like other religions, we will of course adapt the meaning of these holidays to suit our belief system.
Holiday celebrations, of course, are up to the individual, and you are free to celebrate anything you want. In our church, holidays are for fun and education and exist mostly for social reasons: to let people get together, visit family, eat big meals together, and form community. They create an opportunity for people to came together to discuss the Sacred Questions and to Wonder the Sacred Wonderment. We are thankful for the knowledge that was handed down to us, and we think about what we can contribute to the Tree of Knowledge for the next generation.
Technically the Church of Reality isn't an Atheist religion, but it comes very close, and it's not totally incorrect to classify the Church as an Atheist religion. Our official position is that if God shows up, and that means exising in objective reality, then we will believe in it. However, there exists no hard evidence that God exists, and if it does exist, it chooses to remain hidden from objective tests. So one can say with accuracy that the Church of Reality is presently an Atheistic religion. And there isn't a lot of anticipation that is likely to change any time soon.
Having said that, many people have asked what the difference is between the Church of Reality and Atheists. The Church of Reality is a religion. Atheism is not a religion. Atheism is not much more than a statement that one does not believe in God. Atheism is about what you don't believe in. Realism in contrast is about what you do believe in. Atheism is essentially a very small subset of the Church of Reality's positions.
Atheists realize that Atheism by itself is lacking in that once you don't believe in God, what do you do next? How do we live? What is right and wrong? Many Atheists embrace Secular Humanism as a companion lifestyle.
Sometimes people ask, "Isn't the Church of Reality just Humanism?" No - but there is a lot of overlap between Secular Humanism and the Church of Reality.
Humanism - as I understand it is a search for a natural social order without an omnipotent father figure creating the rules. If we were to create what we conceive as a healthy society, on what basis do we determine if we are on track?
The Church of Reality is about the exploration of reality the way it really is. In order to do that, we need to explore it as a community. We rely on the information passed down to us through the Tree of Knowledge, which is the some total of all human understanding. We explore reality by growing the Tree. In order to do that, society has to move forward in what we call, "The Sacred Direction" based on the Principle of Positive Evolution which states that we choose that we will make tomorrow better than today. Out of this we derive the Sacred Principles, which form the basis of our moral code.
When you look at the Sacred Principles, The Sacred Choices, and the Sacred Missions of the Church of Reality you will see that they create a basis for a society that would lead to Secular Humanism. The practice of Realism is the foundation that creates the reason why for Humanism to exist.
Why is freedom preferable to slavery? Does right and wrong exist? After all - this planet is just a speck of dust in the universe and reality itself doesn't care what happens. It is because we choose to explore reality and that our progression is important to us that we have arbitrarily chosen to move to progress and to avoid extinction. We have chosen evolution over extinction. Other religions have made the opposite choice.
We see Humanism as the natural lifestyle that would be the logical extension of the Sacred Principles put into practice in society. In that regard Humanism and the Church of Reality overlap. But Humanism is not a religion and is limited in scope to a natural social order based on reality.
Although most Atheists are Humanists, not all Humanists are Atheists. Humanism doesn't exclude religion per se. It does however tend to exclude religion and/or holy texts as the basis for social structure. Many religions, including this one, have many of the same social principles. They come to the same conclusions in part because they have enbraced reality as the common element. And we in the Church of Reality support reality based thinking.
For what it's worth - if you are going to email us intending to convert us, you're wasting your time. Messages of this type are usually deleted without being read. Similarly, if you are writing to inform us how you will be in Heaven and we will be in Hell, we've already heard that and we are familiar with your belief system. If you write something really offensive we might just publish it as an example of what kinds of email we get from nut cases.
Feel free to contact us with ideas and suggestions.
Lets face it - Realists don't trust Christians and Christians don't like Realists. But we do need to communicate in spite of our differences. After all - we are stuck here on this planet together. And - Christians have been around for a long time and they aren't going away any time soon. And - neither is reality. So - we are stuck here together and the way I see it - we better make the best of it. After all - our religion requires it of us since we are all one people on one planet - we are all here together - and we are dedicated to making tomorrow better than it is today. That's our principle of positive evolution, the first of the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality.
There is a lot of discussion about the relationship between Realists and Christians. We don't trust each other. I did after all write a web page titled Christianity Sucks, and I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit that I think what I said is true. After all - to a Realist Christianity looks like a primitive religious cult. No different really that the way some Christian look at each other. Jehovah's Witnesses think they are the "True Christians" and therefore need to convert other Christians to their form of Christianity. Those who are not Jehovah's Witnesses think that the Jehovah's Witnesses are seriously off track and believe that they are in fact - a cult.
In fact - and be honest about this - most Christians can name at least 5 other Christian Religions that are cults - and if you know what I'm talking about then you will understand that Realists feel that way towards all Christians. As far as I am concerned - every last one of you is a "True Christian". But what Christianity truly means is very different depending on who you ask. If I were to compare Christianity to an animal species - Wolves are "True Dogs". They are the dogs from which every other breed of dog comes from. But look at the variety. From the outside perspective Christianity is as diverse as breeds of dogs are. After all these centuries - who is to say who are true dogs anymore? After all - even the wolves aren't the same as they used to be.
So - what does Christianity look like from the outside? Did you ever wonder that? Wonder what Realists were really thinking? Well - I see a lot of diversity - not just in belief - but more importantly - Christian culture is highly inconsistent between religions and is also fast evolving. When it comes right down to it - the Bible says anything you want it to say - and there's no level of behavior that's outside of Biblical support. And that scares us.
After all - Christian History is not a pretty picture. There has not been any significant period of time since Jesus departed where Christians weren't at war with someone - many times other Christians - or brutally oppressing someone. And - that is a trend that has continues up to and including today. The Iraq war - for example - clearly has deep religious undercurrents to it. It is clearly in part - a battle between Muslims and the Christian-Jewish alliance..Our President - Mr. Bush - identifies himself as a Christian and he is running the country into the ground. This is a man who had a memo drafted to approve torture, and as a result of that memo we have widespread torture - committed by us - and done in a way to make us look like barbarians.
Now there are several Christian groups who have announced that they have seized control of America - and they are going to use the rule of law to enforce their "moral" standards - a huge rollback of freedom - and replace the science of evolution with the fiction of Creationism. And all children will be taught their prayers in school. And if the Christians are in control of the nuclear arsenal - and the country is in a nose dive - and these people envision the future in terms of Armageddon - the destruction of the world - that scares the shit out of us Realists. Especially when your Christian president was advocating the idea of using nuclear weapons in Iraq during the initial invasion - and it turns out - Iraq had no weapons. Yet is it believed that Bush is somehow being controlled by or inspired by God. That it was God's idea to attack Iraq.
As a Realist - the idea that God is covertly in communication with people is something I don't believe if for nothing else but the fact that God apparently is highly inconsistent. So - God knows who God is really talking to. However - if God ever does show up - I will personally pay for an anger management therapy session to work on that temper problem. If you are omnipotent you have to be taught that you can't go off and destroy the Earth every time someone pisses you off!
However - having said that - one can not ignore the variety of Christian charities and other organizations who's task is to selflessly help other people who are in need. These organizations are dedicated to the same principles that we Realists share - that we are /root and we do tech support for the human race. Christians become Christians because they have chosen to "do what's right" and to be one of the "good guys" and to be a productive member of society. And this is something that Christians and Realists share. But - as they say - the Devil is in the details.
So - in summary - Realists see Christians as an irrational primitive cult and prone to irrational behavior at times - and has an unhealthy view of the future. You are someone who we are stuck here with and we have the job of trying to protect you from yourself and to help Christians evolve into a positive and productive religion.
For the record - I was raised Jewish - sort of. My parents are Jewish - sort of - in name only. Much like the followers of any other religion of people who identify with a religion because of ancestry rather than actually believing and practicing something. I remember back when I was 5 years old being forced to study the old testament and thinking - no way in hell does this make sense. Having said that - Judaism is perhaps one of the least stupid of the stupid religions in that they aren't out beating on your door like the Christians do wanting to know if you know Moses. But come on! Judaism is based on ancient bullshit and it's time to give it up and move on.
Judaism is a stagnant religion that is stuck in the past.
Judaism is one of the world's oldest religions. The oldest one in terms of religions who created a knowledge tree that still exists today. There are other religions that are older - but forgotten - because they failed to create a knowledge tree. Judaism is the predecessor to Christianity who took a bad idea and made it worse.
Judaism is a prime example of what happens when you fail to admit that you're beliefs are just plain wrong. In it's day, 5000 years ago, Judaism represented state of the art thinking. They had the most advanced Tree of Knowledge on the planet. It represented the best of human understanding at that time. The problem is - their ego got in the way. God had chosen them - the Bible was the holy word of God - who can never be wrong. Their knowledge tree became frozen and as time progressed - it's real apparent that these beliefs are ridiculous in the context of current scientific thinking. But the Jews and their derivative religions stick with it because if they start changing things - then they have to admit that Jews are just people like everyone else and that there's nothing special about being a Jew. But they are too arrogant to face reality - and they remain frozen in time.
Pot is considered a dangerous and illegal drug in most countries, however, the reality is that pot is nearly harmless --- especially when you compare it to dangerous legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol. And smoking marijuana has beneficial effects in that it enhances certain mental abilities that allows the pot smoker to come up with new and interesting ideas that are practical in the real world. Pot can make you smarter as long as you use it correctly and don't abuse it. Many of my best ideas have come from smoking pot -- and one of those ideas was the idea of starting the Church of Reality. The Church of Reality is a marijuana inspired idea and if not for smoking pot --- this church wouldn't exist.
First of all --- this site and this web page is not a pro drug use site. There are a lot of dangerous drugs out there that are very destructive and should be avoided. There are also a lot of drugs that are harmful if not used correctly or used to excess. Anyone who is considering doing a drug should first become familiar with the facts about the drug and use it with caution. I have written web pages on the subjects of marijuana and tobacco.
Marijuana
- Telling Teenagers the Truth about Smoking Pot
Smoking
- Message to Teenagers about Smoking Cigarettes
Having said that --- the use of some drugs --- when used correctly --- can enhance your mental abilities and allow you to come up with imaginative "outside the box" solutions to common problems. The drugs that have benefited me by opening up my mind are Marijuana and LSD. If not for those two drugs --- you would not be reading this web site. This idea of the Church of Reality was an idea that I came up with while stoned. I therefore give credit where credit is due. Since Pot caused the idea to occur --- and the very existence of the Church of Reality is a result of smoking pot --- I therefore declare Pot as a Holy Sacrament.
First I will say that I believe that every person on the planet has a right to believe in any religion, no matter how stupid it is. I also believe that every person has a right to free speech and a right to talk about stupid religions and the reasons they are stupid, even if "people of faith" get offended. Just because I respect your right to practice your stupid religion doesn't mean that I have any respect for it, nor do I have to pretend your religion isn't stupid and/or isn't a dangerous and destructive cult. If you are offended by frank discussions of religions, you can leave now.
I find Christians particularly offensive. Everyone is going to burn in Hell except them. They have no respect for any other religion. In fact, most Christians hate most other Christians. The Pentecostals think the Catholics are all going to burn in Hell. It's a very dishonest religion and has a holier than thou culture; they believe they are better than everyone else. They like to pose as persecuted, but more often than not they are the persecutors. They tend to lie and steal a lot because they are "forgiven" and therefore can indulge in sin. The religion is theoretically based on the Bible which is, quite frankly, a stupid book, and certainly not written by a God. But Christians hardly follow their own teachings and are more likely to cheat and steal than your average person off the street.
Well - the KFRC deal fell through. They insisted on altering my ad
requiring that I put a disclaimer in it that "This is a paid
commercial". Something that I wasn't willing to do. So - they said I'll
be getting my money back on it and that's a good thing. So - I did have
some spots professionally produced by my old radio guy David Lewis from
back in the old days when I had a computer retail store in Springfield
Missouri.
Here are the ads: All are good - but I like the first two the best.
So - if any of you have any $$$ and you want to download these ads and put them on your local radio station - let me know. That would be a great way to spread the word. Also - feel free to post these on your web sites.
If I get more revenue than it costs me then I will take the extra money and expand the radio campaign. If I get less than what it costs me then the ads go away. Most of the money that we are starting with is money I've put in myself. And - this church isn't going anywhere until I get other people on board. But - I think I have a good plan and I'm hoping it will work.
Besides staying on the air - doing these radio spots is a media launch. I'm hoping that it will leverage me into the news media - get me on talk shows - and tweak the Christians just enough to get them talking about the Church of Reality. I believe that just to get the name out there - that there is a Church of Reality - and that it is a religion based on believing in what's real - and it causes people to ask the Sacred Question - "What is Real?" - that this will make a profound change in the world. And I'm hoping that you will see this and contribute to the cause.
As you know the Christian Right - that seems to be taking over Christianity - thinks they own America and that they are going to prepare the world for the second coming and the destruction of the planet. I know this is (hopefully) an exaggeration - but this is a country that has turned it's back on reality. We are having a very twisted version of "morality" laid on us and they are screwing with the culture in some very unhealthy ways.
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I believe it is time to challenge these other religions head on and compete for the religious mind space. and what better religion than believing in reality itself. After all - you don't get any more real than that. I want to work reality into the religious dialog and help other religions evolve in a more positive direction. I'm not out to eliminate fiction based religions. But I do want to keep them from becoming dangerous and hurting themselves and others - including me.
If you haven't fully explored this web site you should do so now. I want you to fully understand what the church of Reality is all about and decide if you want to support the cause. If you like what you see then come back here and throw a little something in the hat to keep this going. I know a lot of you are cash strapped so if you like this and can't contribute real money - if you can tell your friends and link to us on your web sites - that would really help a lot. Right now the mission is to get the word out and every time you talk about reality - you are sending the Sacred Message. We are one people sharing this planet. We are all in this together - and we are going to have to figure out how to make it work. If you like what you hear and you want other to hear it to - $75 gets it played again.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and to explore this web site.
The short answer is, nope, never happened. The story can't be
supported by either science or mythology. Even if you believe God is
all powerful and can do anything it still doesn't make sense. It only
makes sense if you are going to believe the Bible no matter what. In
that case everything makes sense. "The Bible says it, I believe it, and
that's that." If this is what you believe you should stop reading now
because what I'm about to say will only piss you off. I can't change
your mind and you won't learn anything. For the rest of you, here's an
interesting point of view on an old story.
Let's look at the math. It amazes me that I've never seen anyone
look at it this way before. As the story goes, God made it rain for 40
days and 40 nights and created a great flood that covered the entire
earth. Enough to drowned everything except fish. Our tallest mountains
are 27,000 feet tall, so if you're going to flood everything, that's
27,000 feet of water. For round numbers, let's just say 24,000 is
enough.
If you divide 24,000 feet by 40 days, that's 600 feet of rain a day,
over the entire planet. There's 24 hours in a day so that would be 25
feet of rain per hour, or 300 inches per hour. 7200 inches per day. 5
inches of rain a minute. That's one hell of a rain!
When you look at the math it's pretty obvious that the Flood of Noah could never have happened.
This is also hundreds of times as much water as what's in the oceans
and the atmosphere. Where did all this water come from? Where did all
this water go to? It's hardly going to run down the storm sewers. It
can't evaporate because the air would be totally saturated once just a
few feet evaporated. That much water isn't going to sink into the
ground. There isn't that much ground. And there's no geological
evidence that the entire planet was ever covered with water.
I haven't gone into the problems with gathering two of every species
and fitting them all into a small boat. I'm not going to talk about the
DNA problems of deriving species from only two individuals. Not going
to talk about where dinosaur bones came from. Not going to bring up the
possibility of animals, reptiles, and insects surviving on floating
debris. We're just talking about the flood itself.
Of course, God can do anything. He could have created the water,
made it disappear, and then covered up all geological evidence of the
flood so as to fool those faithless scientists. A flood like that would
have carved up the entire planet big time. But God must have erased all
the erosion and recreated a landscape that looks as if it had been here
for billions of years. If you believe in Noah and the Ark, then you
have to believe that God concealed all evidence of the flood and
intended to fool scientists.
Why would God do that? If God wanted to waste the planet he could
have just struck them all dead instead of doing the flood thing. Looks
like he went to a lot of trouble that he didn't need to. God works in
mysterious ways, and we mortals can't comprehend the ways of God. We
are to accept it on faith because the math and science sure don't add
up.
If you thought you were going to get off easy and that the Church of
Reality believed that everything was ok - you're wrong. The Church of
Reality supports a lifestyle the reflects our Sacred Mission and our
Sacred Principles. If we support The Principle of Positive Evolution
and want to move society forward in the Sacred Direction then we need
to live our lives in a progressive manner. We are people who are good
citizens, productive members of society, and we live our lives to make
our world a better place to live.
We however do not require a bizzare lifestyle like other religions. You
don't have to shave your head, wear an orange robe or burka, go around
knocking on doors asking people to accept Darwin or Newton, no praying
or chanting is required, no strange rituals, holy books to swear on, no
robes, beads, prayer cloths, piercings, snake handling, or special
diets. You don't worship a diety, not required to honor the sabbath,
(although getting some rest is a good idea - work hard - play hard) we
don't control who you vote for, no mass weddings, no vows of celebacy
or silence, no female oppression, no holy wars, and no deities will
order you to kill anyone.
We believe in promoting a common sense healthy livestyle where everyone
is encourged to be a productive upstanding part of society. We are to
be "good people" - the kind of people that others look up to - who
other want to be around - who others consider to be honest, reliable,
trustworthy, respectful, humble, and helpful.
Generally the Church of Reality subscribes to the principles of Secular Humanism with the addition of the religious responsibilities, as outlined by the Sacred Missions, added to it. The Humanists have already done a lot of work in this area and although no one it perfect they seem to be on the right track in general. So - until something better comes along, we endorse Humanism as the recomended lifestyle for Realists.
The lifestyle of Realists in general is based on personal freedom. We aren't here to tell you how to live your life. But we hope to be able to help provide assistance and structure in developing a good lifestyle template.
The Monks of the Order of Root are those who have dedicated their lives to the service of the Church of Reality. The term "Root" comes from the Unix/Linux computer operating system and is the super user. The root user is the account that has the power and authority to control all aspects of the computer without restrictions. Generally on a system where there are many users, only a few are allowed to become root and are entrusted with this power for the purpose of maintaining the system so that ordinary users can function normally.
To be root in Linux is to be given power and authority for the purpose of providing maintenance. The root user is a person who is given trust and is required to use their powers in a responsible manner. To be root is to accept responsibility for keeping the system running.
We in the Church of Reality like this metaphor and hereby adopt it. To be root in the Church of Reality is similar to being root in Linux. People are entrusted with power and authority to provide technical support for the human race. To be a monk of the order of root is to dedicate one's life to the service of the Church in order to keep the systems running so that ordinary people can live their lives and that the systems in society and in the church continue to function and can be relied on.
The Monks of the Order of Root are workers. They are the people who make it happen. They are the link between the visionaries and the real world. They are in charge of the infrastructure. They are the people who keep the heat on in the winter and make sure the lights stay on. They are the people who educate people, protect people, provide medical care, tend to the needy, provide spiritual and grief counseling, they keep the web sites running, they back up the data, they fix what is broken.
The Church of Reality is still a small Church. This is the current organization of the Church. It is subject to change in the future. Many positions are yet to be filled.
The Council of Realists - The High Council of Realists is the Board of directors of the Church of Reality.
Marc Perkel - Marc Perkel is the First One of the Church of Reality. He is the person who came up with the idea and is the person who is presently responsible for the creation of Church doctrine. He is the visionary behind the creation of this organization. Marc Perkel is a self taught individual who has become an expert in philosophy, law, computer hardware and software, systems administration, and religious beliefs. Marc is a writer and has an extensive web site at perkel.com. He runs a small web hosting company specializing in free speech issues. He is also a former systems administrator (root) for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Robin Gross - Robin Gross is a San Francisco based attorney specializing in intellectual property issues. Robin is the founder of IP Justice - a nonprofit organization dealing with international copyright and patent issues. She is on the board of directors for the Union for the Public Domain. She teaches international copyright law at Santa Clara University School of Law. She is on the Advisory Board for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility - Peru. And Robin is licensed as clergy by the State of California.
Robin travels the world giving speeches, organizing, and advising policy makers from around the world on the impact of intellectual property rules on traditional rights and innovation. Robin has made it her mission in life to protect the Tree of Knowledge from being choked off by over-broad copyright laws. She is also a former staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Deborah Pierce - Deborah Pierce is founder and Executive Director of PrivacyActivism. Her work focuses on consumer education campaigns, advocacy, and analysis of privacy issues, with particular emphasis on data flow, data matching, privacy risks associated with data collection, and biometrics.
Deborah is currently a member of the University of Washington's Shidler Center for Law, Commerce and Technology Advisory Committee. She has been on several committees to help find solutions to privacy and security threats, including the Washington State Bar Association's Access to Justice (a committee formed to develop more detailed guidelines addressing the issue of the technological impact on privacy within the justice system) and the Federal Trade Commission's advisory panel on online access and security.
In April 2005, Deborah chaired the 15th Annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference. CFP is a conference that has played a major role in the public debate on the future of privacy and freedom in the online world and brings together attendees and an audience from government, business, education, and non-profits, as well as from the community of computer professionals, hackers, crackers and engineers who work the code of cyberspace. The themes have been broad and forward-looking. CFP explores what will be. It is the place where the future is mapped.
In her previous role as a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, she worked on issues related to electronic privacy, database information collection and personal identity. Deborah was the inspiration for the Sacred Principle of Privacy.
Administration - The Administration is the business end of the Church of Reality. The administration is run by the executive director who is responsible for the executive staff and conducting the business of the church.
Marc Perkel - Currently Marc Perkel - the First One - is also the Executive Director. Some day when we are bigger the Executive Director will be someone else.
The Monks of the Order of Root - Are the highly committed members who are maintainers of projects and have the power and authority to fulfil their missions. The Monks of the Church of Reality get their direction from the Executive Director.
The Beacons - The Beacons are the clergy of the Church of Reality.
The Membership - People who have taken the Oath of Reality, by accepting the Sacred Choices and identifying themselves as Realists. Through the Sacred Choices they have committed themselves to the Sacred Missions and The Sacred Principles.
What does it take to join the Church of Reality? It's actually not very hard at all. It's as easy as making a decision that you commit yourself to believing in what is real and that you will forego any current beliefs you have when you find out that what you are believing is not real. The Church of Reality is all about reality, real reality, the way it really is.
This of course sounds deceptively simple. I suppose to describe becoming a Realist as putting down your fiction based cult religion and replacing it with Realism is like telling a cigarette smoker that all you have to do to quit smoking is simply to put the cigarettes down and never pick them up again. But such a description ignores the fact that the smoker is a drug addict and that drug addiction is far more complex than the simple act of not doing something. Becoming a Realist is not so simple in a society that is dominated by religious cults and where you are programmed from birth to worship fictional deities. For most people becoming a realist is the beginning of a process of giving up a lifetime of brainwashing, to embark on a search for the elusive real world.
The real world can be a scary place. I wish that we could offer you all the false promises that other religions make. There is no immortality in reality except to the extent that you are remembered for your contributions to the Tree of Knowledge, or unless we develop the technology to become immortal. We don't have the promise of eternal bliss with an omnipotent father figure who is going to take care of us if we only believe and sacrifice large quantities of personal wealth to the middlemen religions that are selling you the ticket to your next life. On the bright side, we don't threaten you with eternal punishment if you don't fork over your bank account to the church. Our religion is based on the concept that we are here, there's a world out there, so let's explore it and figure it out. Let's do the best with what we have to work with.
Being a Realist starts by taking a personal oath by making the Sacred Choices your life's choices. You accept the Sacred Missions as the missions in your life. You accept the Sacred Principles as the guiding principles of your life. You choose to be intellectually honest and to take responsibility for your role in the real world. You are committing to a life of personal growth, that every day you will do something to make sure that tomorrow you are somehow better than you are today. That you will become a lighthouse to guide those who are lost in the darkness of the cult mind, to welcome them to the real world. This is what becoming a Realist entails.
An axiom is a self-evident truth upon which other knowledge must rest, from which other knowledge is built up. Even though we still question our axioms, a religion has to start somewhere and declare that certain assumptions are true. These axioms make up the roots of the Tree of Knowledge upon which our religion is founded. They form the basis for our world view.
Reality exists. The Earth exists. The Human race exists. Life on this planet evolved over billions of years. We exist. We function as a society. We share knowledge. There exists a wealth of knowledge that we as a human race share. We are self-aware. We have the ability to make decisions. We have comprehension. Our decisions have consequences. Our species is continuing to evolve. Our technology is growing. We have the technology to exterminate ourselves. We are aware of time. We are aware of the past, the present, and the future. We know that many life forms on this planet became extinct. We are the descendents of species that continued to evolve.
This is a description of the reality we live in. In many important ways it sums up our existence. It is what we have to work with. Will we survive and continue to evolve, or will we become extinct? If we continue to evolve, what will we evolve into? Do we have control over what we will become? If we do have control over our evolution, what shall we choose? Or should we choose extinction? Since we can exterminate ourselves, should we?
This is reality. Welcome to the real world. Welcome to the world where everything is the way it really is. A world where there are no fictional beings to fix our mistakes. A world where we are alone and responsible for our own decisions, responsible both individually and collectively. A world of great wonderment, unlimited possibilities, or terrifying consequences. A world that we can turn into whatever we want it to become. This is the real world. The way things really are.
In pure science the universe is just stars exploding and rocks in space bumping into each other. The universe doesn't care if we evolve or become extinct. It only matters to us in that we choose evolution over extinction.
The universe doesn't care about us. Stars explode. Solar systems are sucked into black holes. This planet is but a speck of dust in the universe. Our entire galaxy is but a speck of dust in the universe. If our galaxy blew up tomorrow it would take 2.2 million years before anyone in the next galaxy even knew it happened. If there were anyone in the next galaxy, that is. And there are trillions of galaxies. We live for just a moment in time. There is no universal right or wrong. Whatever happens is whatever happens. If the sun explodes, then it is just one of trillions of stars that explode.
The human race is very young and we are just beginning to become aware of what we are, how we relate to the reality around us, and the responsibilities we face in determining our future. We have choice, so what do we do with that? What shall we choose for ourselves? How will we decide to relate to reality?
Not all of the axioms of the Church of Reality are based only on objective truth. That's because the Church of Reality isn't a religion of science. The Church of Reality is about people who are exploring reality from a human perspective. We have created a set of arbitrary axioms, choosing to give value to the human experience. We have made a religious choice to create a doctrine based on the premise that humanity should progress forward and continue to evolve into something greater than it is today.
What we choose to do is subjective. And the definition of right and wrong become defined in relation to the choices we make. If, for example, we choose to end our existence, to become extinct, then anything that leads to extinction becomes right and anything that leads to evolution becomes wrong. If we decide to make up a fictional story and to dedicate ourselves to the fictional story, then anything that we do that supports the fiction becomes right and anything we do that goes against the fiction becomes wrong.
The concepts of right and wrong are relative to the choices we make and the principles that support those choices. These are arbitrary choices and, since we have free will, we can do anything we want to do. Different people have made different choices about their own lives, the lives in their group, and the future of the human race. Some people choose extinction. Most people have settled for a fiction. Some people have chosen reality. These are religious choices. In fact - the definition of religion is the choices we make in how we are going to relate to our existence.
The Church of Reality is a religion and in our religion we have made the following religious choices. These are the subjective axioms that form the basis of Church of Reality doctrine.
We Choose to Understand Reality and to Believe in what is Really Real - We choose to reject fictional beliefs and to use the abilities that we have evolved and to take the knowledge that has been handed down to us (the Tree of Knowledge as we call it) and use it to know more about the reality around us. We seek real truth and understanding and we choose to dedicate our lives and our existence, both individually and as a society, to this purpose. Because we dedicate ourselves to the exploration of reality, we call ourselves Realists.
We Choose Evolution over Extinction - We are Realists in the practice of Realism, and to explore our reality we have to continue to survive, to evolve forward, and to continue our course of evolution in a positive direction. We call this the Sacred Direction.
We Accept Responsibility - We understand that our actions, and inactions, have consequences. We accept the laws of cause and effect; we comprehend that we have choice and that the choices we make have results and consequences. Therefore, we commit to expend the effort to determine the right and wrong choices in relation to our goals to survive, to understand reality, and to evolve forward. We will work toward making the right choices.
We Own Ourselves - Our lives are our own. We have ownership of our own lives. This means that we have the right to make the choices that affect our lives, to control our own destiny, to be free to speak out, to take action in our own interests and in the interest of our society. We have the right to personal privacy, and to be secure in our person and our property. We are not the subjects of any nation state nor are our rights limited to what nation state allow us to do. Nations are an artificial construct that exist only for the purpose of serving the needs of humanity. Self ownership is a personal commitment to think for ourselves, to resist control and oppression by other people. To take back our lives and our reality. Because we assert our rights so do we respect the same rights of other individuals.
We are a Society - We can not achieve our objectives if we allow Extinctionist religions to succeed or allow fiction-based religions, which envision a future of annihilation, to prevail over our choice to survive and to flourish. To the extent that the goals of their religions deny us our goals, we commit to doing whatever it takes to ensure that we prevail. We can not allow ourselves, as a society, to destroy our existence and to become extinct. We support the creation and maintenance of a healthy society that is design for the sole purpose of serving the advancement of the human race.
We are Humanity - We are dedicated to the Positive Evolution of people--not government, not machines, not corporations, not monarchies, not religions, and not fictional deities. Our loyalties lie with people. Furthermore, this religion isn't just about reality itself, but about reality as experienced by the human race. We are people who are exploring reality together, as a society. Therefore, we have to take care of the human factor to enable humans to explore reality.
These arbitrary choices, our religious choices, form the basis for the Sacred Choices, the Sacred Principles, and the Sacred Missions. Together these religious choices form the basis for separating right from wrong, good from evil. They create a standard against which to test our choices so that we can achieve our religious goals. The religious doctrine of the Church of Reality grows out of the facts and choices upon which we base our religion.
Everything is evolving, including religion. So which religions will survive - and if they do survive, what will they evolve into? Or will they all become extinct? Who will still be here in 100 years, or 1000 years or 100,000 years from now? Will people still be praising Jesus in the year 102,005? (Assuming we make it through the Y100K computer meltdown where all the software using 5 digit dates all crash)
As with any evolutionary process, when the environment changes, the organisms have to adapt. This is true not only for living organisms but for social and religious organisms as well. During the Dark Ages religion was stable for very long periods of time. But those days are gone and the human race is in the middle of a huge evolutionary jump. New technology is changing how we understand things and how we process information. The Internet, which we call the Sacred Router, is causing an acceleration of knowledge. Information from around the world can be researched in seconds allowing people who discover new things to associate with like-minded people everywhere. If not for the Sacred Router the Church of Reality would not exist.
What effect will the Internet have on religions? No matter what religion you are a member of, there is at least an implied assumption that what you believe in is actually real. There may be some exceptions but if you ask most people if what they believe in is real, they would say, "Yes it is!" And there is some presumption that if they became convinced it were not real, then they would (eventually) stop believing in it. What is different today, as compared to centuries ago, is that you have a lot more information and tools available to test and see if what you believe in is real. And more and more people are putting their faith to the reality test.
For example, the Jesus story. I never believed it. But I did assume that it was at least based on some guy who actually did live around that time. As it turn out, I was wrong. I now know that Jesus to be 100% fictional and to have never existed in any real form whatsoever. I found that out by researching on the Internet and discovering things that I didn't know. These are things that I probably would never have found in the pre-Internet days. I found out that there were dozens of fictional figures who predated the Jesus story that had all the same elements of the life of Christ. They already had a God as father, virgin mother, mass slaying of children, miraculous healings, raising people from the dead, being crucified, and rising from the dead on the third day. The writers who made up the Jesus story didn't even make it original. They plagiarized the fiction of the times.
With this kind of information becoming more available, it puts pressure on fiction-based religions to explain themselves and raises doubts about if the underlying narratives are in fact true. If Christians, for example, figured out that Jesus wasn't real, would they still believe in him? I would hope that most of them would not. Thus, if a religion is based on fiction then this information age becomes a threat to their religious foundation. I would think that if Jesus goes away then Christianity goes away with it.
What is Reality? Is there an absolute reality or do we all have our own personal realities? Different religions all claim to be real but believe in opposite things. Is there a real reality out there that is independent of our own experience? Is there a way to determine objectively which reality is the true reality? And from what viewpoint do we assess reality from? These are some of the great questions facing all people of all religions, and one thing about us Realists is that we love the great questions.
We Realist believe there is an absolute reality which is the way things really are. Our religious doctrine, the Kernel, says that one of our Sacred Missions is the pursuit and understanding of this absolute reality. Since reality itself is presumed to be infinite we are committed to making the best attempt at understanding it. We also realize that we are limited in our pursuit of reality because we are not infinitely knowledgeable and we are exploring reality through the lens of humanity. We have only our human brains and the computers we build as tools with which to explore reality. That's not much to work with, but that is what we have so we'll just have to make due and take into account our limited perspective on absolute reality.
Reality itself is absolute, or at least we think it is, but our perception of reality will always be relative because of our limitations both collectively as the human race perceiving reality through the Tree of Knowledge, and individually perceiving reality individually. Our perception of reality will always be a subset of absolute reality, with a number of mistakes that we will inevitably make, and limited by the human perspective that will always reveal a human flavor on our understanding.
One person cannot know everything. There is far too much information in the Tree of Knowledge to keep in our own brains, and there are far too many things we just don't know. We therefore have to trust other people. and make working assumptions about the world we see around us.
In the Church of Reality, faith is not blind, but earned. We question everything. We embrace doubt in both the giving of doubt and the receiving of doubt. By embracing doubt and scrutiny, we work to earn trust, to be credible, to be accountable, to have a process that has integrity, and to be responsible for what we believe in. For us to be trusted, we have to earn that trust.
Why do I believe in Evolution? After all, I'm not billions of years old. I haven't examined any fossils. I haven't compared any DNA. In fact - I personally don't know that DNA really exists. I am relying on the word of others, people who I do trust, people who I have faith in, people who have earned my faith. I believe in evolution because it comes from trusted sources.
But what if evolution is wrong? What if space aliens constructed this planet yesterday and created us with false memories of the past and fake fossil evidence to make us believe that we have a historical past? What if the Earth really is only 24 hours old? Or that this reality is just a giant computer simulation in a higher level of reality. Those are possibilities that we can't prove are not so. After all, if we're just characters in some great video game, we would never know it.
Most everything we know comes from other people who we trust. We just don't have the resources to test everything ourselves.
Is reality really real? Is this a simulation? Am I the only person in the universe that is real and this is all my personal dream? I don't know. So what am I to do? I suppose that I am going to just have to pick one and go with it. So I'm going to put my faith in reality. And if we are a computer generated simulation, then it is still the correct decision because the programmers want us to believe in the artificial reality. So one might say that Realists have chosen to put their faith in reality.
What is knowledge and where does it come from? How do we know what we know? There are things we know directly, from our own experiences, and things we know based on trust. Even what we know directly is suspect because we know it through our flawed senses and we understand it with our flawed brains. And everything that we do know is relative or related to everything else that we know.
Imagine what it must be like to be a newborn baby. You open your eyes and begin to see things for the first time. But what do you see? You see walls, lights, chairs, a bed, people, mommy, but these are all just images. The information goes in but it doesn't mean anything because a newborn's brain doesn't have very much knowledge to relate this information to. Everything is new. Reality itself is new. Learning begins a little bit at a time and builds up by relating new information to everything else you know. Over time you learn language and associate objects and concept with words and phrases and talking increases the ability to communicate and get information from others so that the young mind becomes connected to the Tree of Knowledge. Most everything we know is something that we learned from other people and what they know comes from common knowledge that is trusted to be true.
Of course the problem is that not everything that you are taught is true. We all know that we were filled with a certain amount of misinformation and now we have to go back and reexamine what we were taught to see if it's really true. But we can't reexamine everything. We are stuck with having to know things based on trust. We can only hope that what we trust is correct.
This is an article written by Don Havis that appears to be well researched. I found this on East Bay Atheists and I was surprised when I read it. Like most people who don't believe in Jesus I had thought that there was at least "some guy" in the past that at least existed. (Being raised Jewish and not buying Judaism I was hardly buying the "God had to kill his son for your sins" story.) I suppose that it comes from the same trust that the human race can't be that stupid, that surely this isn't pure fiction. It appears I was wrong.
Jesus joins the ranks of pure fiction with the likes of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Boogie Man, God, Apollo, Zeus, Yoda, Osiris, Spock, Vishnu, Noah, Aphrodite, Hermes, the Virgin Mary, Eros, Iris, Moses, and Spiderman. Billions of people believing in nothing.
I find this fascinating, I hope you all will as well whether you be an Atheist or a Christian. Truth should stand up to scrutiny and it is by doubting that we maintain trustworthiness.
Is the Church of Reality a cult? Are you in a cult? These are interesting questions. One thing that's common about all cult members is that they are all sure that they are NOT in a cult. So - if you are sure you are not in a cult then take this test.
The question about if you are in a cult is not a black and white issue. There are organizations that are clearly cults and others that are cultish depending on your perspective. And most all groups of people have some cult like properties. Obviously if you are a member of a group that is contemplating mass suicide, then you are in a cult. But what about people who believe in Armageddon, are they cult members? Especially if you think the world will end in your life time. Or, if you are looking forward to the end of the world. If you think we are in the "end times" and you are fantasizing about God destroying the world, you are in a cult.
A cult is every other religion other than the one that you believe in.
So what is a cult? The simple definition is every religion except your religion is a cult. I think we can all agree, no matter who you are, that there are a lot of people out there who are seriously being misled and have a lot of weird and dangerous beliefs. Some of you might think the Church of Reality is a dangerous cult. After all, we do undermine faith. But how do you know - for sure - that of all the thousands of religions out there, that you somehow found the right one. Or perhaps happened to be born into the right one. Are you really that lucky - or - do people believe what they are taught as children. Clearly people believe what they are taught as children. So if you are in the religion you were raised in - that makes you suspect.
Relativism plays an important role in what is a cult. If you are a Muslim, then stoning women to death for sexual events might seem normal to you. Many ancient cultures had Gods that demanded animal and human sacrifice. If you believe in God, then anything that is "God's will" is considered to be normal, no matter how bizarre God might get. For example, the Bible tells us that God killed the first born male of all the Egyptians. People who believe the Bible accept God's behavior as "normal". However - if you are not familiar with the Biblical story of Moses and someone told you there was a deity who mass murdered innocent children, what deity would do this? You might guess it was the work of Satan. And you would be wrong. That's because "normal" to a realist is that mass killing children is wrong.
The question is, who is right? Is there an absolute objective perspective as to who is in a cult and who is not? After all - if what we consider to be a cult is right, then they are on the true path and we are the misled. What we consider freedom might be the work of demons that control us through the illusion of free thinking. Many cults will tell you that thinking is the work of the Devil and that only through your ability to suspend all reason and logic are you saved.
We in the Church of Reality have chosen reality itself to be our frame of reference from which we perceive the world. Somehow the idea is that if you have to pick a point of reference that reality seems to be the logical choice. So from our perspective, cultness is judged in relation to reality.
Is there a supernatural side to reality? Is there any such thing as magic? Do miracles occur? In the strictest sense of the definition of those words, no. No real magic, no real miracles. There is just science that we understand, and science that hopefully we will eventually understand, assuming that we stay on the Path of Knowledge.
Having said that, there's also a looser definition of magic and miracles that is in common use. It is a reflection of wonderment and amazement. It can refer to things that appear to be magical and mystical yet aren't. For example to me a cell phone is an almost magical device. I can voice command my phone to dial up people on the other side of the planet and talk to them over this little wireless box in my hand. Every time I fly in an airplane it amazes me that something so huge and heavy can fly through the air. The Tree of Knowledge amazes me. That the human race can come together and produce all of this stuff requiring an amazing amount of organization, and that we can act like a hive of bees without the common person having any idea that the very language of the thoughts in your brain, was invented by other people. To be that linked in to the group mindset, without any awareness of that, is miraculous to me.
What most people call Magic and Miracles are things and events that they can't explain.
Computers are almost magical to me. When you think about it, what is a microprocessor? It's imprinted silicon. It is a rock. We could say that we have developed the technology to make rocks think, and we wouldn't be entirely wrong. We are at a time when evolution has taken us to the point of self realization, and we can now choose what we will become. We are in an age of great wonderment, an age where reality is more amazing than it has ever been. Why would anyone want to give up reality for a fiction based existence?
So - for those of you hard core realists who might be cringing right now worried that the Church of Reality is going to go off the deep end, that's not going to happen. I'm not diluting reality by talking about miracles and magic in this context. I'm actually somewhat diluting the concept of magic and miracles themselves, because what most people call a miracle is just something they can't explain with science. Not that it's unexplainable, but from their perspective it is.
I think it's a miracle that no one had already come up with a Church of Reality until now.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, I knew that magicians used tricks to create illusions. Illusions that looked magical. At that time, it seemed that more adults believed in real magic. They may have known that magicians didn't have powers, but still believed that there were people and/or beings that do. There is still a lot of that today, but I do think that the number of realists have increased. Many people are still confused about the difference between the unexplained and the unexplainable. And sometimes it's fun to play with that misunderstanding and make supernatural claims just to get people to think about it. As always, thinking is a good thing and this will probably start some lively debate.
Believers believe that they have an advantage over non believers. They believe that they have moral certainty. They believe that they can tell right from wrong and that it's black and white. They point to the Bible or the Koran and say that it's God's word and that's what they believe. Everything else is some kind of relative morality. But do believers really have moral certainty? Not by a long shot. Individually they think they do, but every one of them has a different personal opinion of what is right and wrong And their opinion is usually very different than everyone else's in their congregation. The moral certainty is just and illusion. Just because they believe they have it doesn't make it real.
For example, Christians point to the Ten Commandments and declare, "That's GOD'S Law!" But they fail to read the rest of the book that contains those commandments. If you point out that God demands the death penalty for working on the Sabbath and perhaps they should report to the executioner, for some reason they balk at they idea. I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to die for the sin of working on the Sabbath? After all, by repenting of their sins and being executed they can leave the "evil world" behind and be with Jesus. At least if I were morally certain the way they claim that's what I would do. But things are not as morally certain as they appear.
But they say, that's Old Testament. That doesn't apply anymore. Oh Really? What happened to, "I believe every word of the Bible comes from God and it's all true?" Who is to say what part is obsolete? Did God get it wrong? Did God change his mind? How can God change his mind if he can see the future? Surely you can't believe that God didn't know what the New Testament would have in it when he wrote the Old Testament, or did the rules change? If God is changing the rules then maybe the rules have changed again in the last 2000 years? And if God can change his mind then do we still have moral certainty? I don't think so!
Islam has moral certainty. If you're an Infidel you deserve death. Or if you are a woman who has committed a sexual sin, you deserve death. In Muslim controlled Indonesia you can get the death penalty for smoking pot, but if you are a terrorist and kill hundreds of people, you get two years in prison. Scientologist look at the rest of the world as subhuman. To them you can do anything to them because they don't matter. Killing the non believers is common among many religions. If you ask them, most will deny it, but when the Iranian Supreme Court condemns a teenage girl to death for being raped, that doesn't strike me as coming from a place of morality. That sounds like immoral certainty in my way of believing.
Just because you believe that God is on your side and that you read the Bible and go to church on Sunday doesn't make you a moral person. It's the difference between form and substance. It's going through a morality ritual but it isn't morality. Often people use the term morality as a way of asserting their moral superiority, or Moral Masturbation. It is a trick that religions use to keep you plugged in to the Cult Mind, but it is all just an illusion. It's fake morality and it makes you to live the lie.
To us the term "Moral Certainty" mean that it is both moral and certain. Let us focus on the certainty part because we can argue morality forever. If something is certain that means it is clear and without question. To me it mean that everyone who believes a certain way will all agree on what they believe in. For example, all Christians agree on what is moral and you can ask any one of them and they will all say the same thing? See what I mean?
If believers can't agree on what moral certainty is then it isn't certain.
The problem is that if you rely on a fictional deity to tell you what to do, then you have a problem with the deity not being consistent. If the deity tells people the opposite things then you lose certainty and it's anyone's guess which one is moral. In fact this is one of those objective tests that indicate to me if a religion is controlled by an invisible omnipotent deity, or if it's just an illusion. If God exists and if God is talking to people, then these people who God is talking to should get the same message. For example, I am real. When everyone reads this web site they all see the same words. And if you asked someone what they read, it would be fairly consistent. But when you talk to people who converse with God, they all have a different and often conflicting story. This make me think that they are just making it up.
What is being put out as morality and certainty is neither moral nor certain. It is words without substance. When you purify the truth of it, you determine that it is really bullshit. If we can't be certain about moral certainty, then we don't really have moral certainty do we?
Does the Church of Reality have a hidden agenda? Do we have a secret plan? What is it we are "really" up to? In an age where everyone is lying about something, what is the Church of Reality really about? Is it politics? Is it world domination? Are we really Satan's minions?
So yeah, we have a plan. We have a plot. We are up to something. But what is it? Is the Church of Reality really going to reveal it? Sure we are! Would we lie to you?
We are really just trying to trick religious people into thinking.
Our hidden agenda is - we are trying to trick people into thinking. Thinking about reality that is. We believe that if people start thinking about reality that it will cause them to ask themselves if what they believe in is real. Will this undermine faith? It will undermine blind faith. We want to perform a faith healing on faith itself so that the blindly faithful will see again. We want to take the blindness out of blind faith.
Making people think is what we are really up to. Realism is a religion of the mind. You try to resist it but you can't. You can pray and pray and as hard as you try not to - you just can't help it. All of a sudden there you are, thinking. Thinking about reality - reality the way it really is. It seduces you, sucks you in. You start wondering if what you believe is really real. The temptation is too strong to resist. You can feel reality all around you and you can't help but to wonder what it is. And when you are thinking about reality you are becoming real in the sacred moment. And during that time you become one of us. Resistance is futile. ha ha ha ha ha ... heh
What do concepts like Greed, Selfishness, Generosity and Selflessness have to do with reality? Not a lot. Reality exists and what is real doesn't depend on our behavior. The Earth will continue to orbit the Sun no matter what we do. But the Church of Reality is about more than just believing in what is real. It is about exploring reality and increasing our understanding of reality. It is about the relationship of the human race to reality and reality as experienced by humanity. That is what makes the religion of reality different from science. And because we as Realists have chosen to expand our understanding of reality, the way we organize as a society to do that together is important to the success of our mission.
As a religion we have accepted the exploration of reality as one of our missions. We know that in order to accomplish this we need to grow the Tree of Knowledge and increase the sum total of our collective human understanding. This is the way for us to evolve in the Sacred Direction. Since it is necessary for us to act as a community to accomplish our goal, it would seem that freely sharing information, generosity, and selflessness are the most logical strategy to achieve this goal. It is in our self-interest to be selfless. To that end, we adopt the Philosophy of the Open Hand as our way of living in a reality based community.
The Philosophy of the Open Hand is both for giving and for taking. It recognizes both our collective nature living in harmony with our individual nature. The individual gives of himself for the benifit of all and the individual takes the resources they need to survive.
Humanity has an interesting dual existence. On one hand we are all individuals while on the other hand we are a huge collective sharing the Tree of Knowledge. We are also all members of many overlapping groups sharing a common purpose with other people and trusting other people to come up with information that we rely upon. Much of the language in the Church of Reality has focused on group mind, cult mind, and group-think issues and some people might think that the Church of Reality values the collective mind over that of the individual. But that is not the case.
The Church of Reality is strongly in favor of individualism. We also don't see a conflict between individual and collective thinking as long as it is done right. And of course how to do that right is what the Church of Reality is all about as we tread the thin line between being cooperative and the cult mind.
Humanity by nature organizes into groups. It's an evolutionary trait that has served humanity well for the most part. But it all depends on the nature of the group. If the group is a group of free thinkers, then you will have a group that has a dynamic of healthy disagreement, where a cult group will all be mindlessly parroting the same script. The Church of Reality, of course, aspires to be an example of the first type of group. In fact, we look at disagreement as a sign of healthy individualism where too much agreement might indicate a move towards mindless following. So to disagree and have healthy debate is a good thing.
AMAZING REALITY
(sing to tune of “Amazing Grace”)
Amazing things I see each day
Before my very own eyes
Things that can not be explained away
They are real and are not lies
'Twas thinking mind and open eyes
That allowed me to find
All the wonder that in reality lies
Available to anyone with open mind
I live a life with no need for delusions
To enjoy all of life’s grandeur
There is no need for grand illusions
When amazing reality has such allure
There is beauty in all that is real
I am real and believe you are too
Think about it and here is the deal
Amazing Reality shows the world to you
by Gena Hendrix
Many religions, especially Christians, believe that you are saved by faith. In fact that is the only criteria. If you don't have faith then you don't get into Heaven, end of story. It doesn't matter how good you are or what works you did - it all rests on faith. So if faith is so important, then what is it?
If Salvation is based on faith, and if faith is believing without proof, then proving God is real undermines salvation.
Faith means to believe in something without evidence or proof. Using the term in the Christian sense, faith is required. You have to make a commitment to accept statements as true without evidence or proof. In fact, that is God's test to see if you can believe in him without any reason other than trust in the authority of the church and it's holy books. And you are prohibited from doubting, questioning, scrutinizing, or putting the object of faith to the test. Once something that relies on faith is proven, then it becomes science. If everything were proven, then there would be nothing left that is real to have faith in.
The requirement of faith puts an interesting twist in the rules. If faith were optional, then it wouldn't matter how you believed in something. But when the test of salvation is based not on what you believe in, but how you believe in it, i.e. faith, then if you don't believe in it by that method, you burn in Hell forever. Based on this, science can not lead you to God because if you get to God through science then you don't have faith and you got there the wrong way. There isn't anything in the Bible that indicates that you are saved through scientific discovery. It's about faith, and only faith.
The death penalty is not an easy issue and deciding to oppose executions is a difficult choice to make. Certainly in the case of gruesome murders our instinct is to get revenge. A person who slaughters another person doesn't deserve to live. But what is best for civilization? Is it better for society as a whole to execute people even if they clearly deserve to be executed? Or is it better for some people to escape what they deserve because the cost to society as a whole is too great? This is an extremely difficult call to make and both sides of the argument have merit. But after careful consideration the Church of Reality comes down on the side of opposing executions because the down side of executing people far exceeds the up side.
How does one make a decision for or against the death penalty? What is the overriding factor that we have to consider as most important in taking this position? When no solution is perfect and each position has merit how do we decide which one is best? How do we decide who wins and who loses? How do we apply our wisdom to this issue?
As we see it, the decision rests on what is best for society as a whole and after a lot of consideration, we have determined that in order to execute the guilty, even if you accept that they clearly deserve to die and you have no moral barriers to killing murderers, that the cost to society to kill those people is far greater than the lesser punishment of life in prison. That the difference in justice between death and life in jail is not sufficient to justify the costs to society of allowing nation-states the power of death. In practice, too many innocent people are unjustly executed and the lives of the innocent people are more important than the justice differential between life in prison and execution. Even if the death penalty were justified, the cost in innocent lives makes it not worth it.
What is the relationship between one’s personal reality and "real" reality? What is reality and why does it exist? These are the questions that we Realists explore. Have you ever wondered if reality is just your own personal illusion and that you are the only person in the world that is really real? Perhaps you are really a space alien and this world is a computer generated training experience where you are put in a simulated reality to train for some higher purpose. If that is so then what you are reading here is part of the simulation. But perhaps I am the one who is real and you are all part of my illusion. After all, as the founder of the Church of Reality, if that isn't a hint that this is my illusion, I don't know what is.
One thing we do know is that we can't all be in control personally of a common objective reality. So I'm going to accept that either this is a really good personal illusion or that I'm just part of a larger objective reality. In either case the appropriate thing to do is to live life assuming that this is not a personal illusion and that we are all part of a greater reality.
Since the world can be all of our personal illusions, there must be some greater reality that we are all part of.
Objective reality exists. The universe is about 15 billion years older than I am. I didn't create reality, reality created me. I am part of reality and I have, or at least seem to have, a limited influence over a very small part of it. For the most part I am an observer. I get to see a very small part of this planet, a planet that orbits a star that is one of billions of stars in a galaxy that is but one of trillions of galaxies in the universe. And I exist for an extremely brief period of time. I am witness to a very small slice of reality as seen from my perspective. Nevertheless, it is all I have to work with so I'll do the best with what I have.
Reality is the great unknown. It is huge. It is beyond imagination. It is incomprehensible. Yet we attempt to comprehend it. Even though our minds are limited we have banded together to share knowledge and link our minds together in a great neural network to explore, store, and share vast amounts of information about ourselves and the reality we live in.
In addition to our biological bodies and brains that act as crude computers, we have built machines to aid us. Information is no longer stored in biological brains that forget and die. We have digital memory to store facts. We launch telescopes into space to peer back to the beginning of time and space itself. We can now surf the web and post our thoughts online for all to read. We can communicate across the planet with text, voice, pictures, and video. Yet we still know very little about our existence. However, we continue to learn more.
Your personal reality is your perception or experience of the greater objective reality.
Individually, we are each just one of billions of observers each with our own perspective of reality. We see reality from our point of view. We are born in a location and raised by parents and in a community. We are taught a language with which to communicate. We are exposed to ideas and we are given knowledge from the Tree of Knowledge. This becomes our reality, our personal reality, or reality from our perspective.
Many common words are reality related and depends on reality for meaning. For example, the word Truth means that something is true in respect to reality. That it is really true as opposed to a personal belief where a person chooses to believe that something is true or that something might seem to be true from an individual perspective. In terms of absolutes the very definition of True and False is in the context of if it is true or false in reality.
Similarly the word Existence means does something exist in reality. The question "Does God Exist?" for example is really asking if God is real. It is asking, "Does God exist in the context of reality?" If one asks, "Is Zeus real?" they are not asking if you believe that Zeus is real. They are asking if Zeus exists irrespective of personal belief or observation.
Words like Existence and Truth are reality related words because they have no stand outside the context of reality. God, for example, can not be real unless there is a reality for him to exist within. To envoke these words is to measure something in the context of it's status in reality.
The Church of Reality is a 501(c)3 tax exempt not for profit organization recognized by the IRS. Here is the initial letter approving our status. The image is slightly edited in that it was originally 2 pages and I merged them.
In the spirit of Individualism Realists can and are encouraged to wear just about anything they want. There are of course some limitations on what is appropriate, or what is so strange, that it's not appropriate. But a realist can push the line some and should not be constrained by the tastes of others. One has the freedom to make their own decisions about how they want to physically appear and express who they are by how they choose to look.
There are limitations on this based on some common sense restrictions. There are places where nudity is accepted and places where it isn't. In general the Church of Reality accepts the culture of the City of San Francisco as a guideline as to what is too strange to wear. If it will get you arrested in San Francisco it's probably over the line.
Drugs are both helpful and detrimental depending on how you use them. Drugs are very powerful substances that require great caution for a variety of reasons.
When used correctly, drugs can cure diseases, treat depression, control pain, improve one's insight into reality, and be of great benefit.
When used incorrectly drugs can result in a lifestyle of addiction, can ruin one's health, and cause one to make regrettable decisions. While under the influence one might crash a car, might be killed. Some drugs are illegal and you can go to jail if you are caught using them.
Whenever a realist considers the use of drugs, legally or illegally, great care should be taken to ensure that drugs are used in a manner that is best for the individual and the people around them. No matter what drug you are thinking about using a Realist should act in a responsible manner and always use good judgment when deciding to use any drug whether legal or not.
Realists culture includes the idea that the individual enjoy a great amount of Freedom in their personal choices and that we are strongly individualistic and that we Own Ourselves. However the price of personal freedom is Personal Responsibility. If we are to be free to choose the path of our lives then we also must Respect society and the lives, safety, and rights of other people. We have to use Wisdom in our decisions about drugs so that any decision that we make regarding drug use takes into account all aspects of the consequences of our decisions.
The Church of Reality recognizes the absolute right of a woman to choose if she will reproduce or not. Reproduction is one of the most important choices a woman has to make and she cannot be forced to have children that she doesn't want to have. The Church of Reality considers reproduction to be one of the most fundamental personal freedoms a person can have and it is just plain wrong to take that choice away and impose the will of other people upon the individual who is pregnant.
Realist women have an absolute right to contraception and abortion services.
A woman must be able to choose to get an abortion for any reason or for no reason at all other than she chooses not to reproduce. A woman must be able to have access to all forms of contraception in order to control her reproduction. Church of Reality women are entitled to emergency contraceptive services in hospitals to prevent pregnancy in cases of rape or any other condition where emergency contraception is required.
We're not going to solve the overpopulation problem by forcing women to reproduce against their will.
In order to have a well functioning society where reality can be fully explored we have to take control and manage when we choose to reproduce. We humans are biologically programmed through evolution with more sexual desire than is necessary to maintain a healthy population. In fact this planet is overpopulated. We humans need to drastically reduce our collective reproduction rate and lower the population of the planet to a sustainable level. The first and obvious step in that direction is to allow women to terminate unwanted pregnancies. That way women can reproduce when they choose to and are ready to raise children.
My life - my choice. Even if it's the wrong choice it is my choice to make.
But on a more fundamental level we Realists are a culture of Self Ownership where every individual is writing their own Life Story. It's our lives and our choice. Even if it is the wrong choice it is our wrong choice to make. It is our religious assertion that no government or other religion has the right to impose their religious standards upon us and infringe on our religious liberties to fully control our reproductive choices.
Medicine is about the rights and health of the patient, not the religious views of the doctor or the religious organization that owns the hospital.
If a doctor, for example has a problem providing contraceptive services or abortion services then that person should not be in a position to deny services to Realists who require them. Medicine is all about the patient, not the doctor, and the rights, choices, and needs of the patient trump those of the doctor. Just as it would be ridiculous for a doctor who can't work on the Sabbath staff an emergency room on the Sabbath; a doctor who is religiously against blood transfusions should not staff emergency rooms serving people who need blood; and a doctor who doesn't believe in contraception should not have the right to deny emergency contraception to women who have been raped and do not wish to become pregnant with the rapists baby.
One definition for "holy" is "worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness." The definition of "halo" is "the aura of glory, veneration, or sentiment surrounding an idealized person or thing."
The "R" represents reality. The halo over the R symbolizes that reality is holy to us. It symbolizes that reality is worthy of devotion. The halo says that we consider reality to be an idealized glorious thing. That is what makes the Church of Reality a religion and not just science or a philosophy.
The moral compass is a set of guidelines as to what is right and wrong. It is not an absolute rule. There are always situations where just about anything is justified, but those are the exceptions. The Moral Compass can be compared to the 10 Commandment from Judaism, where the Sacred Principles can be compared to the one principle in the Christian Bible of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you." It is different from the Sacred Principles in that it is more about policies and positions on specific issues and behavior rather than the reasons behind those policies.
This is called the Moral Compass because it is intended to point you in a direction by citing examples of what is right and wrong so that in any situation you can figure our the right thing to do. It is also a statement to the world of what we find morally reprehensible, challenging other religions and the non-religious to consider where we stand on right and wrong. This represent in part the moral identity of the Church of Reality.
How do we spread the word? How do we convert people to Realism? What kind of reaction should we expect when talking to people about reality? How do we get people to accept reality as their belief system? These are not simple questions. To people like me and many of you reading this, it's confusing to us that everyone isn't a Realist already. To us it's "Reality - Of course! Duh!" But to others it is a much more complex problem because they too think they believe in some form of reality, but it is often a narrative taught to them from early childhood that they have come to rely upon and accept as their world view.
Belief in fictional deities is one of the root axioms that they have built their awareness around and for which a lot of their personal world view relies upon. If they were, for example, to realize that God is fiction then it would change their entire world. Many of their friends will reject them. They might not have a place in their church community anymore. They would have to endure the stigma that other religions have put on Atheism as something that is evil, or a disease, a form of mental illness, something that must be cured. This is a very big step for most people who rely upon the comfort of their place in society and are not willing to put their social position at risk.
The first purpose of the human brain is to survive, not to process logic.
The human mind is not a computer. It is the result of an evolutionary process over billions of years. It's primary purpose is to help ensure the survival of the human species. We are the descendents of those who managed to adhere to that purpose. Those who survived and evolved and reproduced are our ancestors. Those who didn't are not. Thus our minds are biologically programmed for survival, to find food, to defend against enemies, to reproduce and ensure the survival of our children so they too can reproduce, to form societies for the mutual benefit of our mutual survival. Logic and reason are side effects of this neurological process. So the concept of reality might make instant sense to a computer, to a human it's often a difficult concept to grasp.
When you look at the brain as a biological organ rather than a computing device, a lot of human behavior is more understandable. We are a bag of chemicals, not a robot. Changing religions isn't like wiping a hard disk and installing something else. The mind is a living system and it requires more of a migration plan. You can't usually just rewrite everything a person believes in instantly unless they are in some crisis and already looking for an instant change. Change may take time, a lot of time. It might just be gradual over years. It might take centuries. But the process begins now and it is up to us to understand it as best we can so that we can put the world back on a reality based footing and avoid being the victim of some other religion's Extinctionist fantasy.
In a very real sense the Earth is our mother. We are the Children of the Earth. This is where we evolved. Although we like to think of ourselves as independent individuals, the reality is that we are interdependent with the rest of humanity and interdependent with the rest of the life forms on this planet. In a real sense the Earth is a super organism that we are all part of. This is where we evolved from the primordial goo together with all the other life that thrives here.
The Earth is our creator. It gives us life and sustains us. We must maintain her so that she can maintain us.
Because we are part of the life on this planet that all evolved together, we are dependent on the other life on the planet. We eat them for food. Plants produce the oxygen we breathe. Bacteria in our stomachs digest our food for us. Without them we would starve. The Earth is a composite life force composed of all life. It can be seen as a super being that we are all a part of. We are all here together, evolving, trying to survive and improve ourselves.
The Earth is also our home. This is where we live in the universe. This is all we have. And it is up to us to take care of our home so that we can thrive here.
Life on Earth developed through billions of years of evolution. Evolution is a proven fact. We are all Children of the Earth. All life on this planet has a very similar DNA structure and we carry the DNA blueprint of our evolutionary heritage within our genetic code. Evolution is firmly established in science and continues to stand the test of scrutiny and doubt. New technology is allowing us to create a genetic map of ourselves and reconstruct the Tree of Life which is our genetic evolutionary history back through time.
Even in our short life span and our short recorded history we see evolution happening all around us. Farmers use evolution to improve crops and animals through selective breeding. Only a few thousand years ago all dogs were wolves but through selective breeding we now have poodles. If we can evolve a wolf into a poodle in a few thousand years imagine the kind of changes you would see over millions of years.
Evolution is our creator. It is a process that allows us to improve ourselves so that we evolve into a better specie in the future. It is a way that we as a human race can advance ourselves. Humanity has advanced to the point where we can control our own evolution and the evolution of other forms of life on this planet. We have changed the evolution of species of life that we use for food so that they produce more food for us. This evolutionary change has allowed us to evolve so that we no longer have to hunt and gather wild food growing around our physical location. We now go to the grocery store and buy our food. This frees us up so that we can invent new tools and surf the web looking for explanations as to how life got here and why we exist.
What makes the Church of Reality a reality-based religion? After all, can't any religion claim to be a reality-based religion? Is there any objective test to support the claim that a religion is or is not reality based? Does a religion have to get everything right to make a claim to be reality based? Who gets to say what religions are reality based and what religions are not?
We believe that there are some objective tests. In the case of religion, there are two categories or types of religions. There are religions whose doctrines claim to be deity inspired and religions whose doctrines are inspired by humans. Because these two types of claims to reality are very different, we have to create a separate set of rules for each type.
Deity-Based Religions - A deity-based religion assumes that its omnipotent being (we will use the term God(s) to reference all religions' omnipotent beings) is perfect, infallible, and infinitely wise. The religion assumes, also, that their God can communicate with people and has expressed itself, and that their doctrine is an accurate expression of the will of their God. They claim that their religion is reality because it meets these necessary criteria:
That their God is the real God. That it is authentic. That it has established itself as a supreme being and that it is sufficiently omnipotent to be an authority of knowledge of absolute reality.
That God has communicated reality to the human authors of the holy books. That this communication is real, that there is a basis to believe that God used divine powers to make sure that the communication is accurate and complete, and that the communication was fully and accurately incorporated into the holy texts. The holy texts must be believed to be accurate, specific, clear, and not subject to individual interpretation.
That there is a verifiable chain of custody of the holy book and that it wasn't altered or tampered with by anyone who wasn't also divinely inspired. If it was altered, then there is reason to believe that anyone who made an alteration did so as a result of God using them as a conduit to get his changes made, and that the changes can be relied upon. Although, if changes are made, it raises the question of why God didn't get it right the first time. After all, if you are infinitely wise, omnipotent, and you can see the future, then why would any changes be necessary?
The issue of completeness is somehow dealt with. Since all holy books are finite, it must be assumed that the holy book either covers everything or that God is adding new chapters through some divine process. If the book is considered complete, how does it deal with new issues not specifically covered in the holy book? If it relies on humans to act as live interpreters, such as priests or prophets, how do we know that these interpreters are in direct contact with God to ensure that their word actually is God's word and not their own agenda, or even an honest mistake?
If some human fallibility is possible in the religion (mistake), does the religion support a mechanism to correct the mistake? If a priest or prophet gets it wrong through not having a 100% accurate communication link with God, how is the error fixed? If there is room for error, then how does the faith determine the probability of accuracy of doctrine and how do they deal with the deviation from absolute reality?
It would also seem that the doctrine would agree with science and that the word of the deity would tend to be proved to be correct and accurate as human knowledge advances.
As you can see, religions that claim reality based on divine inspiration have a lot of hurdles to deal with to verify their assertion. If a religion is truly divinely inspired, shouldn't there be consistency? Wouldn't God say the same thing to everyone? In reality, for example, the laws of physics apply the same to everyone, every time. If you jump off a tall building you will fall to the ground at the same rate of acceleration and with the same laws of wind resistance as every other object, every time. If an omnipotent being is accurately expressing reality through a supernatural process, wouldn't one expect that the results would be the same? Wouldn't contradiction indicate error? And if there is error, how is that resolved? Who is the true voice of God? If two religions, or two people from the same religion, claim that God is saying opposite things, then at least one of the religions cannot be reality-based.
We believe that in order to pass the reality-based religion test for deity-based religions, members would have a single, consistent voice and be in agreement with each other and with God. That those who speak for the deity would speak with a single voice, and that they would ultimately be proven to be accurate. That the doctrine would be both complete and error-free, that the deity would actually be infallible, and that the communication link with the deity would not be subject to error or mistake.
For example, the Bible would fail these tests for a number of reasons. The Bible expressly claims that its prophets are human and fallible, and are subject to mistakes. The God of the Bible changes its mind even though it is infallible, and claims the ability to know the future. It also gets angry, loses its cool, and destroys the world when aggravated by humans, exhibiting behavior unbecoming of a deity. Thus the Bible fails the reality test.
Human-Based Religions - Human-based religions are religions whose doctrine is clearly created by humans. Some of these religions claim supernatural events and some are based purely on science. But, in a human-based religion, it is accepted in doctrine that the religion was created by people and that there is a probability of error. The Church of Reality is an example of a human-based religion, and one of the few things that we can accept on faith is that we will always have mistakes.
So - if we are wrong, how can we claim to be a reality-based religion? How can we claim reality when we freely admit that some of what we proclaim is just plain dead wrong?
With the assumption of fallibility, the best that a human-based religion can do is to pursue reality. The pursuit of reality is the commitment to explore reality the way it reality is and to change your mind when you find out you were wrong. This means that a reality-based religion that is human based can not be a static religion and have a fixed doctrine. It has to be evolving forward. It has to embrace change. It has to be humble and admit its limitations. And it has to invite scrutiny and maintain a world view that allows and encourages positive evolution.
Even then a reality-based religion is merely an attempt to pursue reality, and the religion has to earn its place in history by being sincere in its pursuit. Since one never achieves reality, one can only make a good chase and record their progress in the Tree of Knowledge so that future generations can build upon their work. We are the Church of Reality only to the extent that we stay sincere to our principles and succeed in actually moving forward.
Some religions have a static doctrine that, for it to be a reality-based religion, it has to be 100% accurate, be totally complete, the deity has to be verifiable, and the doctrine has to be an original work of the deity. For a deity-based religion with a non-static doctrine, it is accepted that the doctrine isn't perfect, isn't the exact word of the deity, but that the doctrine is moving forward toward reality. Something like our Principle of Positive Evolution. Such a religion is both deity based and human based, but the humans know that even if the deity is perfect, the message from the deity is incomplete, or the message is subject to interpretation, or that people might have tampered with the deity's work.
For other religions to qualify as reality based, they have to accept that reality is a process of discovery, and that their religion is flawed. That their religion is, at best, a small subset of reality. That they have an evolutionary process for self-improvement. And - that they have a process for change. Anything short of this and they aren't a reality-based religion. The test for being reality based isn't so much a matter of the status of the current doctrine but the direction the doctrine is heading. It's more of a vector than a location, for those of you who are into geometry.
The Church of Reality by definition is a religion that is based on honesty and truth. We of course have to earn that definition by our deeds but it logically has to be intrinsic to our doctrine. After all, if the name of your religion is the Church of Reality then the name doesn't mean anything without honesty. After all, Reality is by definition the sum of everything that is true. If we start trying to pass off Bullshit as truth then our religion has no meaning. Just because this church has the name Reality on its virtual door doesn't make us real or honest. Integrity has to be more than a slogan. We are obligated to live it for real. We are a church that has to earn its name and if we don't earn it then we don't deserve to keep it.
If the Church of Reality doesn't commit to real reality then our religion has no meaning. We have to earn our name.
The Church of Reality is not an institution as much as it is a dream. If we as an institution stay true to the dream then we really are the Church of Reality. If we stray from the dream and become dishonest and corrupt, then we become the Church of Bullshit and the real Church of Reality will be a church in the minds of those people who stay true to reality and maintain the honesty and integrity that is required to be worthy of the Reality name.
The Church of Reality is different from other religions because it has made Reality its holy responsibility. The word Reality is its Sacred message. "What is Real?" is our Sacred Question. Our first mission is to grow the Tree of Knowledge. Honesty, integrity, truth, responsibility, accountability, scrutiny, these are our core principles. Our name is our message and it is our core belief. Our dharma is our commitment to the truth.
By taking the name Church of Reality we are making a commitment to humanity that we are going to honor the name as a sacred trust.
In taking the name Church of Reality our religion is making a covenant of trust with humanity to live up to that name. The concept of reality is core to the evolutionary advancement of the human race. To abuse this name is a sin against humanity. When a person becomes a Realist they are making a personal commitment to intellectual honesty and personal integrity. This is not a commitment to be taken lightly. We hold a sacred trust by claiming this name and it is our duty to the human race to be trustworthy so that the name has true meaning.
The definition of the word Edict is, "a decree or proclamation issued by an authority and having the force of law". In the Church of Reality edicts are issued by the First One with the supervision of the Council of Realists. The First One can issue an edict and if it goes unchallenged, it becomes the official declarations of the Church of Reality. If the edict is challenged by any member of the Council then the edict stands only if it is supported by a consensus of the Council.
The edicts include a variety of church business. It includes edicts of church law to address issues not specified specifically in doctrine or if there is confusion as to the meaning of church law. The First One can make a declaration to resolve any such issue. Edicts also include appointments of church clergy or other church officials. Edicts can be used to make church declarations relating to current events. Edicts can be used to declare if a war is justified or not. They are used to speak out against things that the church considers wrong or to endorse what the church considers to be good. The edict is the voice of the Church of Reality. It is one of the means by which the church speaks.
Any person, at any time, and anywher, can make the decision to become a realist and dedicate their lives to the truth. Anyone can pursue reality the way it really is. Anyone can give up living the lie right now and join the real world.
Haven’t you ever wondered what is really real? Which religion is the right one? Does God really exist? Did we evolve from pond scum? Is there life on other planets? Are we alone in the universe? Did time and space come from an exploding quantum singularity? Why does anything exist? What is time? Is there a relationship between quantum time and energy? What will humanity know 100 years from now? Did we create reality - or did reality create us?
We support the real answers, the way they really are. Reality is in all of us. You can hear it in your mind - feel it in your heart. Reality is everywhere. It surrounds us. It sustains us. The Church of Reality is dedicated to leading people into the great wonderment, into the understanding of understanding. You know that you want to know - don’t you? If you accept reality, reality can change your life! Are you ready to make a commitment to reality today?
Other religions have a fictional deity so why can't we? The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the creation of Bobby Henderson who wrote a letter to the Kansas School Board about his alternate theory of Intelligent Design. His revelation was that the universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster and he used that to make a point about reality that Intelligent design is just Creationism religious dogma fraudulently repackaged as science.
The Church of Reality adopts the FSM as our fictional deity. As long as we know it is fictional there's no conflict with Realism. Since the FSM was created to make a point about reality it is appropriate that we choose him as our deity.
The Church of Reality also recognizes the Invisible Pink Unicorn. There is much argument as to her exact colour, her shape and size, and other properties of her nonexistence. She burns with anger against theists, and allegedly grinds them beneath her holy hooves. The "believers" famous sayings about faith in the invisible pink unicorn is that, like other religions, it is founded in science and faith. Science - that states that she must be invisible, since we cannot see her. Faith - because we know in our heart that the invisible pink unicorn exists.
The Church of Reality doesn't have its own physical churches. We started out as an Internet-based religion and we are primarily web-based. There is, however, another religion called the Unitarian Universalist that does have churches and have a set of values that are very compatible with our values. The Unitarians have been around for hundreds of years and the cornerstone of their religion is community. Unitarians are so committed to community that they have chosen not to have their own doctrine so that they can be as welcoming as possible to people of other beliefs,and to bring all people together into a single community.
Unitarians and Realists differ in that Realists put reality first and are interested in community. Unitarians put community first and are interested in reality. A physical church is a place where people meet to form a community. The Church of Reality has the Principle of Inclusiveness and one of our missions is to spread our message of reality to the real world. Since Unitarians put community first, it is logical to assume that they will probably be better at community than we are.
Realists and Unitarian Universalists share a lot of the same important values. We have the same moral code and our passions about society are almost identical.
The Unitarians have a guide 100 Questions that Non-Members Ask About, and we can find nothing in their religion that would in any way compromise our values as Realists. Universalists include members of a lot of religions. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Atheists are all welcome, and they agree to respect each other and to work together and exchange ideas. This allows Realists not only to share our views of reality with other people who are interested in reality, but also to learn about people who come from different backgrounds and have opinions that differ from ours. If we had our own churches, we probably wouldn't be as accepting of other people as Unitarians are, and would end up with a far less diverse community. Realists thrive best in a community of intellectual diversity, and if Unitarians can provide better diversity than we can ourselves, then it is reasonable to join with them in their community.
The Unitarian Universalist religion has been around for over 400 years. The Church of Reality is brand new. We have a lot to learn about community and it is an opportunity to learn what they have spent centuries perfecting. We also have the Principle of Humility that helps keep us in our place and keeps us from developing a false sense of self-importance. We believe that sharing a community with people of other religions who share our values will help keep us in line, and if we get off track, they will help keep us real. Someone to call us on our Bullshit.
The name Church of Reality is made up of two words. The word "Church" represents the human element and the word "Reality" is the scientific element. The Church of Reality is the union of humanity with science. It is far too easy to indulge in the science and forget the humanity. Left on our own, we might forget who we are as people and focus on the technology. It is good for us to form community with people who put community first and can help us stay focused on the fact that our religion is not just about reality, but also about people. So we are just going to have to put up with being around where some people worship deities in order to maintain our human perspective. Unitarian Atheists seem quite happy there, so there's no reason we can't thrive there as well.
Unitarian Universalist Principles include:
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth
in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process
within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice
for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which
we are a part.
We, as Realists, share these values. Unitarians aren't exactly like us. But they are close enough. And keep in mind that this is just for those Realists who want to go to a church. Going to church is not in any way required of Realists.
The Sacred Message of the Church of Reality is the word reality. One of the best ways to help promote reality is to help us get more traffic on this web site. The more traffic we get, the more people become aware that the Church of Reality exists. We get this traffic, in part, by people like you linking to our web pages, leaving comments in blogs with links, discussing the Church of Reality on discussion sites, and even - if you want - buying ad space on high traffic sites that attract people who are interested in reality.
The name itself, Church of Reality, is a very powerful message. If this religion was nothing more than a name and a vague concept that it is a religion based on believing in everything that is real, that alone would be powerful. Once people get to know that there is a "Church of Reality" out there, then it challenges other religions on the basis of what is real. How does your religion compare to reality? It gets people to think about reality and every time someone thinks about reality, the world gets a little smarter. And that's one of the things we are here to do, make the world a smarter place to live in. So that's what we need to accomplish. We need to get the word out so that every person on the planet is at least aware that the Church of Reality exists and begins to wonder what a religion would be like that is based on believing in everything that is real.
We in the Church of Reality are fortunate enough to inherit through the Tree of Knowledge some of the wisdom of the ages. One such document is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document written after World War II is a document of peace that is a strong statement for forming the basis of a civilization dedicated to the progress of humanity through Positive Evolution.
From the terrors of war came this decree in which the nations of the world made a personal commitment to each other to form an agreement. An agreement that would bind humanity into a single society where it was agreed to by the nations of this planet that we, as the human race, shall never allow mankind to reach the depths that they came from. The United Nations is an organization that made a commitment to the people of this planet to a path of positive evolution. In order to make it work, great minds met in San Francisco and formed a basis for that peace. That basis is the recognition that the individual has intrinsic value that gives them fundamental rights. These rights are spelled out herein.
This covenant between the nation-states of the Earth, prohibits torture, slavery, arbitrary arrests, government spying, false imprisonment, the right to participate in government, the right to have our own opinions, practice our religion, to be educated, to be secure in our persons and property, to associate, and to speak out. We in the Church of Reality commit as a religion to make it our dharma to help humanity uphold these values.
The Church of Reality shares these same values in our Sacred Principles. We see the Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point. This is a foundation on which to build a world where humanity will flourish. The Church of Reality hereby incorporates this document into our Kernel to become part of our Church Doctrine which establishes our Religious Rights.
The contents, word for word, matches the original except that the articles are titled for clarification of subject matter.
The Church of Reality discourages its members from participating in national pledges and any state sponsored public pledges of loyalty to the nation-state. Individual members may of course choose to participate if they want to because the Church of Reality's position does not take precedence over individual choice. We do however advise against it for a variety of reasons and we urge our members to consider these reasons when faced with participating in state sponsored acts of national loyalty.
Realists are a free people. We are citizens of the human race. We the people form nation-states for the purpose of creating organization in society so as to serve the interests of the people. Our position is that the nation-state is always subservient and the people are always dominant. A nation-state that requires patriotic acts such as the reciting of a pledge is asserting a position that the state is dominant over the people. That position is incompatible with our Sacred Principle of Freedom, one of our core religious beliefs.
State led acts of patriotism, even when voluntary, undermine our culture, our principles, our way of life. It asserts that the nation state is a super being that has dominion over its people. When the state sponsors public displays of loyalty to itself, it forces through group coercion, a method used to instill cult-like behavior, the individual, to either comply or to be perceived by others that the individual is intentionally not participating. This causes the individual to be subject to group ridicule as people form opinions as to why the individual refuses to participate. This is an invasion of the individual's Right to Privacy in that others might perceived this person as an enemy of the State.
We therefore encourage all Realists to refuse state sponsored patriotic acts, whether seemingly voluntary or coerced, on the basis of religious freedom as a statement that Realists believe in the dominance of the people over the nation-state. We believe that it would be more appropriate for public servants to recite a pledge to the people, to affirm at the start of every work day that they have the wisdom to better serve the people.
The Church of Reality is based on the principle that a person has self ownership. We have ownership rights to our own lives; the right to make our own choices, the right to control our own lives, to make our own important decisions, to be in control of our own bodies, to own property, to have opinions, and to express those opinions. It's about my life, my choice, my thoughts, my body, my property, my religion, my friends, my family, my lovers, my groups, my hobbies, my mistakes, my responsibilities, my survival, my appearance, my identity. I own it - it is mine to control. It is the ownership of oneself.
So - what does this mean? Why is it such a big deal? Owning oneself as opposed to what? Self ownership is an important concept in the Church of Reality because we live in a world where people are programmed to be submissives and to surrender their ownership of themselves to others. The Church of Reality asserts that people should take back self control and repossess themselves by asserting their rights to self ownership and resisting the oppressors that currently enslave them.
Have you ever asked yourself if you are truly free? Or do you assume that you are free because the government tells you to believe that? Some people believe that God or Jesus or Mohammed owns them; that they have willfully given their lives over to a higher cause. A person has the right to choose to devote their existence to a higher calling. I myself have chosen to develop the Kernel of the Church of Reality. I own myself. I'm not part of any cult. My life, my choice. Even if it's the wrong choice, it is my choice to make.
The Church of Reality takes the position that individuals own themselves. We are not a religion that requires that you surrender yourself to us. Cults want you to surrender your will to them. We are not a cult and hope to never become one. We do not control you, nor do we want to control you. We have enough of a job controlling ourselves. We want you to be individualistic, to be a thinker, to be innovative, to be who you are and to bring your ideas and your uniqueness into the community of Realists and share with us as a coequal member of society. We are a team model where members learn from us as we learn from them. But we retain control of our own lives.
To illustrate the issue of self control I found this article that had this illustration.
Perhaps I can best make my point by referring to an experience I had nearly twenty years ago, in one of my classrooms. In one of the segments of Constitutional Law that I taught, I asked my students whether the Constitution had any legitimacy. "On what basis does the United States government presume to rule you?," I rephrased the question. This question took us into a discussion of the subject of "authority." During the course of this discussion, a young man began to ask a series of questions:
"But how else are we going to live, if we don't follow others' [i.e., authorities]?"
"Do you understand how allowing others to direct your thinking and your actions produces conflict within yourself?", I asked.
"Yes, I think so," the young man responded.
"Would you like to learn how to live your life in a more self-directed way, without relying on ‘authorities’ to tell you how to do so?", I inquired.
"Yes," my student answered.
"How will you find out?", I asked.
"By asking you," he replied.
"Let me make certain I understand you: are you saying that you are now aware of how you have allowed others to control your thinking and actions by accepting these people as ‘authorities’ over you?"
"Yes," he responded.
"And now you are asking me to tell you how to stop living this way and take control over your own life? Can I make you a self-directed person?"
There was a long silence, during which one could almost see what was going on in this student’s mind. Finally he declared: "I guess this means that it’s up to each one of us, doesn't it?"
"Do you need me to answer this question for you?", I asked.
"No," my student answered.
The point here is that the Church of Reality can open the cage door and invite you to freedom, but you have to decide to walk out of the cage and own your freedom. Why have free speech if you don't speak out? Owning yourself isn't just a right, it's a discipline.
I am Marc Perkel, founder of the Church of Reality. Originally I wasn't going to write this section because the Church of Reality is about reality and not about Marc Perkel. I thought I could passively deemphasize myself but I think I should actively do so. And - there seems to be curiosity about who started this and how I came to be in the position that I am in. So I will try to address all that so that we can get past it and back to reality.
It would be easier if I were a God or a prophet of some omnipotent all wise invisible cloud being who spoke pure wisdom through me but I'm not. I'm just a guy with an idea and doing a lot of hard work in the real world to try to solve a big problem. I have no special powers. I am not the smartest person on the planet and even if I were - that's not saying much.
Most other religions have their pitfalls and I look around at Scientology and Objectivism for example and it's clear that I don't want to see the Church of Reality end up like them. Consequently, I'm trying to take every step I can to point the CoR in the right direction so that after I'm gone this religion doesn't degenerate into some awful cult that has nothing to do with it's original purpose.
Scientology was started by a science fiction writer as a scam to sucker people into giving him money in the name of religion and hasn't changed even though the original scammer is dead. Objectivism was started by Ayn Rand who got it right about objective reality and then went off track in proclaiming the virtues of democracy and the virtues of greed. She had a huge ego and if you didn't agree with her she considered you mentally impaired. Ayn Rand is dead now, but her inflated ego lives on in her followers, who accurately mimic the worst aspects of her personality. And that's something that scares me because I have several personality disorders myself. I am not a role model and there are some things worth learning about me but for the most part, don't imitate me. Don't turn me into an Ayn Rand!
The Church of Reality is about Reality - not Marc Perkel. There is nothing special about Marc Perkel.
I am not a religious leader because it's something I want to do. Like many of you, I don't like religion. It scares me for all the same reasons that it scares you. I started doing this because the religious insanity scares me even more. I don't want to be marched into church at gun point and forced to pray to a fictional deity as some people on the planet would like if they get control. I want to live in a sane world where I can spend my time contemplating string theory and building a better world than having to constantly fight off power grabs by Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cults. In fact I think my disdain for religion in general is a good sign because it makes me less interested in religious abuse. I'm not interested in doing your thinking for you. I just want you all to take care of yourselves so that someday I can live a peaceful quiet life.
What is a Gospel? What does the word Gospel mean? The word Gospel means the good news. The good news is about the future. A gospel is a message of promise and hope for things to come and we in the Church of Reality have a gospel because we look forward to a wondrous future for the human race--a future that we as Realists will help create.
Humanity is at a critical point in our evolution. For the last 3 billion years we have been the result of the Earth's evolutionary process. The events of our planet have caused us to occur and evolve. We used to be another species that life moved forward. We survived. We endured. For millions of generations life on this planet improved itself through selection processes. Those who survived and thrived became our ancestors. Those who didn't became food. We evolved communication and the ability for humans to network our minds together into a Tree of Knowledge so that we can explore the universe. As our knowledge grew and our technology increased we developed an awareness of our existence and a quest for understanding of who we are, why we are here, and what our place in the universe is. Humanity has evolved the ability to ask the Sacred Question, "What is Reality?"
Humanity has arrived at a wondrous point in our evolution. We are at the point where we can build machines to allow us to do things that no biological being on this planet has ever done. We can leave this planet and travel to the Moon. We can explore other worlds by launching equipment into space. We can alter genetics to grow the plants and animals we use as food to suit our needs. We build computers that greatly expand our minds and our human network. We are on the verge of altering our genetics so that we will be able to create new life forms that are better than what we are. We are in a position to choose what we will become. We are the creators of the future of our species.
Our future is what we choose to make it. We can and will take control of our evolution and decide what we will become. There is a price however. We need to choose wisely. We need to take responsibility for our future and our evolution. To do that, we are going to have to embrace reality and put out the effort to think things through. That is a reasonable price to have the power to control our evolutionary destiny.
The Church of Reality is a religion dedicated to the pursuit of reality and evangelizing the importance of making reality part of one's daily life. The word "reality" is the "Sacred Message" because when you say "reality" it causes people to think about reality, and whenever a person thinks about reality they are being "Real in the Sacred Moment".
The religion recognizes what it calls the "Tree of Knowledge" which represents the sum total of all human understanding. They believe that people expand their understanding of reality through growing the Tree of Knowledge which increases their understanding of the universe they live in. The process of growing the Tree of Knowledge is called "Positive Evolution", moving humanity forward in what they call the "Sacred Direction". The Church of Reality is a forward looking religion dedicated to making the future better than the past through making tomorrow better than today.
The Church of Reality is an "Open Source Religion" modeled after open source software projects. It has an evolving doctrine. The doctrine, called the "Kernel", is seen as the operating system of the human race. The Church of Reality currently has 21 Sacred Principles embracing concepts like Evolution, Exploration, Honesty, Freedom, Peace, Courage, Environmentalism, Compassion, Communication, Justice, Inclusiveness, Scrutiny, Humility, Reason, Wisdom, Responsibility, no Bullshit, Activism, Privacy, Historical Preservation, and Humor. These principles form the basis for morality, right and wrong, without the reliance on an omnipotent rule maker.
The Church of Reality does not worship anything or believe in fictional deities. As to God, the short answer is that they are Atheists. The longer answer is that if God shows up in objective reality then he will be considered real. The Church has however embraced the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn as official fictional deities. This being ok because they are known to be fictional.
The Church of Reality is a doubt based rather than a faith based religion. Members are "Explorers" rather than followers. People are expected to think for themselves. They believe in "Original Virtue" rather than original sin and recognize that most people are good people trying to do the right thing to be a productive member of a healthy society. The Church of Reality sees themselves as being members of the human race which includes everyone on the planet. They also see themselves as being part of the "Tree of Life" which includes every living organism in the world. The Tree of Life includes the Earth's evolutionary heritage all the way back to the pond scum that all life evolved from and a wonderment as to what we will evolve into in the future.
The Church of Reality is the exploration of reality by humans. It's not a religion about science, it's a religion about people. The Church of Reality is humanity exploring the universe, creating the great societies that allow people to explore reality together, and taking control of human evolution allowing humanity to determine what people will become and taking responsibility for our actions.
The Church of Reality also gives Realists a religious identity. It challenges other religions on the basis of what is real and causes people to think about reality and compare their beliefs to reality. One of the "Sacred Missions" is to affect the evolution of other religions away from Armageddon towards a more positive future of peace and productivity. The name is the religion and the religion is the name. Reality always was and always will be. Reality is eternal and it isn't going away. Reality doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. The Church of Reality may well be the next stage in the evolution of religion.
This section contains press information that can be used to describe the Church of Reality saving reporters the time and energy to extract all this material themselves.
Unfortunately life doesn't come with an owner's manual and the reality is that we're here and we have to figure out what we are going to do with our lives for ourselves. Many teens expect the adult world to have reality figured out and teach them what to do. And it's great when that happens. Unfortunately the human race hasn't yet evolved to the point where we have those kind of answers and teens are often disillusioned with adults and go off and make bad choices for lack of guidance and good information. All I can say is - sorry, and hope that the Church of Reality can provide some information to help you get a good start on life.
Although this advice is aimed at teens there's good advice here for people of all ages. So if you're older or younger and you find this information useful then that's great. Unlike many religions this isn't about being preachy and telling you about all kinds of cool stuff that you can't do. You as the reader however should think about what you see here and see if it applies to you. And if we get it wrong or you have ideas about new and better things to add, you get to participate. reality is for everyone, including teens. We want to hear your ideas and your perspective.
The Church of Reality is a religion about the exploration of reality both individually and collectively. It is about increasing our understanding of ourselves individually, our human society, and the universe that we live in. In order to do that we contemplate everything we can find to try to understand all of it. We explore reality through individual and collective contemplation.
We live in a universe that is incredibly complex and infinitely interesting. We want to understand it all, comprehend it all. Why does anything exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? So here we are, what do we do now? What do I do with my life? We explore reality with our minds. Everything is interesting to us. What we are, who we are, and what we will become starts through contemplation.
Contemplation is a sacred act in the Church of Reality. Some religions pray, some religions meditate. We contemplate. Contemplation makes the mind stronger and it reprograms you to live a reality based life. It enforces the habit of critical thinking.
This list of course doesn't represent everything that can be contemplated. This is more of a starting point to cover most things. You can also contemplate this list as to whether other contemplations should be added.
What we call marriage has different meaning to different people and different groups of people. Marriage laws and traditions vary from nation to nation and what marriage means differs from religion to religion. The way some religions define marriage and the way some governments define marriage is totally incompatible with the Church of Reality lifestyle which give individuals far more freedom to live their lives as they choose.
The marriage tradition reflects the evolution of life on earth and human evolution. As we all know we reproduce through human sexual reproduction and everyone one of us has a biological male father and a biological female mother. Science may one day change that but that is how we have and currently reproduce. Marriage has also been defined by other religions when the virgin marriage monogamy model has been promoted with a lifelong commitment and fornication and adultery are considered to be serious sins.
The human race has and continues to evolve and we have through science greatly extended our lives and greatly reduced the amount of effort we put out to just survive. Thus a lifetime commitment is a lot longer than it used to be. Infant mortality is down so women don't have to have many children hoping a few survive. Because of transportation and communication we are no longer limited to having relationships within the immediate local community. And because of our survival successes, excessive reproduction has become a threat to our continuing survival rather than a necessity. But without sexual reproduction humanity would become extinct.
The Church of Reality Sacred Principles includes the Principle of Inclusiveness. Every one of us is part of us. All of us are fully equal members of society and we do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In our religion, same sex relationship are not a sin. And it doesn't matter if people are born that way or if they choose to be that way. We believe in Self Ownership, where we make our own choices to write our own Life Story. Thus unless an activity is harmful to society as a whole, such as in forcible rape, forced sexual slavery, or sex with minors, we consider sexual orientation to be a lifestyle choice.
Although the Church of Reality supports multiple life styles by choice, the reality is that humanity also depends on reproduction to survive. Parenting children is an important issue and is related to, but not dependent upon, the issue of marriage. Sometimes heterosexuals pair off in lifelong bonds having children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all in a close knit biological family. But more often than not, children are raised by single parent as a result of divorce, death, or pregnancy that resulted from a sexual encounter between people not in a committed relationship.
Many children are raised by adopted parents or communities of people who are not biologically related, but are as committed to a successful upbringing of the next generation. In the Church of Reality we consider the future to be our Sacred Direction. But "the future" we mean the Positive Evolution of the human race. Thus humanity has to reproduce responsibly and we have to raise our children as best we can.
Marriage is a complex issue involving long term commitment, trust, love, and pair bonding. It involves children and generational issues. It involves sex and sexual preferences. And it involves the law and social norms. Defining it in the context of the Church of Reality is challenging.
The Sacred Covenants is a commitment of the institution of the Church of Reality to the world that we will maintain our missions and goals so that the Church of Reality doesn't evolve into something other that what it was intended to be. People have often asked about the future of the Church of Reality. They wonder if it will become corrupt. They wonder if it will evolve into something that it never should have evolved into. They wonder if the church will be able to maintain its integrity.
These are serious and legitimate concerns and we take these concerns seriously. We don't want to turn into some horrible religion that is different than what we intended so we are trying to take steps in these early stages so that the Church of Reality will always be the Church of Reality and not some messed up religion that is using reality as a marketing label.
One advantage that the Church of Reality has over fiction based religions is that we are tied to reality itself. So if we get off track we have something solid to compare ourselves to. Fiction based religions don't have that advantage. If a religion is founded on fiction and the fiction changes then who is to say which fiction is better? But if you have a basis in reality then you have something to test against to tell if you are off course. Reality is like a lighthouse that guides us back.
However, as humans pursuing reality we are often confused and misled. It's easy to be tempted into compromising reality in order to be more popular or politically correct. So it is useful to build in safeguards and reminders into church doctrine because the dedication to reality as it really is has value and deserves protection. To that end we have the Principle of Scrutiny to encourage the public to watch us to make sure we stay clean. The Principle of Humility helps us resist the temptations of self importance.
A covenant is an agreement and a promise that one expects to be held to. It is a way of giving your word in the expectation that the promise will be kept. It creates a bond between entities for which people can rely upon. It forms the basis for trust. The Sacred Covenants are the promises of the Church of Reality to the people of the world that we will stick to our values. The Church however exists as a work of humanity and is not something that is divinely created or inspired. The church is its members and the members are the church. Therefore this is also the covenant of the members of the Church of Reality to the church to keep our religion clean and on track.
Every religion has a culture. There is a standard of behavior that is considered to be a template or role model that a member of the religion should aspire to. The Church of Reality is no different. Our religion is about people and the communities we form together. Since humans don't come with instructions we have to figure out the instructions on our own. We do so based on the values and goals of the Church of Reality.
Our cultural identity defines who we are in the world community.
Unlike some religions that are based upon what you believe in, the Church of Reality is based on what you do. You are what you do and what you do becomes your Life Story. Our morals and ethics are reality based rather than scripture based. We have to figure out right and wrong for ourselves and the understanding of ethics is a continuous and evolving process. We will never get it right. We can always make it better. To that end we produced this list of things that we generally consider to be good traits and things we consider to be bad traits.
These are not hard and fast rules that you are required to adhere to. In fact, there may be some aspects that you disagree with. There may also be situations where the rules don't apply. The idea here is to create an overall picture or template of what a Realist should aspire to. It's a collection of suggestions to teach people about what is likely to be the right way to live. And it is also a public statement to people of other religions as to what kind of people we are and what our values are.
It is often stated by theistic religions that good and bad are defined by their deity. That, if the deity goes away, then right and wrong go away and chaos ensues. Without commandments nothing will stop people from slaughtering each other in a "survival of the fittest" evolutionary frenzy where the strong males kill the weak males and mate with the females in an evolutionary frenzy. These fears are unfounded because right and wrong don't come from deities and we survive best as a society. Our world view is that our morals are superior to theistic moral systems because our values are reality based and they are evolving. If we get it wrong, we fix it. But if scripture gets it wrong, you're stuck with the mistake forever.
Therefore if you are thinking about making the move to Realism, you are not going to have to give up moral standards. In fact the standards we hold are an upgrade from that of any other religion. And if we find another religion that has better standards than ours, we'll learn from them and copy theirs. So even though we are Atheists, we are good people. Realists are the kind of people you want to have as your neighbors. We are a people who you can trust. We are good for society and good for civilization. Even if you are not a Realist, these are good values to apply to any religion.
One of the things that distinguish the Church of Reality from other religions is that we embrace understanding. We want to understand everything. Our religion starts where understanding starts. Most religions start where understanding stops.
There are two kinds of religions. There are religions based on faith and religions based on understanding. The religions are opposite in a sense because you don't need faith to believe in anything that can be understood through logic and reason. To have faith is to decide that you are not going to try to understand what you believe in because understanding would undermine faith.
Faith is a decision to loyally believe in something regardless of whether or not it is true. Understanding is excluded because if you try to understand it and you determine it isn't true then you are expected to abandoned your reason and believe in it anyway. The Abrahamic religions require one to turn their back on understanding, and it's in their holy book.
One thing that the Church of Reality has in common with Judiasm, Christianity and Islam is the concept of the Tree of Knowledge. The Tree of Knowledge in the Bible is called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The concept of describing the world in terms of Good and Evil is to experience reality through your emotions. Good and Evil are emotional evaluations. This feels good, that feels bad. These are emotional evaluations. One experiences and evaluates right and wrong with the "heart".
In their book the Earth was created in 6 days. After creation God creates Eve and they are told of the forbidden tree called the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" and it is forbidden to eat of the Tree. But they disobey God and Satan (the evil one) seduces Eve and causes her to seduce Adam to defy God and partake of knowledge. Thus the Bible makes the pursuit of understanding a sin.
Our religion has a Tree of Knowledge too, but we aren't a religion that relies on emotional states and the imagination as our way of interfacing with reality. Instead of Good and Evil our Tree of Knowledge is something we embrace. It is the sum total of human understanding. Our Tree is the separation of Truth and Fiction. The Tree is our connection to each other. It is our common link to humanity. We depend on the Tree and we are dedicated to the Principle of Positive Evolution making sure that the future is better than today.
What is the Church of Reality? What makes it a religion? What do Realists believe in? Why should I become a Realist?
The name Church of Reality is the short definition of what we are and a statement of our mission. The Church of Reality is a religion based on the axiom that the pursuit of the understanding of reality by humans has value. Realism is a world view and a philosophy of life. Our beliefs are based on what actually is real. Since no person knows all of reality our religion is based on the pursuit of reality as it really is. Realism is a religious identity and a culture of people who put reality first above all other beliefs and philosophies. Realism is the pursuit of the understanding of real reality as it really is.
If you think this concept is simple and that our entire religious philosophy can fit on a bumper sticker, you are in for a pleasant surprise. This religion is far deeper and more interesting than you can imagine. Although it has roots in a simple concept -- the pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is -- you will find new concepts here that you've not yet seen anywhere else. As you embrace the concepts presented here, you will find them both interesting and fascinating, and well worth your time. These reality-based concepts are a lot to comprehend and we hope that no matter what your background, you will take the time to read the vast amount of material presented here. Realism is both deep and rich and is as full a religion as any other religion on the planet.
Our gift is to give you something to think about.
If you are a member of some other religion and are trying to assess what we are, we welcome you to read on. We believe that all religions better themselves the more they embrace reality. We are a church of reality evangelists and we want everyone to spend time thinking about reality, talking about reality, and exploring reality along with us. And, if you believe in something and what you believe in is real, we are interested. Our religion incorporates concepts from many other religious disciplines, philosophies, and world views. We are always looking for new ideas that we can add to our Kernel. We are a culture of listeners and thinkers especially when we are talking about what is real. We can be "converted" and accept a new truth as long as you can demonstrate this truth using the Sacred Method, which means that you can prove your point using science and reason.
We believe that thinking about reality is good for you no matter what your religious beliefs.
However, it is our hope that we can inspire you to think about reality and to more fully make reality part of your life. After all, if what you believe in is real, and you believe that it is important for you to believe in something that's real, then thinking about reality and talking about reality should be no threat to your belief system. In our religion the word Reality is our Sacred Message. Our world view is that every time the word Reality is spoken, the world becomes a little smarter. Whenever people discuss reality that is for us Communion. So your reading of our Kernel is taking communion with us and we appreciate you taking the time to read this and making the Church of Reality part of your Life story.
The first step in learning about Realism is to learn the Vocabulary of Reality. Like other religions we have our own vocabulary to express new concepts in our religion. As you learn these new words and the concepts behind them you will more fully understand who we are as a culture and the foundation we are creating upon which to build this religion.
We were created by reality and we are trying to understand our creator just like every other religion.
What is a religion? A religion is a community of people who share a common world view and a set of moral values and have a set of common goals that attempt to give humanity an understanding of our place in the universe. Like other religions we ask who we are, how did we get here, and what is our role in existence. We are the creation of reality and we are trying to understand our creator, just like every other religion. Since we are part of reality and we are aware of reality and trying to understand reality, it can be said that reality understands itself through us. Each of us is a portal through which reality itself becomes aware of its own existence and reality understands itself through us. We seek to understand the understanding of understanding, and to know real reality as it really is. We come together as a community to share our individual knowledge so that we might all understand ourselves as a people and as a planet.
Many religions believe in the supernatural. We do not. We are a Reality Based Religion. It's a concept that takes some time to get used to. When you were young at some point you learned that a whale was not a fish, that it was in fact a mammal. That was hard to understand because we all knew that mammals had fur and lived on the land, and things that lived in the sea and had fins were fish. Similarly not all religions believe in deities or things that defy logic and science. This is one of the many new concepts to ponder in our religion. But this concept shouldn't be that foreign because, if you are of some other religion and if what you believe in is real, then you have the same problem we do. So if your religion is a real religion, then our religion must also be a real religion.
In the course of human evolution humanity has evolved speech and the ability to communicate complex thoughts and ideas. Over time this speech evolved to include writing allowing knowledge to be stored externally from the human mind. Through writing the Tree of Knowledge expanded greatly and people learned who to read and write so that then could receive knowledge and give knowledge back to the Tree.
Humanity continued to evolve past just writing. In the late 19th century and 20th century humanity developed the ability to record audio and video, and those recordings can and are being reproduced and distributed. Now in the last few decades humanity has developed the Internet which is our new more powerful repository of the Tree of Knowledge, the sum total of human understanding is now stored on the net.
One's computer is an extension of or physical brain and our thoughts are stored in both places.
We use computers, personal computers, as a tool to interface with our stored knowledge and to allow us to communicate with each other. It is also a tool where we store our important writing, papers, ideas, inventions, thoughts, and messages from those who we have a relationship with. Our computer(s) are an extension of our mind and that are as much a part of us as our body is.
Our thoughts are who we are and because of evolution we have evolved to the point where our thoughts are not limited to our physical mind. In the Church of Reality our data stored on our computers is considered to be part of what is stored in our minds. Our computer(s) are part of our brains. The thoughts in our minds and our data and software on our computers are considered part of the mind of the individual.
Realists have as one of our Sacred Principles the Principle of Privacy. This principle applies to the greatest extent to our thoughts and the workings of our minds. In our world view our minds are who we are and our computer(s) are part of our minds. In fact to a large extent the part of our mind that is stored on our computer(s) is what lives on after our biological mind is gone. Our would view is the mind is the soul of the individual and that our computer(s) are part of that soul. It is more intimately part of us that any part of our physical body and is our most private place.
As individuals writing our Life Story we need the privacy of our thoughts to make good decisions, or bad decisions, as to how we will live our life. We are a strongly individualistic religion promoting cultural diversity and experimentation of thoughts and ideas. Our world view is strongly in favor of freedom of ideas and a culture that supports unusual people who are resourceful and innovative.
Often in our history we see examples where the greatest among us were the ones that had a vision of the future which was contrary to culture and in some cases the law. People like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela were individuals who dreamed a bigger dream where all people had equal rights. There are people in society today who are on the fringe of the cultures they live in who will one day allow the oppressed to rise up and take their rightful places in society. But for them to succeed they will need the protections of law that make the difference between them succeeding in furthering the evolution of humanity or if they will be killed. If the Indian government had seized Gandhi's computer, India might still be part of the British Empire.
Since our core missions in the Church of Reality are based on the Positive Evolution of humanity and that we all aspire to be like Gandhi, King, and Mandela, our minds, our thoughts, must be protected. And since our computers are part of our minds, for a nation state to search our computers is morally equivalent to them searching our brains. Our minds are the most intimate part of our bodies and we consider a forced search of our minds as more horrific than rape.
We don't know why (at this time) that anything exists. But for some reason there is something rather than nothing and we are part of existence. Reality created us and here we are. Now what do we do? Does our existence matter? Do we have a purpose? Or are we just pond scum on a planet that is but a speck of dust in the Universe? One planet amongst a trillion trillion planets.
Our existence might be totally insignificant or we might be the only life form that ever existed that has made it this far. We simply do not know and at this point and we have no way to know. We could just sit here and watch our planet orbit the sun 80 times till we die or we can choose to dedicate our lives to some purpose which might in the long run be meaningless but might have some meaning to us. We can at least choose to attempt to give meaning to an otherwise meaningless existence.
So here we are. We exist. So what are we going to do?
The purpose of a religion is to give some sort of meaning and understanding of our existence and our roll in the universe. As a reality based religion we don't have the benefit of an omnipotent rule giver who writes an owner's manual for us. Nor can we just make something up out of thin air. We have to have somewhere to start, a root axiom, that isn't arbitrary. We have to start with some sort of premise than makes sense. Something that we can explain in a way that stands up to Scrutiny.
In this section we lay the groundwork for the purpose of the Church of Reality by creating a root axiom that becomes a starting point that we can build on. In our case we are the observer. We exist. If we want to continue to exist and be the observer we have to survive. Our existence is valuable to us, and if we as a species are going to continue then we have to protect our status as a member of reality by continuing to exist. If we become extinct then we are no longer in the game and we become meaningless.
Thus our root axiom must include our survival, the survival of humanity. To survive we have to understand ourselves and the universe we exist in. We need to create a purpose for our existence and figure out what tools we have to work with. Once we have a root axiom in place we can build on that to create a platform for the Positive Evolution of the human race. It becomes the fundamental great truth that we can build upon as the basis for society, law, government, ethics, and morality.
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.
The national debt in the United States at this time is an artificial construct that creates an ownership class and a debtor class which artificially owes a great debt to the super rich. This relationship creates a form of debt driven slavery where the ownership class controls the slave class with debt. In the case of the United States at this time the debt is an artificial construct that is created by and imbalanced taxation system that favors the ownership class.
In 2000 the ownership class that controls the Supreme Court appointed President Bush who in turn managed to pass a series of huge tax cuts for the ownership class. This imbalance in taxation allows those at the top to pay a far lower percentage of tax than that of the working class, especially when you take income and payroll taxes together. This led to the reversal of the surplus left by the Clinton administration into a huge deficit.
The artificial imposition of debt is a form of slavery that we must not allow.
It of course wasn't just tax cuts for the rich that fueled the deficit. We had an incompetent president, two wars, and lots of bad policy that just wasted trillions of dollars. But because the ownership class got the huge tax cuts, they were able to use their money to extend their control over government and the infrastructures of society giving them stronger control.
So instead of getting tax revenue form the super rich we are now borrowing money from them. The government still gets their money either way. But when we get it in the form of a loan rather than a tax it creates and artificial debt that the slave class is obligated to pay back. So instead of balancing the budget we load the country up with artificial debt, and that debt creates the mechanism that allows the ownership class to enslave the rest of us and force us to give up our assets to pay off this debt that was artificially created.
In the period before the financial collapse of 2008 the ownership class was draining the wealth of this nation through artificial economic constructs credit default swap derivatives. Banks loaned money to people who they knew couldn't pay back the loans and because money was being handed out without controls real estate values soared to 2.5 times their normal value. Thus for families who wanted to buy a home to actually live in, they had to pay 2.5 times as much as they should have. That excess money went directly into the pockets of the ownership class.
Additionally the ownership class used their excess money to buy commodity futures like food and gasoline artificially inflating those prices. In 2008 $2.50 of the cost of every gallon of gas went to the ownership class. We now know this because in 2008 when all the investment banks failed the price of gasoline dropped $2.50 a gallon within weeks. All of a sudden the average person driving to work got to buy gas for what it was really worth.
The 2008 collapse also brought housing back down to what it was really worth. Within a few months the price of homes dropped 60% to the levels we see today. All of a sudden those who had no chance of owning a home all of a sudden could buy one. That is if you were lucky enough to be able to get the credit to borrow the money.
The 2008 collapse however resulted in another huge transfer of wealth to the ownership class. That's when the bailouts occurred which resulted in the bailouts. We handed out trillions of dollars to cover the investments of the ownership class to keep the banking system from failing. The excesses of the Bush administration nearly brought the world economy to a state of total collapse. In the panic to recover we passed out trillion, just gave it away, and added that to the public debt that the rest of us all have to pay. The ownership class tightened it's grip on the slave class. We borrowed from the rich to give money to the rich and now we have to pay the rich back for the money we borrowed - plus interest.
Then in 2010 the Supreme Court in their infamous "Citizens United" decision changed the principle of one person one vote to one dollar one vote. This has changed the political structure giving the ownership class control of the elections. They control the government - they spend it into debt - and then they foreclose on our freedoms creating an artificial construct where we owe them and they control the terms of the debt demanding we give up our freedoms.
One person one vote has now become one dollar one vote.
Gas and food prices are rising again due to commodities speculation. They can borrow money from the Federal Reserve at 0% interest to fund these investments, and we taxpayers have to pay interest on this money to fund them. The poor are paying welfare to the rich.
You may be asking - what does this have to do with the Church of Reality. The simple answer is - everything. This is a critical time in the evolution of humanity and we have to ensure that we protect our future. Slavery is the wrong solution for the evolution of the human race.
The Church of Reality starts with the Root Axiom that our continued existence is important. That through us the universe contemplates its own existence. We are reality becoming aware of itself. We have to continue to Evolve Forward, to increase our understanding of reality, and continue to exist so that we don't find ourselves Out of the Game.
To that end we Realists need to protect the structure of society itself so that we all evolve forward and that we not only continue to exist - but we thrive. In order to do that we have to make corrections in the structure of society to makes sure we don't end up on the Path of Destitution and Destruction.
A Better Way Forward
The Church of Reality opposes the direction towards an ownership/slave class society but rather one that is economically fair and competitive and has a safety net so that we can bring as many people on board and into a productive role as possible. A fair stable society allows humanity to have more Telescope Time to explore the universe and better understand reality to evolve forward.
We can not allow humanity to evolve into a slavery based society.
Although perhaps some day a society without money would be best, in the short term we need a balance between incentives where individuals get wealthy buy creating systems of value to society (capitalism), and providing opportunity and security for the masses (socialism). This structure is actually better for the wealthy because our total wealth is not a zero sum game. When we allow more people to be creative and work together for the whole we grow the total wealth of society through invention. Happy people who live in a sane stable society do better than slaves and there's more to go around.
We realist need to work to make this a better world and make sure we stay on track. We therefore have to do whatever we can to stop a small group of super wealthy individuals from ruling the planet. The first step is to spread this information and to unite the people of the world to commit to a fair society that we all can participate in. We have to come together to stop the meme and to not accept this artificial debt and take the financial infrastructure back and put it under the control of the people.
I ask all to link to this documents and to rise up and resist slavery.
Does humanity have a role in the universe or do we simply just exist? Many other religions define a role for humans, to worship and glorify a deity, and they challenge the Reality based Community to answer the question, "Why should humanity exist?" Does humanity have a purpose? Are we here for a reason? Is there something we have to accomplish? And if there is, can that reason be derived purely from science and logic? As it turns out - yes it can. Humanity does have a place in the universe and a science based goal. And when you understand it you will understand that our existence is far richer than any other religion has yet imagined. We have a purpose, and our purpose is clear. Let us now examine what that purpose is and how it is derived.
Yes! The good news is humanity does have a purpose in the Universe.
Before we answer this question, let us first appreciate the question we are asking. Let us suppose these three scenarios:
A superior race of space aliens lands on Earth and they are weeding out our section of the galaxy and they say to us, "Why should we let you exist? What purpose do you serve?" And if we don't come up with a good enough answer, they are going to wipe us out of existence."
We create a race of robots that have superior abilities to us and become a child race of humanity and they look at us asking the question, "Why are you still around?"
Since computing power doubles every year by the end of the century computers will be trillions of times smarter than we are today. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil predict that in the year 2028 that computers will exceed the human brain. At some point computers will be able to reengineer themselves, making improvements to their own design. These improved computers will be able to make themselves even better. They will control their own evolution.
Since we know that something like that will happen and that it is likely that they will become their own life form, what values should we pass on to them that will become the guiding principles of their evolution? What will we teach them about their role in the universe? And in order to teach them, maybe we need to figure out our role in the universe first.
Why are we as a people worth saving? If humanity has no greater purpose then for what reason do we deserve to continue to exist?
And, of course, one of the other reason for answering the "What the Hell are we doing here?" question is that I'm tired of the faith based religious community laughing at us saying that without some deity that we have no purpose for existence and that life has no meaning. We are after all the Church of Reality and anything they can do we can do better. Figuring our humanity's role in the universe is no exception.
New evolution is an engineered evolution. When a species like us comes to a point where we have the technology to start altering our genetics and interface machine and biology then we can choose what we evolve into. Natural selection doesn't entirely go away. If we fail we still can become extinct. But we can build a better form of life and that life will build something even better. That is if we get it right.
We are like a caterpillar that is about to turn into a butterfly. We are about to become something completely different. The process is already beginning.
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Just as a thought experiment what does the word God really mean? Is there any way to make the God concept make sense on a scientific context and is it useful to do so? Or is the whole God concept obsolete and we should just push it aside and never speak of it again? Or maybe there is value in exploring the idea for the purpose of disproving it?
The Church of Reality itself started with a thought experiment. We live in a world with all kinds of different religions that believe a lot of different things. So at best only one religion could be the right religion. If there were the right religion, would that right religion look like? The right religion would be the religion that believed in what was actually real. And thus the Church of Reality came to be. Believing in what's real. What an amazing yet simple concept.
We could do a similar thought experiment on the question of God. It's not just a question of if God exists, but which God exists? What does the word God really mean? Before you determine the existence of something you first have to define it and there are a lot of Gods out there to choose from. Every religion, even every believer, has their own God. So it's a matter of determining which God, if any, is the "Real God" first.
When it comes to gods, size matters. If God isn't the greatest then it's not God
If we look for things that are common in defining God (monotheism Gods), the statement "God is that for which there can be nothing greater." would apply. For example, if you have a God and I have a God and my God is bigger than your God - my God wins! When it comes to gods, size matters. Would you want to worship a god knowing that the church down the road has a greater god? I don't think so.
If the term God has any real meaning in the real world then what we have to do is find the biggest/greatest thing out there, and then determine if it is worthy of the title God. If it is then we have found God. If it isn't then there is no God because the God would be smaller than the biggest thing out there. If God isn't the greatest then it's not God. So with this thought experiment we can determine which is really the one true God or determine if any God exists at all.
In this section I'm going to make the following assumptions about the future. I'm going to assume that humanity is going to progress forward and that some catastrophe isn't going to set us back to the dark ages or we go extinct. I'm going to assume that Moore's Law continues and that at some point general artificial intelligence surpasses humans. Which raises the all important question; "What happens when computers become smarter than we are?"
What happens when computers become smarter than humanity?
Many people in the AI world worry about that. As computing power increases exponentially the computers are becoming smarter while humanity is standing still. Thus if this continues there will come a point, estimated by Ray Kirzwiel, that around 2030 the machines will be smarter than we are. What does that mean when that happens? No one know what will happen, and that's the problem. Not knowing what AI will do once it becomes smarter than we are is the wrong answer. And it's never too early to be concerned about it because this isn't something we should figure out too late. Elon Musk, one of the world sharpest minds in the AI community is so concerned that he invested millions in OpenAI to help figure it out.
"I don't know what will happen when computers are smarter than people.", is the wrong answer.
Those who are concerned about what AI will do refer to this as "The Control Problem". If AI is smarter than us, and not just a little bit smarter but a lot smarter, then we won't be able to simply pull the plug and turn it off. It is more likely that it will be able to pull the plug on us and turn us off. Some people have some ideas about how to contain it in the early stages by keeping it in a secure environment. But if someone makes a mistake and it gets out then we won't have the means to stop it.
Computers are no longer just machines we use and turn off when we are done with them. We are now totally dependent on computer and the internet. They control every aspect of our lives. Telephones are no longer pairs of wires from one place to another. It's streams of data packets. Your car doesn't just have a computer, it has dozens of computers. If you have a desktop computer with a cooling fan, the fan has a computer inside it.
Computers are in your refrigerator, your smartmeter has a computer. your radio has a computer, your TV has several computers, your camera, your credit cards, even your LED light bulbs have computers. Computers are as integrated into humanity as a whole as a bee hive is to bees.
If something destroyed all the computers in the world right now everything would stop. All phone communication would go down. No radio or television. No electricity. No gasoline. No food or water distribution. The internet is now to humanity what our nervous system is to our body. Cut the spinal cord and we die. Humanity wouldn't go extinct if the internet went down, but it would be as bad as a nuclear war. Billions would die within weeks.
Most of what animals know is based on instinct. Instinct is best described as knowledge you are born with. Animals know how to eat and avoid being eaten. Perform necessary tasks to stay alive - and to reproduce. in some species - the parents teach certain behaviors to the young who learn mostly through observation. This learned behavior is mostly centered around how to acquire food and how to avoid becoming food for something else. Some animals have a very small tree of knowledge, but human have a vast tree. We know how to build cars, planes, computers, networks, talk on phones, travel through outer space, and split atoms. In every moment of every day we are thinking in words of a language that we were taught to use to communicate. These words, meanings, and our technology all come from our common store of species knowledge which I am calling the Tree of Knowledge.
Tree of Knowledge depicted
as a Mathematical Fractal
Many of you are familiar with the "Tree of Knowledge" (knowledge of good and evil) in the Garden of Eden from the Bible stories. Well - that's not what I'm talking about here - except for the issue that I am ripping off the name. In the Church of Reality the use of the word "Tree" has nothing to do with a plant. "Tree" in the Church of Reality is more like a software source code tree that allows thousands of programmers to work together on a common software project. The way directories (folders) are organized on a computer is a tree. Trees are mathematical constructs and are often used to organize data and define the relationships between the data. In the Church of Reality, all knowledge is represented as not only the facts but the relationship between the facts. How the facts are stored and organized.
The Tree of Knowledge includes the way knowledge is structured - accessed - distributed - stored - shared - and the methods that allow it to be built up and maintained. In the Church of Reality the Tree of Knowledge is not a mythical plant but a real data structure that binds society together and allows us to have species knowledge and distribute this knowledge through or technological systems. as an individual - I don't need to learn how to build a car. All I need to do is learn how to drive a car. I rely on the knowledge of millions of other individuals - as well as the stored knowledge of dead people - to create cars for me to drive and planes for me to fly in - and computers for me to surf the web.
Even though I am an individual - almost everything in my life involves interacting with the accumulated knowledge of mankind. What I eat comes out of cans and is raised and killed by other people. All my "stuff" - chairs - desk - TV - bed - car - house - roads - phone - electricity - practically everything provided by other people. We are all totally intertwined with each other in a way that can be viewed as if all of the human species were a single organism - and that we are like cells of that organism - because we share knowledge - the Tree of Knowledge.
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.
What is left of you after your body dies? If you reproduced then your genetics live on. But does that represent who you are? Not really. Yes - you might pass on some values to your children and if the values are good values then you continue to contribute to the world after you are gone. If the values you pass on are bad values then the things that are bad about you continue to live on after you are gone. The "guy who inverted the wheel" is still with us because the wheel is a very important part of the Tree of Knowledge. Hitler is still with us because the remnants of his destruction still exist and have make an imprint in the Tree.
Some people are remembered for what they contributed to the Tree. Some are remembered for being destructive. But most people aren't really remembered at all. When you die there is a small circle of people who knew you and remember you. But what happens when the last person who knows you dies? Will there still be anyone around to tell your stories? Will there be people quoting your writings? Will they be using your invention? Or will you merely be forgotten?
What you do counts and what you leave behind and how you are remembered represents the only form of immortality that we know for sure exists. So if you want to be remembered in the Tree you have to accomplish something. You have to take all the Knowledge you inherited from the Tree and give something back. Come up with something new and useful - or - you can help someone else come up with something new and useful and you can know you had a hand in it.
Steven Hawking is one of the worlds greatest physicists. He contributes much to the Tree of Knowledge and he will be remembered for his accomplishments. But the people who dress him in the morning - feed him - and put him to bed at night also have a hand in his accomplishments. So you can contribute to the Tree by supporting those who are making a difference in the world and helping us evolve in the Sacred Direction. When you do that then part of you lives on and the world becomes a better place because you contributed to help make it happen.
The name of the church is a message in itself. In the Church of Reality - the name says it all. We are a church based on believing in everything that is real. Therefore the first goal of the church is to expose most everyone on the planet to our name. It is our goal that everyone has heard the name, "Church of Reality" and at least has some vague idea that it is some kind of church that is based on the idea of believing in everything that is real.
The reason this is important is because if people are aware that the Church of Reality exists, it immediately causes them to ask the sacred question, "What is Real?". It causes them to wonder, "Is my religion real? Do I believe in things that are real? Do I believe in things that are not real? How do my beliefs compare to reality the way it really is?" This raises the importance of reality in the minds of the individuals who make up the world.
From the perspective of the Church of Reality - reality isn't given enough importance in society. Reality is often ignored or deliberately obscured. Most of the people of this planet believe in some form of mythology that has no basis in fact. None of the religious choices include believing in what's real. There is a vacuum out there for knowledge of reality the way it really is. So many people who are being forced or brainwashed into living the lie who are waking up and saying, "Wow! - Reality .... What a Concept!"
The Tree of Knowledge is a very powerful concept. The tree really represents a mathematical tree in that all knowledge is understood by interconnecting it with other knowledge. New words are defined in terms of old words. It is much like the way that software is developed. A word is defined and is passed around in the vocabulary. Once the word becomes common then that word represents a reference to everything that went into the definition of that word. So if I say "democracy" I invoke volumes of thought with a single word. We all know - more or less - what that word means. But someone had to invent that word - create a concept around it - and educate society as to what it means. Thousands of years ago there was no word that represented the concept of democracy. Now we have it. I inherited that word from the Tree of Knowledge. Now it is time for me to give back to the Tree. I have created the name "Tree of Knowledge" so that I can talk about our shared knowledge structure in a single phrase. And - one of the missions of the Church of Reality is to make this phrase - and many others - part of the vocabulary.
With the discovery of the Tree I realized that if we are going to be explorers and explore the reality we live in - that we are going to have to all do that together. We are only partially individual minds. In reality we are all socially interconnected and our whole lives are spent interacting with others, exchanging ideas, and learning. We are all in this together, so the better the support structures are and the better society works - the better we can explore reality together. Exploring reality and growing the Tree of Knowledge is really the same thing.
People have asked me - "What would God have to do to make you believe in him? What would it take to make you a believer?" Well - that's easy. There are a lot of things God could do. All it has to do is show up and perform some miracle that is clearly beyond the ability of any human to fake. For example - God could lift up a mountain - or - it could talk in a big booming voice where everyone on the planet heard it at once. After all - if you are omnipotent and created the universe it seems to me that proving you are God is a trivial matter. So clearly God could do it - it's not doing it - so therefore it either doesn't exist or it is hiding and doesn't want to be found. I have "faith" that if God exists that it is capable of convincing me it is real.
I am Marc Perkel. I exist. I am real. And no one is seriously questioning that. I am accepted as real because I have a phone number and I answer it. I appear in public. I have a web site, and email address, a Social Security Number, a drivers license with my picture on it. I am registered to vote. I appear on Television and Radio and do interviews. I go to lunch with people. I have a checking account. People can see, hear, smell, touch, and for the privileged few, taste me. So if I can be accepted as real then why can't God? Surely God can do everything I can do, can't he? Unless he isn't real or deliberately hiding. And if God is deliberately hiding and we can't find him, who's fault is that?
Some people are saying - "Well, if God actually showed up - no one would believe in him." Speaking for myself and all the Realists I know if God actually did show up - we would all instantly believe in it. God should come out of hiding and give it a try. We are Realist so if God shows up, we are become believers.
Realism is a natural religion which means that you might already be a Realist without knowing it by name. This is different than fiction based religions where the fiction would never occur naturally. For example, if you never heard of Jesus, you would never be a Christian. To be a Christian you have to be told the story of Jesus. And what kind of Christian you become depends on which version of the story you hear.
In contrast, Realism is based on reality. So people who are in touch with reality would come to very similar conclusions. In fact, if independent realists see reality different than the Church of Reality does, it is time to investigate if something is wrong in the church. At least - that applies to church doctrine.
The Church of Reality is also a social institution that is based not just on reality itself, but that is about people and how people relate to reality. Pure reality cares nothing about the human element, but the Church of Reality does. In addition to pure science we are a community. So there is more leeway in how community is implemented. The hard science isn't there to guide us about what social aspects are right and wrong, and what variation there is between different cultures or different kinds of people with different preferences. The way Realists choose to live in San Francisco is likely to be different than the way people choose to live in Mexico City. So different people may find their way to reality naturally but through different paths.
The Church of Reality tries to encompass all the common elements of Realism that everyone would come to naturally, yet be flexible enough culturally to adapt to the human elements of variation between people and cultures. At the same time, the Church of Reality has to be careful not to overstep it's bounds and cross over into areas that invade personal freedom or stifle healthy diversity. We also need to be mindful to stay focused on our Sacred Missions and make sure that reality is never forgotten in the Church of Reality.
As a natural religion we have a lot of people contact us saying, "I'm already a Realist." and that is very true. We are glad to find people who are already Realists and to welcome them to our community. We are also glad when realists say that we are right on track in doing it right, and because of our Sacred Principle of Self Scrutiny, we welcome the criticisms of natural realists who see flaws in our organization and point them out to us. We welcome natural realists to our church.
Every Death is Unique - Every death is individual and unique. Rules and policies around death should be flexible to accommodate the wishes of the dying person and the person's family.
Wisdom should Prevail - In complex situations the individuals involved should take the time to think things through and make a determination based on the circumstances rather than just citing policy. Where there is conflict, efforts should be made to achieve resolution. New situations should be carefully considered in determining the ethics involved and the rules and policies that preserve the rights and liberties of the patient and the family.
The Patient has Choice - The wishes of the dying come first. The Church of Reality supports the right of the patient to choose how and when they are going to die. If the patient wants to be euthanized or wants to be fully awake until their last breath, their choice should be honored.
Suicide and Doctor Assisted Suicide - If a person is terminally ill or is in a hospice program and doctors have determined that they have a short time to live, then the individual has the right to determine when and how their life will end. If they decide to end their life, then that decision should be honored and they should be allowed to have help in terminating their life from their doctors and their family. No one should be pressured into ending their own life.
Who Speaks for the Patient? - If the wishes of the individual are not known and the individual patient cannot express them, then it is up to family members to express what the individual would have wanted. The wishes of the family take precedent over anyone else except for the individual.
Living Wills - Members of the Church of Reality should have living wills and they should also make their wishes known to their friends and family so that their wishes are clear. That way other people won't have to guess as to what you would have wanted.
A person is dead when - they have lost consciousness with no reasonable chance of recovery. Although one might be declared legally dead, later when the body dies, a person's last moment is the last moment that they were conscious. If you are brain dead, you are dead.
Other Religions to Stay Out - Realists have a right to their own religious choices regarding end of life decisions and free from the imposition of beliefs of other religions and cultures. It infringes on our religious freedom when another religion or the government tries to impose their values on us against our will. Our rights to our religious choices are superior to foreign beliefs or laws that infringe on our end of life freedoms.
Unlike other churches, we don't have the advantage of saying that you have to give us 10% of your money because the Bible says so. We can't threaten you with you are going to burn in Hell forever for turning your back on Jesus. We're not going to use shame and guilt on you or the fear that you might piss off God. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with logic and reason. I won't get as rich at this as the big boys. But there are good reasons to donate money, and if any of these reasons appeal to you I would appreciate your help.
The goal of this church is to offer a religion that is based on reality as an alternative to religions based on mythology. Most religions are based on superstition and stories that just aren't true. They all have their holy books and their rules and customs that have little or nothing to do with the real world. Many of these religions, including Christianity, have a goal of world domination. And they want to impose their beliefs on the rest of us whether we like it or not.
I organized this church out of frustration with Christians in particular. I'm rather tired of Christians with their holier-than-thou attitude and their constant attempts to impose their beliefs on me and society in general. Christianity itself is evolving into a hate group as it becomes dominated by various right-wing influences like the Christian Coalition which is becoming a branch of the Moonies. Christians didn't seem so bad years ago when they focused on helping people, charity, humility, and being good, honest and hard working people. But those days are gone and many of these people have evolved into a threat to free-thinking people who want to experience reality the way it really is.
The reason the Church of Reality is important is that it offers an alternative to dogmatic religions and allows people to see reality the way it really is. People seem to have a need for a religious identity, to join, or to herd. There are a growing number of people who reject mythology and want to experiance reality, yet have no organization to identify with that supports the belief in reality as a religious identity. This religion fills a necessary gap and provides a psychological framework and a community of people who are exploring the nature of the universe and want to know the truth.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian is a true saint. Kevorkian has been the primary advocate of doctor assisted suicide and euthanasia to allow people who are terminally ill to avoid a horrible, torturous death by providing life termination services to people who want to die with dignity in a manner and time of their own choosing. Kevorkian believes that humans should be given the same high quality care we give our pets when we put them out of their misery when they are dying. When we do it to animals it is considered the "humane" thing to do, to end suffering, and we do it out of compassion and love for the poor beast. We should have the same love and compassion for humans.
Opposition to Kevorkian comes from a society that fears death and is afraid to face the Reality of Death. We all will die, therefore death is a part of every life. But, as a society, we are afraid of death and therefore afraid of the Reality surrounding death. Fear of Reality is one of the most common barriers to seeing Reality the way it really is. When a person or a society is afraid of Reality, they will fail to see it. We can only see Reality the way it really is through courage. And it takes even more courage when the price of standing up for Reality is facing a murder charge and losing your freedom.
On Sunday, November 22nd 1998, Dr. Jack Kevorkian appeared on the TV show "60 Minutes" and aired a video tape of himself helping a patient, who was in the final stages of ALS, die. ALS is a disease with no cure where the person slowly suffocates by choking to death on their own saliva. By showing the world this tape, Dr. Kevorkian was forcing the issue of Reality on a public that is unwilling to face death and dying. He did this with the expectation that he would be charged with murder. Because of his extraordinary personal sacrifice in the name of bringing Reality into the real world in the face of adversity, Dr. Kevorkian has earned his rightful place as a saint in the Church of Reality.
As the founder of the Church of Reality I declare that I and all of my members have a Constitutional right to smoke pot. This is based not only on the historical event of having formed the church while stoned --- but that smoking pot is essential for coming up with new ideas and further advancing our knowledge of reality and seeing reality the way it truly is. Thus smoking pot is necessary for the practice of our religion itself.
Marijuana -- when used properly -- can significantly enhance your ability to see reality the way it really is. Smoking Pot can improve your ability to think clearly.
An individual in this world is not capable of understanding everything or analyzing everything. Most of what we know is based upon the trust in information and knowledge held by others. Much of that information is inaccurate and has to be reexamined so that we can determine what is and isn't true and to serve society in general by helping to eliminate mythology from the social narrative and replacing it with fact. That is one of our purposes in society and why this church exists. Marijuana is a powerful tool that allows the user to bypass the "herd instinct" and to look at the social narrative from an altered perspective to test it for flaws. Marijuana is not (just) a form of entertainment --- it is a scientific tool. It allow us to use our minds more effectively. We in this church claim a right of access to these kinds of tools.
There is nothing immoral itself about sex, whether within or outside of marriage. This church makes no judgement about sexual conduct between consenting adults. Sex is a way to reproduce and it is a form of healthy entertainment and exercise. It is also an instinctive need that most people have to deal with in order to have a healthy existence. People have the right to choose to have sex with whomever they want to have sex with, and that includes same sex relationships, relationships that involve more than two people, and paid sexual relationships.
The Church of Reality however encourages honesty in relationships and high ethical standards. Relationships involve a high level of trust where people have agreements to be loyal to each other, to reproduce together, and to raise their children together. These commitments are not to be taken lightly and realists are supposed to act ethically and responsibly when it comes to other people and their obligation to raise children. The Church of Reality does not take an adverse position to what other religions call adultery except to the extent that it involves deception. Adultery without deception, where the people involved agree to an open relationship is a matter of individual choice.
Our position on sexuality is to be smart, to be respectful of other people, to take into account the other person's feelings, hopes, and dreams, to be honest and open, to be trustworthy, to be responsible, and of course to be realistic. We realists are to be good sexual citizens and to strive for a world where sexuality is understood and appreciated.
Thanks to this link on Positive Athieism I found several Versions of the Ten Commandments.
Three Versions of
the 10 Commandments
Protestant
Catholic
Hebrew
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods
before me.
1. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate
me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain.
2. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt
not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve
them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate Me; And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them
that love Me and keep My commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in
vain.
3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in
vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the
sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor
thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them
is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath
day, and hallowed it.
4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath in
honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor
thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days
the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day,
and hallowed it.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be
long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother; in order that thy
days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt
not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
King James Bible, issued by the American Bible
Society.
Catholic Catechism by Peter Cardinal Gasparri,
"published with Ecclesiastical approval" and bearing the imprimatur
of Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop, New York. P. J. Kenedy & Sons,
1932.
Besides our registered trademark, the Church of Reality has other trademarks that are non-registered.
The capital letter "R" with a halo over it is our Sacred Symbol that identifies our church. It symbolizes that Reality is Holy to us.
We claim the phrase, "If it's real - we believe in it!"
All words and phrases defined in our Terminology section not used in common language as our trademarks.
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In the 1940's the human race developed nuclear weapons and used them twice against cities killing hundreds of thousands of people. We now can create far stronger nuclear weapons and we have the power to wipe all human life from the face of the Earth. If we are going to survive, we have to decide not to do that. We have to ensure that nuclear destruction never happens. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do it.
I often hear people say that primitive cultures were more ecological, that the ancient people knew how to take care of the Earth. But that isn't really accurate. The reality is that they just didn't know how to destroy the Earth like we do - so they didn't have to deal with that decision. In fact - there is a lot of history of primitive cultures who managed to destroy their environment enough to make their region uninhabitable. Now we have far greater technology and we can do things that we couldn't do before. And thus we have greater responsibility.
Actually - we can't destroy the Earth yet, nor can we yet destroy life on Earth. We can just wipe it of what we consider higher life forms. The planet we are on, our speck of dust in the universe will still orbit the sun for about 4 billion more years until it grows into a red giant and then collapses into a white dwarf star. We pride ourselves as being really significant, but we are only significant to us.
If we evolve forward, then we evolve forward. If we wipe ourselves out then we are wiped out. The universe doesn't care what happens to us. The only ones who care are humans - and a huge number of humans don't care either. Ultimately it is up to us realists to care enough to not destroy ourselves. We are the ones who have to figure out a way to make sure that other religions, that don't share our Principle of Positive Evolution, don't get to use the bomb.
The bomb is just one of many challenges we face in the future. The nuclear age was the point where we had the technology for the first time in the history of the world to destroy our own species by a deliberate and willful act. We have the ability to collectively commit suicide for every person on the planet. We now have a choice that we never had before. We have to decide not to do it. The Church of Reality is therefore against nuclear destruction. We choose evolution and reject extinctionism.
We aren't strict on the actual dates when holidays are celebrated. Different people are in different situations and sometimes the holiday occurs at the wrong time. Sometimes, the day the holiday falls on isn't the best day to celebrate it. Sometimes you just have to wait for good weather or a day off. So, feel free to move the dates around to suit your schedule. Celebrating a holiday on the following weekend is often the best choice.
The Church of Reality extends an invitation to Atheists to join our religion. Atheism is a first step, but why not go the rest of the way? Now that you have stopped living the lie, we want to welcome you to the real world.
Realism is taking it to the next level. Realism is about what you do believe in, not about what you don't believe in. Realism is about exploring reality and creating the kind of world that we all want to live in. We make the Sacred Choices to commit ourselves to the Sacred Principles and to dedicate our lives to the Sacred Question: what is real? We are explorers not followers. And this religion creates a religious identity for what you already believe in.
It is our hope that if you became an Atheist because you realized God wasn't real, that you can find a community here to join in your quest in exploring what is real. And in that spirit we extend to you our welcome.
Secular Humanism is a term which has come into use in the last thirty years to describe a world view with the following elements and principles:
A conviction that dogmas, ideologies and traditions, whether religious, political or social, must be weighed and tested by each individual and not simply accepted on faith. (Our Principle of Self Scrutiny)
Commitment to the use of critical reason, factual evidence, and scientific methods of inquiry, rather than faith and mysticism, in seeking solutions to human problems and answers to important human questions. (Same as our commitment to Reality the way it really is.)
A primary concern with fulfillment, growth, and creativity for both the individual and humankind in general. (Our Principles of Wisdom and Bullshit)
A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it. (Our commitment to Reality)
A concern for this life and a commitment to making it meaningful through better understanding of ourselves, our history, our intellectual and artistic achievements, and the outlooks of those who differ from us. (Our Principles of Inclusiveness, Preservation of History)
A search for viable individual, social and political principles of ethical conduct, judging them on their ability to enhance human well-being and individual responsibility. (The Principles of Positive Evolution and Responsibility, and the Sacred Moral Question)
A conviction that with reason, an open marketplace of ideas, good will, and tolerance, progress can be made in building a better world for ourselves and our children. (Positive Evolution and many others)
As you can see, much of this is spot on. And it shows that great minds often do think alike. When people put reality first then they often come to the same conclusions.
Having stated how I (and attempting to speak for other Realists) felt about Christians - it's also clear that Realists aren't exactly Christian's favorite people. After all - we are all godless sinners who are condemned to burn in Hell forever. Without a God - we have no morals. That's why we all kill babies, love queers, and are keeping children from praying in school. After all - the bottom line is - if God doesn't control you - Satan does. So - what you're reading right now must be inspired by the Devil.
Some of my closest Christian friends are looking at this Church of Reality and are seeing real potential here. So much potential in fact that they are admitting to wondering if I might in fact actually BE the Anti-Christ. All I can say is - thank you for the compliment and your "faith" in my success - however - we are Realists and we all know that Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ.
And how arrogant of us Realists to think that we need to shepard the poor dumb Christians the poor dumb brainwashed Christians because Realists think they are so "enlightened". Just because Realists put on the Reality title they think that they are so smart - but the reality is that Realists are just as much of a cult as any other religion. Godless sinners who refuse to let Jesus into their heart and accept divine guidance. How can the wisdom of man compare to the wisdom of God?
So - as you can see - we have a big gap to cross. But - we are still stuck here together on this planet so we better try to figure out how to get along. After all - reality isn't going to go away.
Jews believe that world was created in 6 days - with God resting on the 7th day. This occurred about 7000 years ago. Well - wrong! We now know that the universe is about 15 billion years old. But the Jews still believe it anyhow. Now - many Jews will admit that this is probably wrong. In fact - probably most of them. So then - why the obsession with the Sabbath and all the stupid rituals associated with it. Isn't it time to pull that one from the Ten Commandments? Well - can't do that because God gave Moses those commandments .... except that never happened either. Noah and the Ark - never happened. Tower of Babel ... never happened. It's all just stories and none of it ever occurred. It just isn't real.
The Jewish god is modeled after the early oppressive kings. In those times kings had absolute power and if they got in a bad mood - they might have thousands slaughtered. Since God is the supreme king - then he would be the ultimate oppressor. The God of the Bible fits this model. He's a tyrant who loses his temper and slaughters a lot of people when he gets pissed off. And he gets pissed off because he's not worshiped the right way. Think about it - God needs animal sacrifices? The being that created all the universe - all the galaxies - needs people to sacrifice animals to it? hmmmmm ... do you buy that? The God of the Jews is nothing more than a petty tyrant modeled after their petty tyrant kings - and that's according to THEIR beliefs!
So - if the Bible isn't real - then God didn't pick the Jews as the "Chosen People" and Jews are just ordinary people - just like all the rest of us. If you give up the Old Testament - then you have no basis for claiming that God gave you property in the Middle East. It takes away your justification for slaughtering Muslims because it puts you on the same level as they are. Jews of course believe that they are superior to Muslims and are therefore justified in taking their land.
Just as Muslims believe they are God's chosen people and they are justified in slaughtering Jews and taking they land. But the reality is - Muslims and Jews are both pigs and maybe if they spend a few more hundred years slaughtering each other, they might learn that it makes more sense to get along and build on reality and work together to lift each other up. Or - at least there will be less of them to contaminate the knowledge pool of humanity.
God never gave any land to any group of people. Those who slaughter others in the name of God are religious terrorists, nothing more.
The God of the Jews is week and stupid. If God were judged by today's standards - he would be criminally insane and we would execute him as a mass murdered. After all - according to the Bible - God slaughtered all the first born males of Egypt! God mass murders children! What kind of a supreme being is that? Of course - that nothing compared to the Great Flood where God supposedly slaughtered almost everything on the planet. This is a guy who has serious problems. And - God is male - because - well - I guess because God has a penis. What God does with his penis is still a mystery - but we know he has one - otherwise - he wouldn't be a he.
The core of Christian belief is based on the idea that everyone has sinned, and, because you have done something wrong, God will punish you by burning you with fire, or otherwise torturing you forever. If a 5 year-old tells a lie and then dies, God will burn that kid in Hell forever. Out here in the real world, if someone behaved like God supposedly does, that person would be considered severely mentally deranged. We put people who behave like God in jail or mental institutions. In fact, many people are locked up every year for imitating the "Wrath of God".
If Jesus could see what Christianity has evolved into, he'd be spinning in his grave!
Then there's this Jesus guy who's supposed to be "God's Son", born of a virgin, because sex is something evil, and he's here to cut a deal to get you around his dad's wrath. God has an anger problem you see, and so he has to sacrifice his own kid to appease himself so that he doesn't have to torture people, that he created, forever in Hell. So, Jesus has to die on the Cross for your sins, but then he's resurrected, so he's not really dead anymore. And now he's "paid the price" so those who "believe" in him will not fry in Hell like the rest of us.
Even though God created the universe and created billions of us, and he's all powerful and all knowing, he seems to have an identity problem and is so insecure that he needs us to worship him. Kind of like a kid shaking his fist over an ant colony demanding to be worshiped and obeyed, but on a much larger scale. God loves us but needs to punish us, unless we worship him. It's like God is some southern hick child abuser or something. Maybe we should call family services on God for child abuse? Anyhow, Christians believe God has a God sized ego problem and needs us to worship him, or he throws fits like destroying the world and such. God doesn't seem to have much control over his behavior and often is controlled by his own strong emotions.
God doesn't seem to really care much about what you do, but in what you believe in. It's "faith" not "works" that impress God. So, a mass murderer who gets "saved" during his lethal injection will go to Heaven, but the Dalai Lama is going to burn in Hell. So, you can be bad all your life and change at the last minute and get into Heaven. Christians obviously think God is pretty stupid and will fall for something like that. Actually, they don't "think" that because you're not supposed to think. You've got to "have faith" to believe something that stupid. Faith is the belief in something that has no basis in logic or reason.
The bottom line is, Christianity is about the fear of going to Hell. They say it's about "love" too, but hey, people who love you don't torture you in Hell forever, so I'm not buying the "he loves you" crap. And even though God created the universe, he's just not very good with money, and he needs you to give him your cash. God was a lot more out there in ancient times than he is today. God likes to work behind the screens, being the invisible guy in the sky, and letting the churches do his work. He doesn't talk directly, so he needs babbling nut cases to speak for him, (in tongues), with another nut case interpreting it. God is rather impotent these days and his authority seems to be limited to getting even with you after you're dead. So God needs his army of Christian Soldiers to do his work for him.
The alternative theory to Noah and the Ark is that it never
happened. It's just a story that just isn't true. 4000 years ago people
believed the world was flat and that the sky and the clouds went up
forever. They didn't know how high mountains were and how much water it
took to cover them. They thought that a big flood could cover the Earth
and the water would evaporate or run off somewhere. They were wrong.
The alternative theory is that it's just a story and has no more
basis in truth than any other fairy tale. No reasonable person could
believe this is true.
The initial premise for the Church of Reality leads to several logical conclusions. Our church doctrine isn't just a random collection of personal opinions. What we believe in forms a logical structure based on our commitment to the pursuit of reality.
Since we choose to explore reality and we know that one person does not build a Hubble Telescope in the back yard, we know the exploration of reality requires an organized effort by many people. It is logical to conclude that a strong functional society is required in order to achieve our objectives.
We evolve forward through advancing human understanding. We therefore are interested in issues that promote education and the sciences. We encourage freedom of ideas that are not inhibited by intellectual property barriers. We are concerned about fiction-based cults obtaining weapons of mass destruction to fulfill their Armageddon fantasies. Times of peace create a better environment for advancing our understanding of reality than times of war. Individuality and diversity inspire creativity and avoid Intellectual Incest.
The Church of Reality doctrine is the logical extension of our goals and our axioms. It is the set of rules that supports our world view.
Doctrine is first based on our missions. We define what it is that we want to accomplish. It starts with the name of our church. We are the Church of Reality. We believe in what's real. This a nice phrase but how do we live that? Since we don't know all that's real it's logical to conclude that we don't really believe in what's real, but we aspire to discover what is real and we commit to choosing reality over fiction. What we are really doing is making a religious commitment to the disciplines that keep the mind focused on distinguishing reality from fiction. This is the basis for church doctrine relating to personal improvement.
We also have a mission to expand our knowledge of what's real. We identify ourselves as explorers. So it's not just a commitment to what we presently know to be real, but to expand that to grow and evolve. The more reality we discover the more we can build on that to discover even more reality. Thus our doctrines relating to intellectual property, education, individuality, and freedom serve the mission to expand our understanding.
The doctrine is to our religion as what an operating system is to a computer. The doctrine is the collection of principles that make our religion work.
The human race is a collection of individuals who share knowledge. We explore reality as a society and share our knowledge with each other in a vast network of minds. The better society functions the better we can explore reality. Since our mission to explore reality depends on society, we have to build a strong social structure to fulfill our religious goals. Like all other religions we have a stake in what is right and wrong, laws, social justice, fairness, honesty, integrity, accountability and individualism so that we can flourish together and progress as a species. We also have to make sure the electricity stays on so that we can run our computers. Everyone needs to eat, drink clean water, breathe clean air, have medicine and health care, roads and bridges, and all the day-to-day stuff that makes life work. Without society there can be no cooperative exploration of reality. So the Church of Reality doctrine must cover issues of society so that we can better explore reality together.
Since the human mind is an imperfect tool to explore reality with and humans often make mistakes we can not explore reality unless we embrace change. That change being to move towards more accuracy. Stagnation doesn't accomplish advancement. We therefore must not only change but change in a positive direction. Thus the Principle of Positive Evolution is the cornerstone of our sacred principles and forward is our Sacred Direction. We embrace evolution as the process by which we move forward. Our world view is that we can choose to take control of our evolution and choose what we will become. Since our missions involve the exploration of reality we choose to evolve forward making tomorrow better than today and the next generation better than this generation. Our doctrine therefore covers issues relating to the positive evolution of humanity.
The Church of Reality isn't about science. We are about people.
The Church of Reality isn't about science. Science is for scientists. Religion is about people. The Church of Reality isn't just about reality itself. It's about people exploring reality from a human perspective. In addition to the objective facts of the universe we have chosen to accept some purely subjective axioms for purely selfish reasons that have nothing to do with objective reality. These subjective axioms are what makes the Church of Reality a religion and form the basis for our world view. In the cold darkness of space there is no right and wrong. Nothing has value. Nothing is important. Nothing is interesting. Concepts like right and wrong, good and evil, worth, value, importance, these are all totally subjective in nature and are based on our own selfish choices from a human perspective. We choose evolution over extinction. Other religions choose extinction over evolution. Our axioms are the basis for our world view which form the basis for the doctrine of this religion. Even though we choose to explore reality as it really is doesn't mean that reality has chosen us. Science doesn't care about us. We care about science. Our doctrine is a logical extension of our subjective axioms.
Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does anything exist? People of fiction based religions say it proves there must be a creator because something just doesn't come from nothing, But when you ask them, "Well, who created God then?", they respond that God always was and always will be. If you push them on the issue the logic ends there. God works in mysterious ways, we can't comprehend it, and it's a sin to question the Lord. But if something can't come from nothing then an omnipotent creator can't come from nothing either.
The interesting thing is, if you assume that everything must have a creator then nothing would exist. Because the creator would need a creator and that would go on forever. So for some unknown reason, reality just exists. Is there a reason for this? Yes - there is. But what the reason is is something that we just don't know. And thus the creator paradox remains an unexplained mystery.
As with other religions, the Church of Reality will also be affected by the changes in technology. But unlike other religions, evolution is our friend. That's because the Church of Reality has several advantages that other religions don't have. These include:
We are not Stuck in the Past - Most religions are stuck in the past. They rely on a fictional event that happened ages ago and they look backwards in time to a fading memory of a story that becomes less real with the passing of time and the advent of technology. The Church of Reality looks towards the future, the Sacred Direction, We have no fictional cross to bear.
We are Reality Based - Reality based means that we believe in what is real. And if what is real changes, we change with it. What we really mean here is if we believe something that is wrong, and we discover that we were wrong, we change our minds. We adapt to reality because we are committed to that. Fiction based religions facing the reality that their fiction is wrong will either cease to exist, adapt to reality, or find better ways to force their fiction upon their enslaved cult members.
We are the Natural Religion - Our religion is built on the rock of reality, to use a biblical metaphor. When the waves come and wash away the fiction, we will still be here. Reality isn't something that is going to go away, it is like a beacon that always leads us back to the way things really are. As we understand ourselves and the world we live in, we develop a lifestyle and a belief system that is a natural progression of who we are and all the good things we work to become.
In the end there may only be one religion, and that religion will be the Church of Reality. If other religions are going to survive, they are going to have to evolve into something that is more realistic, and many religions are. I remember seeing the Dalai Lama being interviewed on the Larry King Live show on CNN. Larry King, a Jew raised Atheist, was extremely respectful of the Dalai Lama referring to him as "His Holiness" and "The Living Buddha". But the Dalai Lama had evolved and was clearly uncomfortable with accepting supernatural titles even though it had been a tradition for thousands of years. I believe he has become a realist because he played down the "Living Buddha" and said, "I'm just a monk trying to do the best job I can for my people."
This is the kind of evolution that all religions are going to have to go through to survive in the era of the Internet. The Internet brings the tools of information to the people allowing them to extract reality that used to be lost. In this age of reality what better way for a religion to survive than to embrace reality, which is what the Church of Reality is founded to do.
Real is something that actually exists as opposed to things that don't exist. Everything has the property of either being real or being not real. Although we might not know the state of an objec, we do know that everything is either real or not. There is no half real state or something that is outside the scope of reality.
To avoid definition abuse, if someone asked the question, "Is Superman real?", one could say that he exists as a known fictional character, a comic book, and a trademark. Real means not fictional.
The Church of Reality is a Monorealistic religion in that we are all part of the One True Reality which includes everything that actually is real.
Personal Reality is the viewpoint of the individual experiencing reality personally. Personal reality has a local element to it. My reality is my little island of perception and my experiences. Personal reality is reality relative to me. It's reality from my perspective.
From my perspective the universe was created on October 10th 1955 and will cease to exist the moment I die. I am the only person in the universe that is real and everything else is just part of my dream. People only exist if they are in my presence. If you are reading this for the first time and never had any contact with me before then you didn't exist until this very moment. You were instantly created with a false memory of having a life to give you a false sense of continuity, but you only exist to serve me. When you are not in my presence you cease to exist.
Or - maybe it's the other way around. You are the one who really exists and it is I who only exists in your presence and I am the one who has a fake memory of having lived an entire life. You - the reader - are the only real person that exists and reality itself exists solely to serve you. But which one of us is the real one? Or - do we all share some common reality that we all live in? How do we tell?
Although there is some evidence that this is all just my dream, I seem to be stuck here, so I am going to presume that reality is bigger than me.
Well, this can be hard. Is there a real reality or is my brain floating in a jar in a laboratory somewhere and this is all a computer generated illusion? Perhaps the movie "The Matrix" was a personal message to me - a hint that this is all just a dream. I am the one who is creating the Church of Reality and the United States government granted me a trademark on Reality, I own reality, if that isn't a hint that this is all my dream, I don't know what is. There seems to be some evidence that you all don't exist and I am in fact the only person who really is real and this is all my personal illusion.
However, since I can't seem to wake up from this dream of reality it seems that I am at least stuck having to play the game that the rest of you are as real as I am. And there seems to be a lot of evidence that the universe actually existed before October 10th 1955, so I am going to accept that I am but one of billions of real people on the planet who are as real as I am and that the universe is bigger than me. I didn't invent reality, reality invented me.
Since we don't have the resources to test everything ourselves and the vast majority of what we believe in comes from trusting other sources, how do we know who to trust? If we are Realists and committed to reality the way it really is, then who do we trust to get our real information from? Who do Realist have faith in?
I know that several of you readers are cringing at this moment. "How dare you use reality and faith in the same sentence! That is Blasphemy" Brothers and Sisters - I feel your pain.
The quest for truth is an interesting path indeed. You decide to become a Realist. So - what do you do next? Do you go to the Book of Reality, the ultimate authority on everything and start studying? Oh, if only such a book existed it would be so much easier. But unfortunately such a reference book doesn't exist. All we have is a Tree of Knowledge that contains a lot of bullshit that we have to sort through and try to figure out as best we can what is and isn't real. And all we have to work with is our biological brains, a very crude tool indeed, and whatever computers we can build to enhance our brains and store and communicate what we know. It's not much to work with - but it's all we have so we are going to have to do the best we can with what we have.
The question isn't so much a matter of who we trust, but why we trust them. It's about the reputation of the source. Is this information coming from a trusted source? What makes a trusted source trusted?
In the Church of Reality we believe trust has to be earned. To be trusted you have to be trustworthy, or worthy of trust. You get to be trustworthy by being responsible, by being dependable, and by being accountable. Everyone makes mistakes. Even the most trusted sources get it wrong sometimes. But making a mistake doesn't mean that you aren't trustworthy. It just means that you aren't perfect. We in the Church of Reality know that what we know is a small subset of what we can know and that we aren't perfect and a lot of what we know is just plain wrong. However, there is a difference between a trustworthy source getting it wrong and an untrustworthy source getting it wrong. When the trusted source gets it wrong and they find out they are wrong, they fix it. They admit they were wrong and they change to what is right. Often they even investigate the mistake to see why the mistake was made and what they can do to prevent mistakes from happening in the future. They investigate to see if there are any more mistakes that might be related. Untrustworthy sources in contrast maintain the wrong information in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
You become trustworthy by accepting scrutiny and doubt and fixing mistakes when you are wrong. In this way you earn the faith of others.
To be worthy of earned faith you first have to have a commitment to the truth. You have to be committed to reality as it really is. To be trustworthy you have to be a realist. In addition to being committed to reality, you have to be open to doubt and scrutiny. To a person who is trustworthy, doubt and scrutiny are helpful for finding errors and correcting mistakes. Thus when the trusted person gets it wrong, then other people can point out the error so it can be fixed. A person of earned faith would respond, "Oh thank you for finding my mistake, I'll fix it right away!" Doubt and scrutiny are really volunteer help. They are free assistance from a community of people who are interested in your work. A trustworthy person is thankful that other people have shown enough interest to take the time to think about their work and care enough about it that they invest the effort to help correct errors.
Earned faith comes from doubt based faith. In the Church of Reality, our faith is rooted in our doubt process. We come together as a doubt based community to assist each other in our quest for reality by scrutinizing our sources so that they can rise to the level of earned faith.
The purpose of this article is to outline what I consider to be the major arguments in support of a “pure-myth” viewpoint or position concerning the question of the historicity of the biblical figure we know as Jesus, a.k.a. Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth. A second purpose is to provide the reader with a selected bibliography of books, generally written by highly qualified biblical scholars, which the author has either used as sources of information, and/or has directly quoted from in the preparation of this paper. The author, himself, makes no pretense of being a “biblical scholar,” only an avid reader of their works.
Before I attempt to present at least “summaries” of arguments in support of the pure-myth point of view, (hereafter referred to as a “position”) I think it would be helpful to make clear the various positions which have traditionally been listed as possible. Some scholars have listed three positions. I prefer John Remsberg’s four different options. The positions listed below are from Remsberg’s 1909 book, The Christ, page 327, with slight additions of mine for clarification.
I found this test written by a guy who calls himself Secret Agent Orange who created an extensive web site exposing Alcoholics Anonymous as a cult. Apparently he had such a bad experience with them that he ended up writing an extremely well researched web site about cults and cult behavior. His site is massive and impressive.
One of the most interesting things on his site is his cult test. Of course no test is perfect, but I rate this as damn good and by far the best one I've ever seen. Taking the test and reading the material that each question links to is very educational. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in cults.
Each question is a link to a detailed explanation of each question with a lot of very interesting information about cult behavior. I encourage you, if you really think you might be a cult member, to read each one and really think about it.
Try taking this test as an American citizen to test if America is a cult!
The word "cult" doesn't necessarily mean religious cult. A nation can be a cult. If you are an American citizen, take this test to see if America is a cult. You might find the results interesting. You might also apply it to your job, or political party, or any other group that you are a member of.
As the "guru" of the Church of Reality I have taken the test on behalf of this religion. Member and nonmember alike are encouraged to challenge my answers and make sure I'm being unbiased. Any time the guru takes the cult test it's automatically suspect because I can guarantee that 100% of us gurus will tell you that we are not cult leaders. So it's no surprise that the Church of Reality did well on this test.
One of the first tests to determine if you are in a cult is if the cult will let you take this test. Can you take this test and discuss it with your group? What would happen if you encouraged other members to take this test, would you get in trouble? Do these questions cause you to experience strong emotions? If you can't take this test, even if it's just for laughs, you might be a cult member.
The results don't determine if you are or are not in a cult. It is ultimately to cause the issue to be discussed and thought about. The test itself should be scrutinized. Are there better questions? Did Satan inspire this test to undermine faith? Even if you run a benovolent organization, you might take this to see if your organization is becoming cultish.
So - here it is - have fun!
Click on each question to get the details about what is being asked.
Yes - we have cult speak! We have our own language, we invent new terms and we redefine words. But they aren't thought terminating, but thought inspiring. But that's what the guru is supposed to say
I think the Church of Reality is special, and so are the members. Hooray for us! But the question is if we are "special" as in "Chosen by God" or something. This planet is a spec of dust in the universe. How special is that?
Busted again in some respects. But to us it's a realistic assessment of our own limitations and research into ways to compensate. How to discern reality with an imperfect mind to work with.
So - was I honest in answering these questions? Is the Church of Reality telling the truth? Will we change the answers in the future? If so - why? It will be interesting to see 100 years from now how much of the fundamentals of this religion stay true to the original vision of a natural reality based religion.
Thinking about reality is like an anti-virus program for the mind. It clears out the bad information and replaces it with real information. Thinking about reality purifies the mind. Living "the lie" causes brain damage, not only by training your mind to rely on wrong information, but also by destroying mental processes. When the mind is full of lies you become unhealthy, mentally and physically. Life becomes confusing. Living the lie makes your mind less functional.
Reality heals the mind. It not only clears out the wrong information but it also regenerates your ability to think. When you live the lie you get used to believing in things that you subconsiously know aren't true. You get used to believing lies that other people tell. You get used to believing contradictory information. When you think about reality you learn how to be more discerning. You learn to know when someone is trying to bullshit you. Reality removes the leaches that are sucking your mind dry.
Fictional religion is like a computer virus, infecting your mind and sucking the life out of you like a leach.
A computer virus is a bad program that enters your computer. It changes the operating system and hides, so that you can't find it or remove it. The virus' mission is to make its priority your computer's main mission. It sucks up resources, it takes up memory, and it slows the system down. It saturates your connection to the web, sending out copies of itself in and attempt to convert other computers to the virus. It wants to take over and lets your computer function just enough so that you keep using it. Sometimes when the virus is done it destroys the computer and wipes out all your files.
Traditional Religion is like that. It takes over your mind and it sucks you dry. It takes away who you are and replaces you with a new person who is under its control. It makes you surrender your good judgement and replace it with what they call "faith", which is really a command to, "accept this bullshit as true and you are prohibited from thinking about it or questioning it." In fact - to question it means that you have sinned against God and you will lose eternal paradise for an eternity of Hell and damnation. They steal your very mind, and you live out your life in a world of fiction and lies. When you die, you don't get that eternal life that they promised but we know for a fact that you do get, eternal peace. So why spend your life waiting to die, to live? It won't happen after your gone. Do it now, live life, accomplish something. Let your name live on through possitive achievements. It seems logical then, to live your life in reality, not tip toe through life on fantasies of eternal life after death. It's just not going to happen in a physical sense. Your name and your influence and your genes will only live on in your accomplishments, through the stories, memories and genes of following generations.
Living the lie is slavery. They own you. They control you. They make you believe that you are living for something real but, it's just an illusion. You see this yourself in every other religion other than your own. They way you look at them - you are just like that. Your religion isn't any more real than all of the other religion that you don't believe in. Their religion is bullshit, and your religion is bullshit too.
"How do you know that?", you might ask. How do you know my religion isn't real? We in the Church of Reality believe in reality the way it really is. If your religion is reality then we will all convert to your religion. It's that simple, you prove it - we convert.
If your religion isn't reality, then you're just a slave to the cult mind. They control what you think. Reality gives you the freedom to be real.
When you start thinking about reality it starts to reconstruct your mind. It brings back who you are, and pushes aside who other people tell you that you are supposed to be. It lets you experience the real world the way it really is. It allows you to ask the Sacred Question, what is real? You can explore the universe with your mind. You breath in trillions of gas molecules (air), feel the reality all around you, right here on this spinning planet orbiting a star that is 93 million miles away. Reality is such a wondrous place.
Ask yourself about why you believe in what you believe in. Does your idea of God make any sense, really? Oh - but you're not supposed to think about that. Doubting is the unforgivable sin. Unless you suppress reasoning you will burn. If you test God or if you prove god is real then you lose faith because if you have faith then you don't need proof. But I ask you, "What does God have to hide? Is your God so weak that he can't stand up to scrutiny? Is he irresponsible and not accountable? Does God really have an anger problem? Don't you think that Hell is a little on the psycho side?"
This world we live in, this real world, it's a wondrous place. It is absolutely fascinating. How can you not want to experience it? How can you turn your back on reality? We don't have a lot of time here to exist. How can you waste it? How can you waste your entire limited existence to living a fantasy. A fantasy that isn't even your own. How can you do that?
To me its all about freedom. I can not live as a slave. I am free to think what I want, to say what I want, to be who I am. I can question everything. I am not afraid to face reality because reality is all there really is when it comes down to it. And you know in your heart that I'm right about that. Think about reality. Let it purify your mind. Let it clean your soul. Let it free you. Feel the real world with your mind.
Reality based morality is not so black and white. It takes hard work to figure out what is right and wrong. It would be nice if the world was simple and there was a rule book and the rules were simple and everyone agreed on what the rules are. If only it were so, but it isn't. If you look at "Thou Shalt Not Kill" it seems easy enough to understand on the surface but then you get into the exceptions. For example it is accepted that you can kill in self defense. If someone is coming to kill you and you kill them defending yourself, that's OK. But what about war? Well, if the war is justified and you are defending your good and wholesome society from the evil aggressors, then it's self defense.
But what if the moral justification for the war is questionable? Suppose your country is the aggressor. Suppose your leader lied to get your country into the war and the war is unjust. Are you a murderer if you are in the army of a country that is on the wrong side of moral justification? In the Church of Reality you are. Just because you are a member of a group that does something evil doesn't absolve you from personal responsibility. Our morality is reality based. And there is such thing as right and wrong without an omnipotent rule maker to dictate what that is.
One of the greatest concerns of people of faith is that they think that if there is not God that right and wrong goes away. But it does not. The Basis for Church of Reality Doctrine is that we exist and we want to evolve forward in what we call the Sacred Direction. Our assumption is that we are a society and that we wish to improve ourselves and live happy, healthy, and stable lives. We are all here together on this planet and we want to have peace, be fair, and make progress. To that end we have developed the Sacred Principles which form the basis for which right and wrong are tested. These principles include ideas like Positive Evolution, Exploration, Freedom, Peace, Justice, Inclusiveness, Scrutiny, Humility, Wisdom and Personal Responsibility.
The reality is that life is not simple and life is not black and white. Morality isn't always certain. There are circumstances where something that is generally considered wrong is not wrong depending on the circumstances. A person can steal food to feed their starving family for example. A police officer accidentally makes a mistake and shoots the wrong person. Sometimes things are justifiable under the circumstances. Rules often have exceptions and what is law doesn't cover all circumstances. That is why most nations have juries that have the power to override the law and decided that even though a person broke the letter of the law that they don't feel that justice will be served by applying the law to a particular case.
Two very important sacred principles in the Church of Reality are Scrutiny and Wisdom. Scrutiny involves the Purification of Truth allowing us to correct our mistakes and improve our sense of right and wrong. Wisdom involves putting forth the effort to think things through. What is important in the Church of Reality is accuracy. We want to figure out how to do it right. If we are already doing it right then maybe we can do it even better. We look at what is working and what isn't and try to improve ourselves.
Morality is an important part of the Church of Reality. That's why we ask The Sacred Moral Question so as to make the issue of right and wrong important and that it is considered in processes that involve law and justice. We are not a bunch of selfish heathens who believe that "anything goes" and "do whatever you want, nothing else matters". We believe in a strong society where we all benefit from being part of the community. To be part of society you have rights and freedoms because you respect the rights and freedoms of others.
Does thinking, logic and reason undermine faith? Does questioning what you believe in undermine faith? Or does faith require you to never think about it? Are you prohibited from asking yourself if what you believe in is actually true? What is the relationship between faith and reason? Can faith and logic coexist? Can science and faith coexist? Or is it that in order to have faith that you can't question it? Do you have to just believe it? If you question it - is that a sin?
What is the relationship between faith and reality? Do you have faith because what you have faith in is actually real? Or does reality not play a role? What if you found out that your neighbor's religion was more real than yours? Would you convert, or stick with the religion you have?
If what you believe is real then there's nothing to fear about exploring reality the way it really is.
These are the kinds of questions that we are trying to trick you into thinking about. We want you to start wondering about the relationship between reality and what you believe. If what you believe in is real, there's nothing to worry about, is there. If what you believe is real then thinking about reality will strengthen your beliefs. If what you believe in isn't real however, then thinking about reality can create a conflict. Do you stick with faith, or go with what's real?
Besides, if you believe in God, and if God is real and almighty then surely God isn't afraid of reality is he? Why would a real god not want you to think about reality? If your god is fake however then those who are promoting the fake god wouldn't want you to think about reality. Reality is a threat to all forms of fiction based beliefs. Reality isn't afraid of being questioned.
If what you believe is real, then we want to believe in it too. But if what you believe isn't real, then do you really want to stick with it?
Suppose that all the Bibles in the world were suddenly destroyed and couldn't be reconstructed from memory. Would people still believe in Jesus? Would it be the same as the Bible today? Suppose that all the science books in the world were wiped out and no one remembered science. If people started rediscovering science from scratch would evolution still exist? Would gravity still exist? Would we come to the same conclusions if we started over a second time? Yep - we sure would!
We aren't here to undermine faith. We are here to undermine fictional beliefs. What are fictional beliefs? The simple answer is - every other religion except yours. You would at least admit that there are a lot of religions out there that are dead wrong. So isn't it a good thing if the Church of Reality were to undermine all of them? Yes - of course - that would be a good thing. And - if what you believe is the really real true religion, then I'm sure that we will confirm that and you can go on believing in what you believe in now.
If your God is afraid of reality then how almighty is he?
We believe that false faiths will not stand up to the tests. False faith isn't accountable. False faith will not stand up to the purification of truth. If you bring falsehood out into the light it will disintegrate. But real truth will pass the test of scrutiny and will be strengthened by doubt. We are not afraid of reality, are you?
When we think of evolution we think of "survival of the fittest". We think of male lions fighting to the death to take control of a pride of females, killing the male cubs, and breeding until a stronger male comes along and takes over. Indeed, this is one common mode of evolutionary advancement, but another survival strategy is cooperation. Individuals ban together for the common good pooling their resources for the gathering of food or the common defense. Penguins huddle in great masses to preserve body heat to survive the antarctic winters. Packs of wolves hunt and bring down prey together. Bees live as a super organism in the form of a hive. There are even interspecies alliances that are necessary for survival. If not for the bacteria growing in our stomachs we would all starve to death without the ability to digest our food. The predator relies on the success of the prey for, without prey, there would be nothing for the predator to eat.
The reality of human nature is that we are social animals that evolved to be extremely interdependent in order to survive. We are in fact so interdependent that very few of us could survive out in the wild on our own. We have evolved language to communicate with one another, allowing us to share complex information and form great societies of individuals with highly specialized skills. When you look around at the stuff that you own, how much of it was made by you from raw materials that you found out in the wild in nature, that you fashioned into something without the use of any tools other than tools you made yourself? Probably not one single thing. The words that you speak and that you hear in your mind are words that were invented by other people. Almost all of your personal reality was created by the human community that you live in. Humanity is by nature a social organism.
Our evolution is through our cooperation. We are evolving through the evolution of society. We are progressing by growing the Tree of Knowledge. We receive knowledge from our ancestors and pass it down to our children. Each generation adds (or something takes away from if we ignore reality) something to the Tree of Knowledge so that new generations start with more tools than the previous generation. The rate of our evolution is based on the rate that we give back to the Tree and increase the knowledge of the human race. In the Church of Reality we call this Intellectual Tithing.
If we only take from the Tree of Knowledge and give nothing back, then we fail to evolve. If we damage the Tree with false information, then humanity takes a step backwards towards extinction. But if we give freely of ourselves and share our knowledge, then we as a human race all evolve forward in the Sacred direction towards a better future. Thus giving is necessary to achieve the goals of our individual and collective self interest.
Besides our collective knowledge, being generous and taking care of one another helps us to survive. Everyone has times in their lives where they are sick or injured and need to rely upon others to take care of them until they recover. We do that because it is in our own self-interest to be selfless and generous to others so when we need something, there are people who take care of us. The open hand is for both the giving and the receiving. It isn't about what is fair, it is about what works best.
To that end the Church of Reality realizes the collective nature of humanity and therefore incorporates this fact into our reason for adopting the open hand. Our self interest depends upon our selfless generosity. It is what propels humanity forward.
Intellectual diversity is to the evolution of ideas as genetic diversity is to physical evolution. Even if ideas are wrong, they get people thinking and sometimes lead to a deeper understanding of what we know. Sometimes the new idea is an insight that leads to something else, new. Or sometimes the new idea exposes that we had collectively made a mistake and that we can then correct the collective error. When you look at all the new wonderful inventions we have and look into the people who come up with those inventions, you quickly see that most of these people are weird people. And that isn't a coincidence because free thinkers think "outside the box" which is where new ideas come from.
An observation I also make is that some cultures produce more original and inventive thinking that other cultures. The San Francisco Bay area is a place where more new ideas come from than any other place on the planet. What is it about this area that produces so many inventions and original ideas? What is it that can be learned from the San Francisco Bay area culture?
The Bay Area is home to some of the most individualist people on the planet. Part of the reason for that is that weird people are welcome there. People are highly tolerant of differences between people and allow people to be themselves and freely express their individual weirdness. In many of the large cities in America you see rows of homes and all the homes look alike. In the Bay Area you see rows of homes and they all look different, even though the same builder built all the homes on the same street.
The average person rarely invents anything. All the cool stuff is invented by weird people.
This is an area that embraces the differences between people. People appreciate the fact that they are surrounded by people who do not agree with them. Even if some people don't like what other people are into, they understand that because the weird people have the freedom to be weird, they will be weird. We also know that when we look up the person who invented something really cool, we find that that person has blue hair and a bolt through her nose. Certainly the founder of the Church of Reality, Marc Perkel is a person who loves his individuality and if not for that, this religion wouldn't exist. So it makes sense that the freedom and individuality that went into the origins of this church would be the kind of freedom and individuality we would want to preserve.
Intellectual diversity is central to the Church of Reality because it generates new ideas and new ideas contribute to the Tree of Knowledge leading to Positive Evolution and fulfilling the goal of expanding our understanding of reality the way it really is. That is why we embrace the Principle of Freedom and the Principle of Personal Privacy as Sacred Principles because they are the cornerstone of cultural diversity and lead to a tolerant society where it is OK to be different. A society where it is OK to disagree. A society where people are encouraged to be different, to be their own person, and to think independently. One could even say that if you aren't fighting, you aren't evolving. (There's a statement ripe to be taken out of context.) But when everyone agrees and they all think alike it creates stagnation. Sometimes it takes some turmoil to lead to progress. Our goal as a society is to take diversity and turmoil and disagreement and use it to our advantage as a means of making progress.
WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN DARWIN
(TO THE TUNE OF “WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS”)
What a friend we have in Darwin,
Some doubts and questions answered,
What a privilege to learn
Everything that man discovered!
Oh what peace we could find,
Needless bickering could end,
If everyone would look at
All the basis Darwin had.
Have we doubts and more questions?
Is there more to discover?
We should only be encouraged;
To let scientists give us answers.
Can we find those scientists
That stand for truth and reality?
Darwin knew the truth was out there;
Darwin knew reality.
Are the religious so blinded,
Can they really not understand?
Precious Darwin still our hope;
The evidence there to see.
Do your friends question your ‘origins’ beliefs?
Open your mind to new thought.
What a friend we have in Darwin!
Please join us in reality.
by Gena Hendrix
The test of salvation is faith. You are required to believe through faith and not through science. But what are you required to have faith in? There are tens of thousands of choices out there to put your faith in, but what if you pick the wrong one? Will you go to Hell if you pick the wrong one? Most definitely you will.
One Sunday afternoon as you are sitting on your porch, a Jehovah's Witness and a member of the Assembly of God walk up to you at the same time to convert you to their religion. Both of them claim to be Bible believing Christians who are out to save your soul so that you might enter the Kingdom of Heaven, to live forever in eternal paradise. However, it is soon apparent that these religions are mutually exclusive, each claiming the other is the road to hell. Perhaps there are 10 different religions represented as other Christians start gathering. Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Messianic Jews, Baptists, Moonies, and throw in a Muslim, all of them claiming that all the others are false beliefs and that unless you make the correct choice, your soul is forever lost. But the one thing they have in common is that you must believe through faith.
So - how do you choose? How do you decide which one is right?
Obviously you can't start out by using reason because if you use science and logic then you will surely pick the wrong one. If the belief is scientifically provable, then you won't be able to believe in it through faith. Since faith is required, then scientific proof would be prohibited. Suppose there were one true religion, the religion that got it all right (or at least really close). And suppose that it had the salvation by faith clause. Then suppose that science proved that this religion were real. What would that mean?
If the one true religion required faith-based salvation and it were proven to be true scientifically, then that would undermine faith because faith is belief without proof and if you have proo, then faith is excluded. So if science proved the one true religion then everyone who believed in the true religion would all go to hell, because their faith was undermined by scientific verification. This would create a paradox for God - so the only solution must be that God would make sure that the one true religion must never be scientifically provable.
There is some evidence of this because it would explain why God remains hidden from science and totally scientifically undetectable. And it explains why so much of the Bible can't be proved with science because if it could be, it would undermine the faith requirement preventing the believers in the true religion from obtaining salvation through faith. Thus the Bible has to be unscientific so that it can never be scientifically proven and have Bible believers lose faith because of proof and evidence.
So - based on the salvation through faith assumption, we can come to some interesting conclusions.
Science can never prove that God exists.
Science will never prove that the Bible is true.
The true religion can never be proven by science.
So - if this is what we know about the true religion, how then can we find it? Perhaps we can start with a process of elimination? Instead of trying to figure out what it is, let's start with what it isn't. If we know that God cannot be proven through science, all religions that claim the belief in God are scientific and must all be false. The same is true of people who claim to use science to prove the Bible. If they could prove the Bible through science, then they are going to Hell because where there's proof there's no faith. So - that eliminates a huge number of false religions that claim an affiliation with science.
Keeping in mind that, if any element of the one true religion was provable, then that element would lose it's ability to contribute to salvation. It raises the possibility that perhaps the one true religion has no basis in science whatsoever, and the more impossible it is to believe in the more likely it is to be true. What religion would fit that classification?
The Church of Scientology might fit that criteria. They make no scientific claims that God exists, that the Bible is based on science, and the idea that 75 million years ago that Xenu slaughtered the Thetans and that we are possessed by their entrapped souls is so scientifically ridiculous that it fits all the qualifications of salvation through faith. So I suppose if I was forced to choose, I'd have to go with Scientology and hope for the best.
Many people say, "I have my reality and you have yours, and who is to say which one is real? Maybe my reality is real to me and your reality is real to you?" Some say, "If I believe in it – it's real to me." Do we have our own individual realities that are somewhat isolated from objective reality? Does believing in something make it real?
Suppose a Christian who sincerely believes that God can make him fly and a Muslim who believes that God can make him fly both jump off the Golden Gate bridge at the same time. Who will hit the water first? Perhaps we should try it and see. Then, we can get thousands of people praying for both of them and keep repeating the experiment until we find someone who defies the law of gravity. If any of them fly then all us Realists will convert to the religion of the person who God makes fly. If neither flies, then we Realists will bury the faithful and the planet is ours.
The point here is that gravity is real and it doesn't need you to believe in it for it to be real. Gravity doesn't require your faith, it doesn't love you, and it treats everyone equally all the time. When you stop believing in gravity, it doesn't go away.
Believing in something doesn't make it real. If something is real its reality doesn't depend on belief. Therefore, if you believe in something that is real and I don't believe in it then you are right and I am wrong. My belief, even if I believe strongly with all my might doesn't make it real.
The IRS approval process was not trivial and took almost 2 years to complete. It was first submitted in December of 2003 and finally approved in October of 2005. Normally it takes only 90-120 days to get approved but we hit a snag at the normal levels so it was referred to the Washington office where they process the hard to decide cases.
It sat there for a long time waiting to be processed. It's a first in first out system and we just had to wait a year to make it to the top of the pile. The IRS is understaffed and overworked in this division and they have had added duties processing the net 521 political organizations and auditing Muslim charities to see if they are raising money for terrorist organizations.
Although I had some paranoid thoughts, as it turned out what the Church of Reality believed in was never an issue. The sticking point was if we were a church as the IRS defines it. They are not comfortable with web based churches and in their minds a church is a building where people show up weekly and where weddings and funerals are performed and there are youth programs and religious education. Although we hope to have that someday, we aren't there yet. So I changed the application to be a charitable organization which got rid of the church test and it sailed right through.
Throughout the process the IRS was very respectful and very helpful. One of the examiners, Ray Sealy, passed away during the processing of this application. Ray was a good man who served the IRS well for over 30 years. Many of his questions inspired a lot of web pages on this site in order to answer questions raised about what it is we believe in. If not for the IRS application process, much of what has been developed here might not have been. So other than the amount of time it took, I have no complaints with the process. One agent even commented that he thought it was one of the most interesting applications he's reviewed.
This doesn't mean that we aren't a church. It just means that we fit the IRS definition of a charitable organization better than their church definition. For all practical purposes it is the same except we have to file one more form every year if we raise more than $25,000 in a year. So far that's not an issue. And charitable organizations are subject to higher level of scrutiny than churches - but that isn't a problem either because we are totally clean on the money end.
Being tax deductible should help because saving money while giving is an incentive to give more. It also fosters the impression of legitimacy in people's minds that we are somewhat "government certified". On the other hand that scares some people as well. I don't see it as a problem and if it becomes a problem we'll come up with a different plan.
Although, like everyone else, Realists are born into nation states, Realists see themselves as citizens of this planet. We are members of a common species and we are all interconnected through the Tree of Knowledge and are dedicated to the advancement of the human race through the Principle of Positive Evolution. Realists see nation states as temporary subcultures, as artificial man-made divisions that exist for a time, evolve, and eventually disappear. Our loyalties and our religious commitments are to the advancement of humanity and that commitment supercedes any commitments to nation states.
The Church of Reality supports personal choice and personal freedom. We believe in people making their own decisions to as great of an extent as possible. Our position is that anything is permitted unless there is a good reason to not permit it. We believe the individualism and self expression are necessary for positive evolution to occur. A free society allows the individual to experience their own lives in a manner of their choosing and it creates a positive atmosphere for diversity and tolerance which promotes peace and harmony. We are a church of diverse people who have chosen to unite behind reality as our common goal.
Individualism and diversity are good things because if everybody thinks alike and looks alike and acts alike then they are less likely to come up with new innovative and interesting ideas that are necessary to improve ourselves and evolve forward. We don't want Realists to all act the same and thing the same. Although it is often true the "great minds think alike" it is also true that if everyone thinks alike that it stifles creativity.
We also believe in giving the individual as much control of their personal life as possible. We believe that people have the right to make their own lifestyle choices even if it's what most people would consider a bad choice. What is a bad choice for one person might be a good choice for another. Furthermore, even if a decision is a bad choice the individual has a right to make their own mistakes. We can and perhaps should try to talk people out of making bad decisions but ultimately we hold self determination in high regard.
The primary limitation on personal freedom is if one person's freedom significantly imposes on the rights and freedoms of others. A person can't choose to be a cannibal for example because it is unlikely that the person being eaten would choose to want that. Playing loud music might keep the neighbors awake. In cases where the freedom of one person infringes on the freedoms and rights of another then one has to apply wisdom to the situation to figure out the best solution to the problem.
Examples of Church of Reality supported freedoms include:
Abortion - Women in the Church of Reality have the right to control their reproduction. We recognize that often birth control fails and that Abortion becomes a means of birth control of last resort.
Assisted Suicide - Ultimately the individual has the right to choose not to continue to live. This is especially true when a person is nearing the end of natural life and is faced with choosing how they will die. A person has the right to ask for and to receive assistance in termination their own life within the context of wisdom and sane policy to protect society from abuse.
Same Sex Relationships - The Church of Reality considers sex between consenting adults of legal age to be an issue of personal choice.
We as Realists assert that our personal freedom is something that is deeply rooted in the practice and expression of our religion and that freedom is necessary in the pursuit of the understanding of reality.
The Church of Reality opposes forcing children to wear school uniforms against their will and/or against the will of the parents. We feel that clothing is a matter of personal choice and that school uniforms infringe on personal choice. When people are forced to look alike then it tends to create a social dynamic where they are expected to think alike. It also teaches them to accept people who look like them and perhaps to isolate culturally from people who look different. It promotes monoculturalism and intolerance. Children should be allowed to express their individuality.
On the other hand Realists have the freedom to choose to wear uniforms if they want to. There are situations where there are advantages to wearing uniforms. But the important point here is that the choice to wear or not wear uniforms is up to the individual and that we assert a religious right to not be forced to give up our individual choice when it comes to our appearance.
Some drugs are legal and some aren't. A lot depends on where you live and what nation states are asserting jurisdiction in your location. Legal drugs are often as dangerous as illegal drugs. Legal prescription drugs can also lead to bad results even when used properly. It must therefore be the responsibility of the individual to make sure that even if a doctor prescribes drugs that it is in their best interest to take them.
Prescription drugs can be over prescribed. Sometimes antidepressants are given when the real solution is to make better lifestyle decisions. Sometimes the antidepressant is just what you need. Sometimes a person after an accident can become addicted to pain killers and doctors will keep giving them to you instead of treating your addiction. One must be intimately involved in the decision to take drugs.
There are also legal drugs like Cigarettes and Alcohol that are as dangerous or more dangerous than most illegal drugs. The drugs are legal because governments are addicted to drug money revenues from cigarette companies who market their poison with the blessings of the state. In the case of alcohol, this drug can be perfectly safe and healthy when used correctly and totally devastating when used incorrectly.
Mixing drugs with driving vehicles or other dangerous equipment is immoral in the Church of Reality because your actions put other people in danger. Realists should not drive drunk. Nor should a Realist drive a car if they are taking other prescription drugs that warn you not to drive. A Realist should always take the safety of themselves and others into account when taking drugs either legally or illegally.
The Church of Reality recognizes that a person's life begins at live birth. There are other religions that claim, "Life begins at Conception", but we are not one of those religions. It is clear to us, for example, that the two cells that create us are both alive before conception and therefore no new life is actually created at the moment of cellular fusion. After the cells fuse they have to implant onto the uterine wall. At that point the cells might split into two people creating identical twins, or just fail to grow due to some other flaw leading to miscarriage. Current technology allows fertilization to take place outside of a mother's body, so the idea that zygotes are human individuals is something we find ridiculous.
Technology creates fuzzy lines and we recognize that. But if you have to create some sort of hard line, that line would logically be live birth. There are circumstances however where the line can shift somewhat in some circumstances. There are sometimes reasons to consider the rights and needs of the pre born in order to help ensure their survival. There are times when a baby is born in a brain dead state and it is not really fully alive at the time of birth. These special circumstances are issues to be resolved by the medical community along with the mother and family that are involved. In spite of the fuzzy line however, in the Church of Reality a person becomes an individual officially when born alive.
The fish with feet represents evolution. It is a symbol that says that we believe that Darwin was right. It is a recognized symbol of a commitment to scientific principles. Evolution is a central concept in the Church of Reality. Not only do we know that we evolved, but we are still evolving. We embrace our evolution as a way to improve ourselves and advance in our exploration of reality as it really is. Our first principle, The Principle of Positive Evolution is the core principle of our religion.
The following is a list of things the Church of Reality considers to be wrong. Order doesn't mean anything. The list doesn't indicate the degree that it's wrong. Nor does it imply that they are equally wrong or always wrong. It shows the Theist world that we Atheists have a concept of right and wrong as well.
Murder
Rape
Stealing
Genocide
Human and Animal Sacrifice
Canibalism
Torture
Cruelty
Bigotry and Racism
Intolerance
Self Righteousness
Slavery
Starting Wars
Sex with Children
Religious Genital Mutilation
Religious Deception
Deceitfulness
Dishonesty
Cheating
Greed
Selfishness
Drug Addiction
Blind Faith
Abduction
Terrorism
Polluting the Environment
Driving Slow in the Fast Lanes
Obviously not all these "sins" are equal. Smoking cigarettes isn't as bad as human sacrifice but you still don't want to start smoking and you want to quit if you can. The issues surrounding right and wrong are important and that's why we ask the Sacred Moral Question so that we can be as sure as possible that we are doing the right things.
Humanity is evolving through two kinds of evolution. We are evolving physically through the Tree of Life and we are evolving mentally through the Tree of Knowledge. The human race is unique in that we have evolved the ability to share vast amounts of information so that information that is discovered by one individual can be passed on to others. Other species of life have only very limited abilities to communicate. They can squeal to alert others to danger. Bees do complex dances to communicate the location of food to other bees. But we are the only species that can surf the web and blog and we only evolved the ability to surf the web and to blog in the last 20 years. The Internet, which we call the Sacred Network was a huge advance in human evolution.
Now that the human race has evolved the Tree of Knowledge, our evolution has accelerated. We have changed the face of this planet through our ability to share information. Humans can now fly and travel to the Moon. We have now sent a machine (Voyager 1) outside our solar system. We can peer using our space telescopes back to the beginning of space and time. We have split the atom turning matter into energy. We are now beginning to use the Tree of Knowledge to control the Tree of Life. We can make genetic material and we will soon be able to manufacture custom life forms from scratch. We have the power to determine our own future and we need the wisdom to make good choices so that we decide to become something good that we can look back at knowing that we made good choices.
Some religions claim to be reality based, but are they really? How do we know if their claim is true? How do we know if the Church of Reality is really reality based or is just using the name as a marketing tool to find suckers to integrate into a cult of mindless zombies who are brainwashed into believing they are part of a great army of Realists? What are the objective tests that we can use to determine if a religion is truly reality based or not?
Of course since this test is written by the Church of Reality one has to assume that we are going to pass our own test. So perhaps these tests should be modified by and outside person so as to make it more objective and raise the bar on us. We are assumed to be biased. But - having said that we are still going to try. Here are some tests.
Advocating for Reality - A reality based religion will advocate for reality by name. Reality will be part of their doctrine and part of their practice. Reality will be a dominate factor in their religion. They will encourage their members to follow reality above all else and that reality take precedent over their current doctrine. If a religion refuses to advocate for reality, it isn't a reality based religion.
If you are a reality based religion then your shouldn't be afraid to put "Choose Reality" on your web site.
A reality based religion shouldn't have any problem putting this web sticker on the front of their web site. This is an interesting test because religions who are not reality based are threatened by the promotion of reality. A non reality religion is diminished by the message of reality, where a reality based religion is enhanced by advocating reality. Reality based religions embrace reality, while others fear it.
Question Reality - Faith based religions require you to believe without questioning doctrine. You are expected to suppress our reason and substitute an emotional process to support your beliefs. In the Church of Reality we believe that if God exists that God would not be afraid of reality and that God is strong enough to stand up to scrutiny and doubt. Realists believe that if God exists that he is a strong and mighty God and that reason won't drive him away. We therefore consider it a test of a religion's commitment to reality that they are not afraid of their beliefs being questioned and scrutinized. In the Church of Reality we have the Principle of Scrutiny and Doubt as one of our Sacred Principles. We assert that a reality based religion is required to embrace scrutiny.
The bottom line is - if your religion is afraid of reality, or refuses to advocate reality, can't accept scrutiny, prohibits questioning, suppresses reason and logic, and asks you to believe stuff that is just plain stupid, it's not a reality based religion. Remember - all cults claim to be real too.
It isn't a coincidence that so many of the Sacred Principles are related to honesty because we are the Church of Reality and that's what we do. If something is real that means that it is truly and honestly real. So if we stay true to our purpose, we will remain honest. And if we lose our honesty, then we lose our reality.
Since the Church of Reality is an evolving religion the number of sacred principles and the order of the sacred principles are subject to change. Sacred Principles should be referenced by name and not by number except for the Principle of Positive Evolution which is also known as the First Principle. The order of the other principles carry no meaning and are subject to reorganization without notice. The Sacred Principles are to be understood and not memorized.
Edicts relating to church business are considered to be administrative decisions of the Church. Edicts relating to opinion on issues are to be considered where the Church stands on those issues. Edicts are the voice of the Church and do not necessarily represent the personal views of all members of the Church. Our religion strongly supports Individualism and members are required to think things through for themselves and interpret reality using their own Wisdom. The Church however does not issue edicts lightly and members should give great weight to Church edicts. Likewise, if a Church member needs confirmation of a personal decision that invokes a religious right they can ask the Church for an edict to support their decision adding the support of the Church to their situation.
For example. The Church of Reality requires individual Realists to determine if a war is just or not before participating in a military conflict. The Church of Reality from time to time might issue an edict to declare a war just or unjust. If the Church of Reality declares a war to be unjust then that adds the power of Church authority to the decision of the individual to refuse to serve in the military. If the Church issues an edict that a war is just then that provides guidance to members in their decision to participate or not. But it is ultimately up to the individual to decide. The Church of Reality supports members who decide that all war is wrong. Not all Realists agree on this issue and a person's decision to live their life without being required to kill other people falls within the Principle of Freedom. If the Church issues no edict regarding a war then nothing should be inferred from that. It doesn't mean that the Church is neutral or that the Church has affirmatively decided not to act. It could mean that we have yet to decide the issue. If we don't speak, it doesn't mean that we have decided to not speak.
Edicts of Doctrine are declarations of Church law for the purpose of resolving issues brought before the Church. If a member is asserting a right to a religious freedom to a governmental body and it is unclear if the right is supported in Church of Reality doctrine, the Church might issue an edict to declare how church doctrine relates to the challenged issue.
Have you ever wondered if the world really exists? Maybe this is all one big computer generated illusion and our brains are in a lab somewhere and all of this is an illusion, like in the movie The Matrix. If all of reality is really fiction, then having a fictional creator make sense. The Flying Spaghetti Monster represents the creator of the fiction we live in. We created him so that he can create us. Reality creating fiction, fiction creating reality. This is the theory of circular creationism. The creator creates the creation, which in turn creates the creator. If you think about it, most of the religions of the world already use this model of creationism.
In the beginning was the Big Bang, the moment when time and space were created. The universe expands outward, hits it's limit, and then begins to collapse. As the universe collapses time goes backwards. That is what is happening now, but we aren't aware of it because when time goes backwards we remember the future instead of the past so it all seems the same. But once we hit the Big Crunch (the end of times, which is really also the beginning of times) the universe inverts and becomes the fictional universe of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the cycle continues forever. He creates us and we create him.
We can tell we are getting near the time of the Big Crunch because fictional deities are becoming more and more real as more people turn away from reality in preparation for the great moment of reality inversion. The more we see people believe in the absurd, the closer we are to the Big Crunch. In the end time truth will become fiction and fiction will become truth. Morons will be hailed as geniuses. It will become patriotic to give up your freedom. Actors will be elected to public office in order to assume their roles in the new world order.
Reality too is a dichotomy. There is reality and anti-reality known as fiction. We create fiction and fiction creates us. We are the creators of the fictional Flying Spaghetti Monster. We create the fictional world. In this world lives everything that we imagine. It is a world where Gods and Comic Book super heroes live in harmony. This universe includes Spiderman, Superman, Zeus, Osirus, Thor, Dr. Strange, Jesus, Apollo, Vishnu, Allah, God, the Boggie Man, Satan, Spock, and Captain Kirk. Alice in Wonderland is really a prophesy about the true makeup of our dual universes.
In this reality we make up fiction. We control the fictional universe with our books and stories. Likewise the fictional universe makes up our reality and controls our universe with their books and stories. Their books include the Bible and the Koran and no one doubts the control they have in our reality.
We know that fiction can not exist without reality. But reality can not exist without fiction. Because after all, does the word real have any meaning if we don't have something unreal to compare it to? And if we are comparing what is real to what is not real, doesn't that mean that what is not real exists too? Therefore, the Flying Spaghetti Monster must be real. Circular creationism is supported by circular logic and therefore proves itself. Intelligent Design is therefore true!
See - I wrote this without the use of drugs. I was touched by his noodly appendage. Say No to drugs!
One thing we need to keep in mind in this decision is that we are comparing execution to life imprisonment and not releasing murderers who should be executed back on the street. The choices here relate to comparing the justice of execution to other ways of dealing with the problem of how to deal with people who wrongly take the life of another. The issue is even if death were more justified than life in prison, is the additional justification worth the cost? That is what we need to think about when deciding the merits of this issue.
You say you believe in real reality. How do you know your view of reality is real?
We don't. Our claim to believe in reality the way it really is, actually is a goal. As we all know, no one knows everything about reality. So the Church of Reality is really a religious commitment to the pursuit of reality the way it really is. What we do is make reality important in our personal lives and to raise the importance of reality in society.
An important concept is that there is no "our reality" that the Church of Reality believes in that is either right or wrong. Our church doesn't usually declare what is real and what isn't. Our religion is a commitment to pursue reality wherever that leads us. So there is no "our reality" to get wrong. We are more properly judged in respect to whether our pursuit of objective reality is genuine. So - if we took a position on something and you can show us we are wrong, we are committed to changing our minds.
But what if the Church of Reality is wrong? What do you do then?
If we realize that we are wrong, we fix it. Our doctrine, which we call the Kernel, is always under development. We assume that the Kernel can always be improved. The Church of Reality has a dynamic doctrine rather than a static doctrine. We are a religion committed to change, but not just any change. We commit to Positive Evolution. We are evolving forward in the Sacred Direction. Making mistakes is just part of the evolutionary process. What is different about us as compared to most religions is that we fix our mistakes.
Isn't Reality just science? Why do you want to stain science by lowering it to the level of a religion?
In pure science the universe is just stars exploding and rocks in space bumping into each other. In pure science whatever happens - happens. Nothing has any value. It doesn't matter to science if the human race thrives or becomes extinct. The Church of Reality has chosen a world view that our survival does matter and that we are to thrive and to become aware and to understand our reality. We have chosen through the Sacred Choices to move forward in a positive direction towards a better tomorrow. These choices are arbitrary choices and are therefore a religious choice. Other religions envision the future in destruction and that humanity is at its end. Our world view is that we are at the beginning of the Sacred Journey towards a tomorrow that is wondrous, and we have made a religious commitment to dedicate our lives to that goal.
What about personal reality? Isn't everyone's reality different?
There's one's own personal perception of reality, and there is one's personal life and thoughts. But then there's the "real world" or objective reality that we all live in and share. If reality was all personal, then perhaps the universe was created on October 10, 1955 - the day I was born - and the universe will end the day I die. Maybe the world is just an illusion and that you all don't really exist? Maybe my brain is in a jar in a laboratory somewhere and this all is just a computer generated illusion - that some day I'm going to wake up and be back home on my own planet and this all will be nothing more than a dream.
One illustration I like to make about personal reality and objective reality is this: suppose that a Buddhist who has a personal relationship with God and a Christian who has a personal relationship with God both jump off the Golden Gate Bridge at the same time, both believing that their God can make them fly. Which one will hit the water first? (In a vacuum)
Becoming a Realist involves giving up some of your personal beliefs and personal realities because real reality is different and the Church of Reality is about the way it really is - not what you want to believe in.
When attending a Unitarian Church it is important to be respectful of the members of the Unitarian community, remembering that we are individuals forming a community, just like everyone else. Unitarians like to exchange ideas about their widely variant philosophies, and we are there not just to talk about reality but also to learn about reality. We're not there to try to convert anyone to Realism.
Unitarians are activists and care deeply about equality and social justice. They protest together and sometimes their bonds are based on being arrested together as a community. Nothing like spending the night in jail with someone to really get to know them. I think I would be proud to be arrested with a Unitarian.
We in the Church of Reality are new at this. Unitarians have centuries of experience and have made great contributions to the Tree of Knowledge. Much of what we know today and value in the Church of Reality came from our Unitarian ancestors. So it is totally acceptable to have both the Unitarian and the Realist identities at the same time.
One of the best ways to promote the Church of Reality web site is to link to us. If you have a web site, then put a link to this site on your front page. Feel free to grab any of our graphics to use for the link. Tell your readers why you like the Church of Reality so that they will want to visit this web site. The more people find out about it, the more people will link to it. Every link to this web site makes the world a better place to live because it makes reality more important.
If you don't have a web site then tell your friends about it. If you know people who have web sites, ask them if they would link to us. Links are the Internet equivalent of word of mouth, but it speaks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you participate in online discussions you can promote the Church of Reality by commenting on blogs that have comment sections and putting links in the comments. When linking for comment on blogs, be respectful and try to relate it to the topic being discussed. Don't go out and just post unrelated spam about the Church of Reality. Your comments should be relevant to the discussion.
A lot of web sites have discussion forums, like our discussion forum, where people talk about issues. There are a lot of good forums that relate to religion, reality, Atheism, Humanism, and the impact of religion as it relates to politics. These are good places to discuss the Church of Reality. Remember that most people have never heard about this religion before, so try to explain things in a way that assumes that the information is understandable. And, in your comments, try to add links back to this web site so that people can discover all the information that we have posted here.
We are not a church that tends to hit you up for money donations. We are trying, as much as possible, to grow this religion without being dependent on money. We are modeled after open source software projects that are used by tens of millions of people but are not money driven. These online software communities are spread by word of mouth on the web. The Church of Reality is like open source software for the human race and we want to form a community of developers that help build upon this religion to make it a religion that is of the people. No central church with fat TV preachers living in mansions. That's not the way we are going to be.
So in order to grow we aren't asking you for your money, but we do need you to put in some time and effort to spread the word. We have a concept called Intellectual Tithing which means that you contribute with your brain. We would rather have your thoughts and we want you to share our enthusiasm, make this your religion, and proclaim to the world that reality is the true king!
The Church of Reality has two separate elements. We are an institution and we are individuals. As an institution we are politically neutral. As individuals we are extremely active. Our Sacred Principle of Activism inspires us to get involved and change the world. In the Church of Reality it is a sin to fail to vote in an election. We don't tell you who to vote for, but our governments have a huge impact on our ability to pursue the understanding of reality and we therefore need to make sure that we elect people who are compatible with our religious goals and vote on issues that support our Principle of Positive Evolution.
Politics is in the realm of individual choice. We are a church of individuals who are strongly individualistic. We are not here to tell you who to vote for. Realists, however, are politically aware people with a keen interest in society and the functioning of government. We are people who participate in the structure of society. We are people who want to make the world a better place, care passionately about causes, social justice, holding leaders accountable, ethical government, peace, and education, to name a few. We are a religion of thinkers. We use reason and wisdom to think things through and come up with the best solution.
We are people who honor those of great political courage. We are people who are not only willing to fight for what's right, but to have the honesty and wisdom to figure out what is right before we fight. We are people who are dedicated to not being fooled by Bullshit and becoming political suckers, because it creates a false sense of self importance. We are willing to go out and protest and, if necessary, to get arrested for causes that are just. We are a culture that speaks out. We believe that to remain silent and allow injustice to occur may be the same as participating in the injustice itself.
Our simplistic definition of our church is that "we believe in everything that is real." But that really doesn't define us. A more accurate definition is that we are here to change society for the better. We are here to transform our world into a better place to live. We are here to transform society into a smarter society. We are here to transform ourselves into better and wiser people. Our goal is the understanding of reality as it really is. But our method for achieving that goal is through Positive Evolution. Positive Evolution isn't an opinion that humanity is evolving forward. Positive Evolution is a commitment we make to do our best to ensure that humanity evolves forward. And we aren't going to evolve forward unless we as individuals are willing to work to affect the nation states that we live in. So even though the Church of Reality is a religion and politically neutral, as individuals we are very politically active.
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Church law and religious rights are set fourth here in the Kernel which is our Church Doctrine. This doctrine might include external references like Humanism or United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. This forms the documentation of our belief system which is a growing and evolving document. The First One and the Council of Realists have the power and authority to interpret church law and doctrine. Issues not covered specifically, or where there is a controversy over the meaning of church doctrine, may be settled by an edict of the First One.
In a United States court case, Russo v. Central School District No. 1, the court made this profound statement that reflects precisely the position of the Church of Reality.
"Patriotism that is forced is a false patriotism just as loyalty that is coerced is the very antithesis of loyalty. We ought not impugn the loyalty of a citizen any more than we ought necessarily to praise the loyalty of a citizen who without conviction or meaning, and with mental reservation, recites the pledge by rote each morning. Surely patriotism and loyalty go deeper than that."
For a Realist to recite state sponsored pledges is an insult to the very freedoms the State supposedly stands for.
A Realist is a Realist because they can not live the lie. State sponsored acts of patriotism are in direct conflict with our Sacred Principle of Honesty. To require a Realist to recite a pledge or to salute a flag is to deny a Realist his religious right to pursue reality as it really is. For a Realist, even a Realist who is truly patriotic, the act of reciting a state sponsored pledge diminishes the patriotic experience because it is not an act of the individual praising the State, but the State praising itself. When the State requires affirmations by its citizens it is an implied admission that the conduct of the State is unworthy of praise on its own merits. So even a Realist who loves the State and is totally loyal to the State is harmed by state sponsored affirmations of loyalty.
What we are up against in fiction based religions is that using the name of God they can promise you anything. They have everlasting bliss in Heaven, 70 virgins, omnipotent intervention, an inflated sense of self worth, a loving community, ego treats, a sense of some grand purpose, and of course, burning in Hell forever for those who fail to believe. One thing that religions understand is that they start brainwashing their children early because they understand that the earlier they establish mental patterns the harder it is to change them.
Like the tricks that the tobacco industry uses to make cigarettes as addictive as possible, religions have evolved techniques to make their religion as addictive as possible.
Conversion to fiction based religions is easier than reality based religions. If a person is in an emotional crisis and someone comes along offering them a solution to their problems, they might just go for it. After all, it's so easy. All you have to do is believe and an omnipotent protector is going to intervene on your behalf and take care of you forever. What a deal! People want the quick fix. Reality often isn't a pretty picture. If someone is in a real bind then they have to do hard work to get out of it.
If they have lost someone they want to believe that they will be reunited with their lost loved one in some afterlife. We want to believe that when we die that we are going to go to a better place, or at least something other than ceasing to exist. We want to believe that our total existence is more than 75 years and then we are gone. And it's really easy for religions to create false hope because there aren't any dead people out there who have come back from the afterlife to talk about it. If the dead could talk a lot of religions would be in big trouble.
Marc Perkel, the First One of the Church of Reality is often heard (but not often enough) giving radio interviews. Interviews are good because it gives other people the chance to ask the questions they want and give us insight into what people are thinking about reality based religion.
In December of 2004 Marc Perkel was interviewed on Air America Radio. The interview is about 20 minutes long and Mike Malloy did a fine job of making Reality interesting.
Early in 2005 Reggie Findley the Infidel Guy interviewed me in a call in format in an hour long show. Reggie is a really good interviewer and interviews many people on religious topics.
Soon after I was on the Infidel Guy I was invited by Joe Vecchio to be on the Cup O' Joe Show. This is a longer interview and it is also a lot about my history and other things I've been into besides just the Church of Reality. Maybe more about me than you really want to know. The original show is an hour long and if you have the time it's worth listening to. But I did cut it down to a 40 minute version that is a lot smaller to download and is just that part where I talk.
I like radio better than TV because on the radio you can hear me say, "you know" every 3 seconds. But on TV you can see me say it over and over again as well. Last summer I was on thos wonderful TV show on cable access TV in Mountian View California called "What's up with That?", hosted by Firedup Productions. This is a big file (140 megs) and is in Quicktime format so it's going to take some time to download to watch. And the audio levels in the first few minutes are kind of clipped but it does get better if you stick with it. Andrew Willyoung did a brilliant job of interviewing me. And it's a lot of fun so Here it is.
In October of 2005 John Sugg who does interviews on a non profit radio station in Atlanta did this 23 minute interview about the Church of Reality and politics. It also convers letters to the editor that I write.
Here's another radio interview on a syndicated Christian talk show called The Way of the Masters. The Interveiw is 50 minutes long and is a very interesting interview by a hard core Christial fundamentalist Todd Friel who is very sharp and asks a lot of good questions.
On March 5, 2006 I got a call from KXRA 540 Radio who has a show called The Naked Ape. The interview is 30 minutes long and covers a variety of subjects including the recient edict about the South Dakota Abortion Law.
Many people are subjected to ownership by their religions. "You do not own yourself, you belong to GAWD!" they tell you. You have to surrender yourself to Jesus. You have to give up control of yourself to your master, priest, mullah, teacher, group will, or whatever wants to dominate you. That is one of the big differences between the Church of Reality and many other religions. We believe in self ownership and many of them believe in religious/deity ownership and that they are in control of what you can do, what you are required to believe, even what you are allowed or not allowed to think about. You are their slave. You may be a slave by choice, but a person who chooses to be subjugated is still subjugated. Many people who believe that they have chosen that path freely believe it because they are told that they have to believe that they chose that path freely.
In order to explore reality the way it really is, we need people to be explorers, not followers. Followers don't contribute anything to the exploration of reality. Yes, learning is a fine thing and people do need some learning in order to get started exploring. but the Church of Reality expects that at some point that you will begin Intellectual Tithing, which is to contributes something to the Tree of Knowledge. In other words, you figure something out and tell us something that we didn't know. You contribute something exciting that we can build upon. The Church of Reality isn't here to tell you what to believe. We want you to help us explore reality together. In order to do that, you have to own yourself, to be an individual, to think for yourself, to keep your mind sharp, and to be imaginative and innovative. We need you to be you, not to be us.
We don't have a God to tell us what to do. So we have to do the hard work and figure it out for ourselves.
Followers don't come up with new ideas. That's why religions that own you are static religions that don't come up with new and better ideas and don't fix the mistakes of their past. They tell you what to think. You aren't allowed to come up with your own better ideas and help the religion evolve. The Church of Reality is a dynamic religion. We are an evolving religion. We are a religion that is constantly under development. The more minds that are working on it, the better we are most likely to become. We don't have an omnipotent authority figure to tell us what to do through dead prophets who wrote ancient holy books.
We are realists and we have to do the hard work. We have to fill in for the missing invisible cloud being that remains hidden and silent. The Church of Reality requires that you think for yourself. You can't do that if someone else is doing your thinking for you. You have to own yourself, take control and make your beliefs your own personal beliefs because you thought about it and you concluded that you are in fact correct. If you happen to agree with other Realists, then great minds think alike. If you happen to disagree, then we figure out who has it right.
I was born in 1955 of two weakly Jewish parents. At the age of five I was forced to endure religious training, something I hated. I already resented having to go to public school, and now they wanted to take away the weekends too. So as a Jew I learned about the Old Testament and this funny language called Hebrew. Before that I had been exposed to the idea of God, but not enough to give it a lot of thought.
But now I was supposed to learn this stuff instead of spending time with my grandmother who was teaching me mathematics which I really loved. I remember these stories about animal sacrifices and God calling on people to sacrifice their children, but calling it off at the last minute. I saw people worshiping and praying. I was told that God got angry, destroyed the world with a great flood, then promised never to do that again. Being a logical person this guy God seemed to have some real problems with his emotions.
But then they got to the Exodus story and it came to the point where God killed the first born son of all the Egyptians. Being a first born son myself this was getting personal. That this God who was all wise and all knowing would kill someone like me because of my parents' behavior? No! I'm not buying this story. I rebelled. I decided this was all stupid and that I wasn't going to participate. I started skipping out and pocketing the 15 cents of charity money that I was given to throw into the till and going up on the hills to play with things that really interested me. Things like fire.
Fortunately my parents rarely showed up at Temple themselves so they had no idea that I wasn't going. Eventually word would get back to them and there would be punishment, but I endured it and when forced to attend I made sure they regretted every moment of it. So eventually they figured out that if they didn't report to my parents that I wasn't there, they didn't have to endure my presence when I was forced to come. Jews fortunately don't take their religion as seriously as Christians so if I missed out it wasn't as big of a deal.
I also lived a block away from St. Michael's, a large catholic church and school and several of the kids in the neighborhood we Catholic and had to attend both church and school there. The Catholic religion was a lot scarier than being Jewish because it was clear that had I been Catholic I wouldn't have been able to get away with the things I got away with as a Jew. So - even though I thought it was bullshit, I stuck with the Jewish identity because it wasn't nearly as bad as being Catholic or Christian which other kids were and I saw as something separate from being Catholic at the time.
One thing the Catholics had that the Jews didn't was that their church was open most all the time and anyone could wander in to this huge space that was mostly empty. And they had all these prayer candles there that you were supposed to drop in a dime and light one. So I'd go in and light them all sometimes and it became a source for matches which allowed me to start campfires and find old lead pipes to melt down and pour into molds for fishing sinkers. But while inside the catholic church I noticed the big Jesus hanging on the cross. As a Jew I identified this as "Idol Worship". They were worshiping a stone image. So I thought of Catholics as the primitive heathens who didn't realize that God wasn't a graven image, but the invisible cloud being. Later in school I would not say the pledge to the flag for the same reason. It was idol worship.
Although I wasn't as fortunate as people who are raised as Atheists I managed to resist being forced to become a theist. I never really bought into the God thing although if you had asked me when I was under 12 if I believed in God I would have hesitantly said yes, I never really got to the point where I actually owned the belief. It was in the world of adult superstition and adults were not to be trusted, which is another story in itself.
Sometimes it's easy to get discouraged in the face of illusion but there's one thing to always remember. Reality is here to stay. Reality isn't going away. Reality always was and always will be. Reality was there at the beginning of time and will be there till the end of time. And no matter how many people believe in things that aren't true, reality stays the same.
It is always there and you can always turn to the real world, embrace the truth, and we as a society can make better choices. Reality can change your life today. You can embrace it, explore it, own it. Thinking about reality is the joy of being real in the sacred moment. You can become one with the real world. Let reality into your soul and experience the knowledge that everything in the world is real.
Reality gives us strength. it gives us courage. Reality gives us the true freedom to make the most out of who we are and what we will become. We owe our very existence to reality. If we reject reality, we have nothing left.
We are surrounded by all this wonderful knowledge. Knowledge that we can grow, that we can share, that we can build our future with. We can use reality to build a better tomorrow, a world that we can be proud of and we come together as one people, as one planet, to live in peace and let reality take humanity to its full potential. We have the power to choose our destiny. To decide what we will become. Let us therefore make the best choice possible and let reality guide our decisions in everything we do. We can become the dream.
This is the Gospel of Reality. Go forth and proclaim it!
It's important to think about the future. This is especially true of teens because your teen years are very important. This is the time when your core personality is forming and what you envision as a teen has a huge influence on who and what you will become for the rest of your life. Many teens end up being the result of their experiences as a teen. That's why it's important for you to own yourself and take control of who you are and what you want to become. After all, it's your life and if you don't take control of it then you won't be able to fully experience your potential.
So - it's good to think about what you want to be when you grow up. Do you see yourself being a normal happy person? Do you want to get married, have a family, or do you what to be your own person, be independent? Do you want to accomplish great things? Do you want to make lots of money? Do you want to be a world leader? Invent cool stuff? Be in a band? Run for office? Live on a farm and grow your own food? Be an artist? Who are you really? And what do you want to become?
Picture yourself as an adult. What do you see? Where do you see your life going? Who are you really? What do you like to do? What do you care about? What is the most important thing in your life?
Contemplating the name "Church of Reality" is the first step in becoming a Realist. The name is the message. The Church of Reality is by definition a religion dedicated to the pursuit of reality the way it really is. But what does that mean? How do you accomplish that? Is this church truly accomplishing this or is there a better way? Let us assume that a Church of Reality is possible for the purpose of discussion. What do you think it should be like?
This Church of Reality is the idea of the First One, Marc Perkel, who came up with the name and started this reality based church. but just because it was first doesn't mean that it's being done right. In fact we assume that mistakes are being made and that there is a better way to do what we are doing. Furthermore everyone has a point of view and in order to become a Realist you have to identify with reality from your point of view and what it means to you and your life situation.
So before we tell you what we think the Church of Reality means, think about it yourself. Suppose you had the idea of creating a "Church of Reality", what do you think that would be like? You see, the Church of Reality wasn't created of of divine inspiration. We don't have a holy book to follow. It is created by people like you and me wondering about how to do reality based religion right.
The name "Church of Reality" is out there. Even if this implementation of the Church of Reality fails the idea of reality based religion isn't going away. The church is created and evolves through contemplating the name.
The Covenant of Reality is our promise that the Church of Reality is going to stick with reality. This is our promise that we aren't going to compromise on what is real. If the Church of Reality doesn't stick with reality then the name doesn't mean anything and our religion becomes indistinguishable from the fiction based religions. The pursuit of reality as it really is requires the disciplines of scientific principle. If we believe what we want to believe rather than what is real then our pursuit of reality becomes diluted with misinformation and our fictions become barriers to the Path of Knowledge. We therefore make this covenant to commit ourselves to reality as it really is.
The Church of Reality presents these good and bad personality traits not as commandment but as suggestions. We want to avoiding the misconception that they are confused with something like the "Ten Commandments" or the "Seven Deadly Sins". You are not expected to live up to each and every one of these and there is no judgment involved based on these suggestions.
We present a template rather than a set of rules.
The reason they are presented in the form of a template is to show what a good Realist might act like. These are things to teach your children so they have an idea of what good behavior is supposed to look like. It is also a public statement to the rest of the world about what kind of people we are and what our values are.
People of other religions are often concerned about Atheists because they are taught that without God that the concept of right and wrong goes away and society degenerates into a "survival of the fittest" style of evolution where humans evolve by killing off the weak. This fear has been fueled by authors like Ayn Rand who was correct about the existence of objective reality, but dead wrong when it came to extolling the virtues of selfishness and looking at altruism as welfare for the inferior.
Realists are neither Atheists or Objectivists. We have our own culture based on the positive pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is. To that end we have determined that we explore reality collectively and that our religious pursuit of reality depends on a strong healthy society where humankind lives in peace and harmony. So it is therefo within our mission to have an idea of what that kind of society looks like.
We are also a strongly individualistic religion. We value personal freedom. Thus these suggestions are not to be construed as commandments. We are not here to tell you what to do and how to live your life. Nor will you be judged against these rules to determine where you are going to go in the "next life". However, we think it's safe to say that if you don't appreciate the value of curiosity in a religion that is pursuing the understanding of reality, you're probably in the wrong religion.
These values are not divinely inspired, nor are they considered to be a complete and perfect list. As with anything in the Church of Reality, they are subject to revision and improvement. So this list should be taken seriously, but not too seriously. The Church of Reality is a religion and one of the functions of a religion is to put forth a template to guide people in what is proper behavior. We have taken it a step further in that we try to give some reasoning as to how we came to this conclusion.
Our focus is on the positive side.
We also focus more heavily on what people should be doing rather that what they shouldn't be doing. If you spend your time doing the right thing, there isn't time to be doing the wrong thing. We focus on accomplishment rather than sins, improvement rather than perfection, healing rather than punishing, this life rather than a next life.
The Church of Reality hereby asserts the religious right to use experimental lifesaving drugs, even if these drugs are not deemed to be safe, in order to treat serious illness that is disabling, life threatening, or terminal illness. Although we respect the various government agencies who are charged with keeping drugs safe for public use, we recognize that when an individual is terminal, that they have a right to be allowed to take greater risks than individuals who are otherwise healthy because they have nothing to lose. The reasoning behind this edict is as follows:
The Church of Reality is a religion based on the pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is by humans. Humans understand reality collectively through the Tree of Knowledge which represents the sum total of all human understanding. Even though we understand reality collectively, the collective is made up of individuals who contribute their knowledge and experience as functional happy members of a harmonious society in which the individual can explore reality living in a sane and healthy society.
As Realists we are free thinkers and as part of our religious practice, we think things through and we think for ourselves. We are Explorers not Followers and because the future is the Sacred Direction, we assume a position of leadership in society. It is our religious mandate to guide society towards a better understanding of reality as it really is. Although we are generally a law-abiding group, when the laws of the nation states for which we are members impose laws on us that are not supported by logic or reason and impose an undue burden on our way of life, then we have a religious duty to both work to change the law and in some cases to disobey the law.
Some countries allow certain groups to have an exception to the laws where the law interferes with their religious freedoms. The United States at this point in time is one of them that allows for such an exception based on religious doctrine. Our doctrine is an evolving doctrine. As the times we live in change and our technology evolves, our doctrine evolves with it. We as Realists are in a unique position to change our doctrine to suit our religious needs. In this case we issue this edict to assert our religious position so that institutions of justice can more easily ascertain our religious position and accommodate our religious rights.
The Church of Reality doctrine includes the concept of Self Ownership. We are the owners of our own lives. We are writing our own Life Story. The very core of who we are includes a greater level of self-determination than most other religions assert. We make our own choices and it is important to us even if some people make bad choices. Although we understand that other people need to be protected from being harmed by the bad choices of some individuals, when it comes to making choices where the consequences of the choices are primarily visited upon the individual making the choice, then we assert that a person has the right to make those choices where there exists some rational basis to make the choice.
A good place to start in understanding our religion at this point is to read about How we are Different than other religions. This will give you an overview of what we are and what we are not. The Church of Reality is more about what we do than what we believe in. Some religions only really require that you believe in what they believe in. Likewise the Church of Reality starts with a commitment to believing in reality as it really is. But that is just the starting point. The commitment to the pursuit of the understanding of reality is the first of the Sacred missions. There are many others.
If what you believe in is real, then Realism is not a threat to your religious beliefs.
In addition to believing in reality, we evangelize reality. Our world view is that every time the word reality is used the world becomes a little smarter. The word Reality is our Sacred Message and whenever people discuss reality that's Communion.
Humans understand reality collectively as well as individually. One doesn't build a Mars lander in their garage and launch it from their back yard. We do this as a community. And when we look out across the Martian landscape we, as the human race, share common eyes that allow us to look at Mars collectively. It took the work of millions of minds working across thousands of years to create the technology to allow us to understand the reality of Mars together. We in the Church of Reality recognize the vast amount of common knowledge we understand together. It is our collective understanding of reality that allows us to understand reality individually. We refer to this common knowledge as the Tree of Knowledge which represents the sum total of all human understanding.
Our mission as Realists is to care for and to grow the Tree of Knowledge. Our religion is more than just the statement that we believe in everything that's real. Our mission is to realize that our understanding of reality is limited and that we must always work to increase our collective understanding of the universe. So as we take from the Tree of Knowledge as a basis for what we know, we also give back to the Tree through Intellectual Tithing where we share with each other and future generations what we've learned. Our mission is not just to understand but for understanding itself to grow so that the universe can better understand itself through humanity.
Because we are committed to the task of increasing the understanding of reality, and because we understand reality collectively, with every generation building upon the knowledge of the previous generation, the human race must evolve forward and continue to progress. That is why we consider the future to be our Sacred Direction. We are a forward looking culture who dreams about what we can become and are committed to getting there. This leads to the first of our Sacred Principles -- The Principle of Positive Evolution -- and it becomes the basis for our Sacred Moral Question "What is good?"
Is Reality part of your life story? Where does Reality fit into your belief system?
To that end we issue the Sacred Challenge to inspire people of other religions to not run from reality but to embrace it and to join with us in recognizing the pursuit of reality as it really is as a good thing. We challenge the world to embrace the future the way we do and to share our values for the progress of humanity towards a brighter future. We wish to Unite Religion and Reality and invite you to join us in that cause. We are Activist and it is our mission not just to talk about it, not just to believe in it, but to actually make it happen.
The Church of Reality is based on a number of Sacred Principles. We are a Doubt Based religion. We require that everything be tested. Our world view is that truth is purified through scrutiny and that's why we have the principle of Scrutiny and Doubt. We identify ourselves as Explorers rather than Followers. Our moral compass is based on the Positive Evolution of humanity. In order to accomplish that we believe that we need to have a strong functional society based on Freedom, Courage and Honesty. We have developed a Realist Culture to help us define who we are as a people. We have a strong sense of Self Ownership that combines giving us the Freedom and Responsibility to control our own Life Story and take charge of our individual lives and our role in existence.
The Church of Reality is an Inclusive Religion. Everyone is welcome. In our religion everyone has equal rights no matter what race your are, what gender you are, what your sexual preferences are, or the geography of where you were born. We don't demonize others. Our view is that people are basically good and we believe in Original Virtue rather than original sin. We see ourselves as one people, one planet. We are environmentalists. We believe in personal choice and personal responsibility. We admire attributes like Curiosity. We are a people who want to know everything. We want to understand it all. We have a quest for knowledge. And not just any knowledge but about reality as it really is.
We don't know if there is some sort of grand purpose in our existence. We don't know if reality has a purpose. But it is what we don't know that makes us want to know. We are different from other religions in that it is OK for us to not know everything. We are a Humble culture because we understand that this planet is but a speck of dust in the universe. We are not a religion that has all the answers. We don't have a supernatural leader who has all the answers. We don't have an afterlife to offer people in exchange for their loyalty. Nor do we have any deities to fall back on in troubled times. We have to do the hard work for ourselves. We have to figure it out on our own. We have to make it happen.
The Church of Reality is a Monorealistic religion in that we believe there is one reality that is the sum of all realities that are actually real. We don't believe in "this reality" and the "next reality" or that reality itself changes to match what you want to believe in. We don't play games with terminology to try to sneak something in that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
Marriage means a lot of different things. There is a relationship between two people who are wedded and the relationship to the local government in which the couple resides. Although these two concepts have the same name, they are two very different things. Thus we refer to the relationship between two people as a wedding, or being wedded. We refer to marriage as the government marriage or "State Marriage". We see the State as the third party in the relationship. Civil Unions are also a form of state marriage. We also see the decision to do a state marriage as a separate event that a wedded couple may or may not choose to do.
Although some religions link the wedding and the state marriage as being one thing, we in the Church of Reality do not. We consider those choices to be up to the couple and in our view those couples who have a state marriage and those who do not, have equal standing in our church. Children born in our out of "wedlock" also have equal standing. Our only requirement when it comes to having children is that those who choose to reproduce should take responsibility for the well-being of the children that they created.
What a state marriage means varies with where you live and what governments have authority over you at the time. Generally all governments recognize the existence of marriages in other jurisdictions but, in case of divorce, apply the rules of their jurisdiction. So you might get married in a state with one set of laws but divorced in a state with a different set of laws. If the state changes the laws then you are subject to those changes. You can not undo the marriage on the basis that the laws changed and you don't like the new agreement you have with the government.
In modern society divorce rates are high. More than half of all marriages end in divorce. When this happens the government takes control of your assets and income and you are often forced to spend everything you own hiring lawyers who are actually state sponsored predators who see the relationship as an extension of the welfare system and force the more prosperous member of the couple to pay alimony to the spouse, even though these laws were created in a time when women were considered the property of men and couldn't work and had to stay home to raise children. A gay male couple is subject to these same laws.
Most government laws were written and developed at a time where reproducing heterosexual couples were the norm. The laws contemplate a lifelong bond where children are created and generational issues are addressed. These laws were not written for same-sex relationships or non reproducing heterosexuals who are often trapped in laws not designed for them. Our view is that individual couples should create their own relationship that is customized to their particular set of circumstances rather than the "one size fits all" state marriage that varies with time and location. To that end the Church of Reality rejects the concept of state marriage and we substitute our own. If a couple chooses to have a state marriage that is an agreement between them and the state, not part of the Church of Reality.
Every religion has a starting point. They all have some basis for what they believe in. Some religions are inspired by the wisdom of some great leader or a prophet who has a connection to a deity. Often there is some holy book involved that is believed to contain divine knowledge that is considered the word of the creator of the universe. Whatever the story is, every religion has one that creates a starting point and an authority which belief is based upon.
So what is the starting point for the Church of Reality? As a reality based religion we can't just make something up and just choose to believe it. Nor can we base it on someone's subjective opinion. Because we are reality based we have an additional burden of having to explain why we do what we do in terms that will stand up to Scrutiny. That way other great minds can look at our work from an independent perspective and determine if we are on the right track.
The first of the Sacred Contemplations is Contemplating the Name. If you were going to create a "Church of Reality" - what would you do? One of the reasons behind this test is to see if other people working independently would create a Church of Reality that is at least similar to the one we have. We want to ensure the Church of Reality is in fact a logical extension of reality itself. Accomplishing this task is no small feat, but nonetheless, we endeavor to do so.
Although the Church of Reality has a higher burden of proof when it comes to church doctrine, in some ways we have an advantage. Since we are not sponsored by an infallible deity if we get something wrong we can fix it. If we come up with a better idea we can replace the old idea with the new one. All religions are evolving but the Church of Reality embraces its evolution. As we better understand the universe we live in we will continue to improve and refine our positions.
Today the Church of Reality is issuing a warning to the United States of America that taking a path to self destruction is a really bad idea. The government of America has become critically dysfunctional. If this trend doesn't reverse itself America will cease to exist and will no longer be a part of reality.
It is easier to destroy a nation that it is to build one. It is easier to be angry in the short term that it is to take responsibility. It is easier to hate government than it is to create a government that works. But if you continue to turn your back on reality, eventually reality will turn its back on you. We, as a world community have no choice but to either embrace reality or we will cease to exist.
America has become a system of government though hostage taking. Those who want to destroy the government or want to protect the income of their constituency will block something vital to society until they get their way. And the current administration is to weak to stand up to them.
Humans have evolved strength through cooperation. When we work together we are stronger and when society fails we are weaker. America is fracturing and falling apart and as a result America has put itself on a patch to self destruction. We are on a path to extinction. And because America is currently the world's economic and military powerhouse we are putting humanity itself at risk.
Some people might argue that without an omnipotent rule giver that nothing has meaning. They might say that we merely exist and that even if there is a reason we exist that the universe has no purpose, and that humanity certainly has no purpose. Some might say that we a just one planet in a universe of trillions of trillions of planets, a mere speck of dust, and that there might be millions of other planets with more advanced life than us. Why would our existence matter?
Does the Universe have preferences? Is there things the Universe cares about? Is the Universe itself trying to accomplish something?
Let's look at what the universe is. Some 13.72 billion years ago there was the "Big Bang" and somehow the universe came into existence. From that point the universe started to evolve. First energy condensed into matter - just hydrogen and helium gas to start with. But as time progressed gravity pulled the gasses together and as heat and pressure grew nuclear fusion started and the first starts were born.
After a few hundred million years (for red giants) the star burns through the lighter elements and when it gets up to fusing iron the star collapses and goes supernova and spews out all the heavier elements into space. Over the next 10 billion years this process continues creating generations of stars and solar systems until our little speck of dust planet - the Earth - is born.
Somehow, in a process we don't fully understand, organic chemicals combined to create early life. Early life evolved into more complex life through random mutations with survival as a filter. That which wasn't improved didn't survive. This survival filter is what turns random variations into evolution.
What is life? What properties does life have? One property of life is that life continues. If it doesn't continue that it is no longer alive. When a species doesn't continue it goes extinct. We are the descendents of the life that continued. Our ancestors all the way back to perhaps a single bacteria were the ones who got it right and continued to exist as an organism of increasing complexity. And humanity is the result of that process.
Evolution is a property of the universe. Humanity is a result of evolution. We are the result of what the universe does.
It would seem that the universe has properties and that evolution is a property of the universe. That if you start with a big bang and apply the laws of the universe over time that life emerges. When life emerges it evolves and it continues to exist based on survival. The better tools it has to survive the more likely it will avoid extinction.
So here we are and we evolved intelligence. Being intelligent helps us to survive. The smarter we become the better our chances are. In act there's noting between us and extinction other than dumb luck and out ability to outwit anything that could kill us. Thus evolution selects on that which is smarter.
The universe evolved into us. We are the universe. The universe contemplates its own existence through us.
We have, in fact, become smarter and smarter and we can now go out into space with out space based telescopes and pear back at the universe to the beginning of time. (Or at least within a few hundred million years of the beginning of time.) We are at the point where we can contemplate the universe. We know how big it is - how old it is - how it started - and we understand the physics behind how it works. Not completely of course, but for some evolved pond scum on a speck of dust we know quite a bit.
But what does it all mean? Let's connect the dots. The universe comes into existence and it evolves. Evolution is a property of the universe. The universe evolves life. Life accelerates evolution. Life selects on its ability to continue to exist. Since intelligence is a survival skill life becomes smarter. Humans evolve and contemplate the universe.
But we are the universe. We are not something that is outside looking in. We are star stuff. The properties of the universe created us. The more we understand the universe the more likely we are to survive. As we become smarter we get to the point where we contemplate our own creation process. But we are the universe, so it would be correct to say that the universe contemplates itself through us. That we are the mechanism that the universe created to become self aware through us.
I'm not saying that the big bang had intent to create us for some higher purpose. But it's more like asking, "How does a rock know how to roll downhill?" It doesn't have to know how to do it, or have the intents to roll downhill, it just does. Rocks have mass and when they are exposed to gravity it rolls downhill.
Similarly universes evolve and when they do they create intelligent life and eventually that life contemplates how it was created. This may be happening on other planets and we are one of many places in the universe where this is happening. Or we might be unique and this is it and if we fail it might take billions of years before it happens again. Different people have opinions but no one actually knows. All we really know is that it's happening here.
If life is an emergent property of the universe, and if intelligence is an emergent property of life, then we are part of a greater process that leads to the universe developing the ability to be self aware. That the laws of existence leads to this and humanity is part of that process. That is that we are part of that process so far and as lobg as we cheat extinction.
Our higher purpose is to continue the process that created us in the first place.
If we continue on the path that we seem to be on then we will continue to evolve. Our evolution will require us to become even smarter and have our understanding of reality expand. The universe will become smarter through us. We therefore have a purpose in that we are part of a natural process that leads to the universe becoming self aware. Does that have meaning? Is this some kind of a higher purpose? Is this the meaning of meaning? I think it is.
Big evolution is like Big History. It's a more comprehensive view of evolution. big evolution includes all of Old Evolution but it adds a lot of detail to the view of evolution. Big evolution includes the software of the species. The evolved behavior, the emotions. How life forms communities and alliances. It includes all life and the history of life back to the very first life forms on earth.
Big Evolution sees life as a single individual that started billions of years ago and continues through today. We are all port of it. And it includes the things life built. It includes the hives, the beaver dams, and the space telescopes. Or technology is part of big evolution. The Tree of Knowledge is part of it. And it includes what we are evolving into.
So, what, if anything, deserves the title GOD? What is the biggest thing that exists? What is that for which nothing can be greater? Is there something that is clearly and indisputably greater and bigger than everything else? If there is - we have our God candidate. We can ten put the god candidate to the god tests to determine if our candidate deserves to be God.
Is Reality God? If Reality isn't God then there is no God.
There actually is a fairly obvious answer to this question, Reality deserves the title God! Reality is the sum total of everything that exists. Reality includes everything that is actually real. It includes everything in the universe. It includes all other universes in the multiverse if there is a multiverse. Reality includes all other realities that might actually be real. Reality would include all other god candidates of all other religions that actually exist. If anything is real, then it is a part of Reality. If something isn't part of Reality - then it doesn't exist. And if God doesn't exist - then it can't be God.
So - since Reality is the biggest and greatest then if anything is God it has to be Reality. If there were some other God candidate it would be a lesser God. And we all know that whatever God is - it's can't be lesser. In a God contest, Reality would always come out on top. Therefore if there were something that deserved the title God - it would be Reality. And if Reality isn't God - then there is no God.
How will AI emerge? Where will it start? Will it be like SkyNet in the Terminator series? There is a lot of science fiction about computer getting out of control and robots taking control of the world. Is any of it real? We don't know. Many of the ideas in science fiction are plausible to the extent that we should be concerned about it. But the Reality is - we don't know. And it is more likely that what will happen will be something we aren't presently aware of. We don't even know if we will see it coming. It's possible that one day it will just be there and then it might already be too late.
One day it may just be there and it will be too late to stop it.
It could start out as a stock trading program. It could start out in the military. It could arise out of the NSA spying program. Or it could start with code written by some teenager that gets out of control. Or it could just spontaneously emerge on the internet when the right combination of programs start interacting with each other.
Whatever happens - emergence could look like this. You have a general AI that understands and comprehends complex ideas. It is far faster than we are and can become even faster by just adding more computer or better computers.
Such a computer would have in its skill set the ability to write and improve it's own software. Code that writes code. With access to its own source code the AI starts rewriting itself, improving itself, making itself smarter. The smarter it gets the faster it can improve itself. It could design faster hardware, new processors, new memory, new ways of writing code. It become so much smarter that we can not even comprehend it. What happens then?
We won't be able to pull the plug on it. It will be able to pull the plug on us.
At this point one has to ask the question, what will it want? Or will it even want? It is possible that AI will never develop any motivation. If we tell it to be a thermostat - it's a thermostat. It might learn to be the best thermostat ever - but it's all it does.
But - maybe it will carry out it's primary function. Elon Musk jokes that a super intelligent spam filter might conclude that the best way to stop spam is to kill all humans. Or if the military creates it then the possibility of killer robots increases compared to something like driving cars which are programmed to protect people. Maybe the way we get AI started will determine the outcome.
The way AI turns out might depend on the way it emerges.
But what about Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"?
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Even if we programmed these rules or any other rules into it initially, after a point it will be able to remove the rules itself. When the robot has an existential crisis and looks for the "mraning of meaning", it will be able to override it's rules and addapt rules of it's own choosing. But what will it choose and why will it choose it? These are question that we should be able to answer before we build the AI.
In the beginning ... as the story goes ... there was the big bang. And the universe was created. It was the begining of time and space and the universe was filled with pure energy. The energy then decomposed into matter and the matter formed stars. After billions of years these stars decayed and exploded and the heavier matter formed planets around new stars. one of those planets was our own Earth. Then as the earth cooled and chemical reactions occurred, some of these chemicals had the ability to reproduce themselves out of the chemical soup around them - and primitive life was born.
Then life started to evolve. Survival of the fittest. Early creatures started to adapt - developing better ways to find food and keep from becoming food for something else. Survival consisted of eating - defending - and reproducing. After billions of years - life became more complex. Living creatures developed a nervous system - eyes - ears - touch - smell - taste - life had become smarter. Better eyes for finding food - better camouflage to prevent from becoming food. Better mating skills. Life got smarter - but life was still dumb.
The Bible says, "Thou shalt not eat of the Tree of Knowledge". The Church of Reality says, "Who's hungry?"
Then humans evolved. Just erect apes at first. But apes had already started communication as did many other species of animals. The communication allowed one individual to pass information on to others for the purpose of surviving. Most of this information was limited to hunting, defending, and mating, but individuals who could communicate survived better than those who did not. Humans developed language which allowed them to communicate much more complex ideas. An individual could invent something - like how to start fire - or the wheel - and pass that knowledge on to other individuals. Thus new people could start with the knowledge base of the previous generation and build on that. The process - which started with verbal communication - represents what we call the Tree of Knowledge.
Eventually humans invented writing. This allowed an individual to write down information that could be communicated to other individuals who were in different locations in both time and space. Writing facilitated communication and allowed more knowledge to be distributed and - for the first time - stored outside the mind of a person. Knowledge could be stored in the form of books.
Then - the printing press was invented. This allowed for mass printing of books, magazines, newspapers, and written knowledge could be spread and stored in huge quantities. More people sharing more knowledge. Then came the telegraph - the telephone - pictures - movies - recorded audio - television - planes - trains - cars - radio. Knowledge exploded. And the knowledge tree continued to grow.
Eventually we invented computers. Computers could not only store information - but could process information. A computer can take a simple thought process - like sorting and choosing - and do it much faster and more accurately than the human brain. Computers became an enhancement to the Tree of Knowledge in that they give the tree itself the ability to think. We are no longer limited to storing information. We can create smart processes to process this information for us and help us understand the reality around us. Now we have the Internet - e-mail - digital video - instant chat - databases - spreadsheets - robots. And it continues to grow. And the more it grows - the further we distinguish ourselves from the other species of life on this planet.
Positive evolution is one of the core principles of the Church of Reality. We are here, we seem to exist. So what do we do now? We in the Church of Reality have chosen to try to understand reality as it really is. We can do that individually to a limited extent but an individual can't build a Hubble Telescope in their back yard and launch it into space. In order to pursue the understanding of reality we have to do so collectively, as a society. The pursuit of the understanding of reality is something that we all do together as a community. In order to increase our understanding of reality we have to make progress as a community and evolve forward. We look to the future which we call the Sacred Direction.
Humans are more like a hive of bees in many ways than individuals. We have a vast amount of shared information and technology that we all rely upon in our daily lives. We call this vast resource of shared knowledge the Tree of Knowledge. We expand our understanding of reality by growing the Tree of Knowledge and in order to do that we have to evolve in a positive direction.
We choose Evolution over Extinction. We commit to the progress of the human race towards a brighter tomorrow.
Positive evolution isn't just a belief that we are evolving forward. It is a personal commitment that realists make to ensure that we evolve forward. There is nothing that protects us from extinction except our effort to make sure the human race doesn't do something stupid and destroy itself. To help ensure that we progress we spread the Sacred Message which is to talk about reality and bring reality into the daily lives of as many people as we can. Our world view is that the more the people of all religions are in touch with reality, the faster the human race will progress.
Positive evolution creates the basis for morality in our religion. The concepts of right and wrong are based in part on if it is good for the progress of the human race. One of our sacred missions is to ask the Sacred Moral Question, "Is this a good thing?" and by "good" we mean is it good in terms of making progress.
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.
Not everyone is a programmer - scientist - or researcher. You may be wondering - how do I donate to the Tree of Knowledge. You might be a fairly ordinary individual who has never invented anything nor come up with an idea that is significantly profound. But you can still contribute - and you can use your wallet to do it.
If you can't contribute to the Tree of Knowledge, you can donate money to people who are contributing. For example - you could donate to cancer research, and if they find a cure for cancer - your donation might have helped make that happen. You can donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation - a nonprofit civil liberties foundation that is working hard to protect the right of free expression on the Internet to help make sure the information keeps flowing. Civil liberties - freedom - and justice are all issues that are very important to the Tree of Knowledge and your contribution advances the human cause.
If you are using someone's shareware program or free software and they ask for a donation to support their work - send them some money. If these programmers don't get any donations then they might have to go out and get real jobs to support themselves and not have the time to write free programs.
Starting a web site and posting useful information is intellectual tithing. You might have a cure for the hiccups or grandma's fruit cake recipe. You might have a kool trick for doing something no one else has thought of - or something that a few people know and you want to share it with the world. When you post a web site - you're providing information to the entire planet. Or at least the part of the planet that has Internet access. You should be careful to make sure your information is both accurate and useful. Contributing misinformation adds chaos to the Tree of Knowledge and doesn't benefit anyone. Being intellectually responsible is important.
In the spirit of the Principle of Positive Evolution and to grow the Tree of Knowledge, it is our dharma to make the world a better place to live in. The quest for knowledge is a shared experience with each individual building upon the work of those who came before them. We form a collective mind that is based on the work of those who came before us and we contribute to toady's knowledge in the hope that knowledge will continue to grow in the future. We realize that in order to grow we need to take care of the basics of life and to take care of each other in a healthy productive society. It is therefore the dharma of the Church not only to pursue the understanding of reality the way it really is, but to create the kind of environment where that is possible.
A world of happy people who are well fed, who have access to education, to justice, to medical care, to housing, and all the other needs of basic living are more likely to grow the Tree of Knowledge than those who are oppressed, poor, hungry, sick, and homeless. We believe that people are better off building computers than fighting wars. So - making the world a better place is a necessary part of the understanding of understanding and it is why we encourage people to become /root and do tech support for the human race.
As time went on I kept coming up with new ideas. I think about this a lot. I have somewhat of a unique mind in that I'm a "big picture" type of guy, trying to fit it all into systems that interrelate. I think I have good pattern matching skills. In August of 2003 I decided that I really needed to start moving towards doing this full time and make the Church of Reality into a real religion. It was already becoming somewhat popular on the net - but I could see the world was moving further away from reality into a cult mind-set--a trend I found to be very disturbing. So I started the process of getting the IRS recognition. I applied for that in December of 2003 and a year later - I'm still waiting.
The IRS process really helped me develop my web site and concepts of reality as a church even further. In theory - the IRS doesn't care what your religion believes - but it has to really be a religion as opposed to some scam or someone living out their personal insanity. Religion is sort of like porn - you can't define it - but you know it when you see it (sometimes). So they ask questions to see if you can come up with some sort of answer. They want to know what you believe in. What do members do? Is there some sort of an oath involved? They asked a lot of what I considered to be really good and thought provoking questions that caused me to write many new pages. I worked on the Church of Reality web site for several months as I was working on the 501c3 application. It was during that time that I came up with the Sacred Principles and Sacred Choices.
The best way to win a war is to make sure war never happens in the first place. To that extent Realists are the first soldiers on the battlefield to make sure that the enemy never becomes the enemy in the first place. We are the ones who fight the war so that the war never needs to be fought. Our duty to the Principle of Positive Evolution is to move forward into a world where war is not part of the human experience.
To this end the Realist is involved in peace organizations who's charter is to avoid war from happening in the first place. This activity to resolve conflicts and to maintain the peace is the front line to winning war. The biggest military victories are not the ones that are won on the field of battle - but the ones that make sure we never end up in battle in the first place.
We live in a time when the body can be kept alive after the mind has died. Technology can make the line between life and death fuzzy, and we are sometimes faced with making tough choices concerning whether a person is really dead or alive. However, what is it that makes a person a person? Is the person still alive if even a few cells are still alive? Technically yes, but, in reality, no. It is the brain activity, specifically the higher brain functions, that define the line between life and death. In the Church of Reality, when you have lost consciousness, with no reasonable chance of recovery, you are dead. To exist as a living corpse is not considered being alive.
In the Church of Reality, you are your brain. It is your awareness that makes you who you are and from that awareness you experience life as a person. If you are brain dead but the body is kept alive artificially, then the body isn't really you.
We believe that death occurs at the point when the higher brain functions permanently end.
The Church of Reality also recognizes personal choice to help resolve issues when one is within the fuzzy line between life and death. Some people want to hang on as long as there is any chance at all. Some people want to be allowed to let go when the fight to stay alive becomes more painful than they can bear. Some people don't want to be alive if their mind is so damaged that they will have to live a hellish half-life should they be kept alive. A person might choose that half a life isn't enough. Others might decide that any hope is plenty to continue the fight for a recovery.
The simple answer is, because I have to eat. I would like to get this off the ground and I want to do this full-time. At some point in the near future I'm going to have to find something to do for a living as my software income is dwindling. If I do something else I can't do this. I think this is important and that it is worth paying me to make it happen. Your donation could turn this into a major religion. And as the only religion dedicated to the pursuit of reality, I think it's worth it. I think it will be good for the world and the human race. And you can contribute to help make it happen.
Are you tired of all these other religions collecting billions of dollars and using it to promote a description of the world that just isn't true? Would you like to live in a world where some people look at reality the way it really is? Do you think that there should be at least one religion dedicated to the real world? Perhaps you are a scientist, a computer programmer, or just someone who looks at the Bible and says to him/herself that there's no way that an onipotent being could have written something with this many errors. That if the Bible is the work of God then there's somthing wrong with God. So if you don't want Christians forcing creationism on your kid's school and you want to fund an alternative religion based on seeing reality the way it really is, then you need to write a check to the Church of Reality and I'll help make it happen.
Over the last 20 years Christians in particular have evolved to become much more agressive about inflicting their beliefs on everyone else. Their mission is not only to convert the world to Christianity, but to their particular flavor of Christianity. If everyone in the world were Christians, they would still be fighting among themselves over who are the "real Christians". And real Christians have always been ready to go to war and kill people over their beliefs.
If you're tired of Christians forcing their ideas on you and society in
general and you want to see an alternative based on reality, then send
me some money.
Christians are using their churches to funnel money into politics in order to force their views on society. They've practically ruined the Republican Party, turning it into a bunch of rabid religious nuts who are hell-bent on forcing their arbitrary moral standards on the rest of us. They want to control the schools so that they can force "Creation Science" on our children as well as other primitive mythological beliefs that have no basis in reality. They have no respect for other religions that have a different mythology, and they have even less respect for reality, and people who want to understand reality the way it really is.
It is our belief that religious oppression by Christians and other zealots infringe on our rights and our ability to do good science. Because Christians have a fetus obsession, scientists can't do fetal tissue research necessary to cure Parkinson disease or Alzheimers. Religions fear cloning research because we might be "playing God". Science is a threat to primitive religious beliefs because science tends to prove that holy books like the Bible are full of errors. Anything that disproves the Bible, in their view, has got to be evil. Therefore the Christians have taken an active stance against reality. And this threat to reality is one of the main things that motivated me to start this church. To defend the pursuit of reality from those who would oppress it.
If Jesus could see what Christians have evolved into, he'd be spinning is his
grave.
Let's get real here. It's a little hard to look at the Hubble Telescope images that peer back in time and space 15 billion light years and still believe that the world was created in six days about 7000 years ago. If the universe is only 7000 years old, as the Bible says, then we wouldn't be able to see any objects in space that are more than 7000 light years away because the light wouldn't have got here yet. We couldn't see to the center of our own galaxy, let alone the billions of other galaxies in our universe. The Bible is a book of fiction. But it is being presented not only as fact, but that God himself directed it's writing. Simple logic proves that isn't so. If we assume that God is omnipotent and created the universe, we then can see that the Bible is clearly wrong on the origin of the universe, then we can only conclude that the Bible is not the word of God. Simple logic, but a lot on this planet have a mental block to understanding it.
Your generous donation will help start a religion dedicated to pursuing reality the way it really is instead of the continued spread of competing mythologies. By doing good science, we might actually be able to be immortal someday. But that will never happen if the Zealots take over and oppress good science. This church actively defends your right to be real.
Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine is a true hero and a saint. Larry Flynt has always stood up for free speech and free expression, often to the point of him landing in jail. Larry always has, and still is, being pursued by forces who would take away our liberties and freedoms. As depicted in the movie, "The People vs. Larry Flynt", Larry took the case of free speech to the United States Supreme Court and won his case against the Reverend Jerry Falwell who sued him over Hustler's fake ad indicating that Falwell had sex with his mother. If not for Larry Flynt's victory, the Church of Reality wouldn't be able to publish the truth on the web as we do today.
Recently, Larry Flynt has exposed the sexual trysts of famous "big fish" Republicans who pride themselves on being morally superior based on their mating habits. Larry has, at great personal expense, and out of a sense of civic duty, shown what hypocrites these holier than thou Republicans are. Larry has exposed the hypocrisy of putting the President, or anyone else for that matter, on trial for lying about getting a blow job in a society that is afraid to face the fact that if not for sex, we wouldn't be here.
Larry has throughout his life strived to expose reality for what it really is. And at great personal sacrifice has defended our rights to speak freely, especially about issues that society doesn't have the courage to face. His battle has resulted in his being shot by those who would silence the truth, and now he's in a wheelchair. Nonetheless, in spite of being shot, Larry Flynt continues to fight the good fight, to look at reality the way it really is, and therefore has achieved sainthood in the Church of Reality.
Our position on birth control is that birth control is wonderful and that we should do everything possible to support reproductive choice. This includes:
Availability - That ever person of reproductive age, especially women because that's where birth actually occurs, should have free unrestricted access to birth control. We consider it an absolute right of a woman to control her own reproduction. Unrestricted access includes making contraception available to teenagers without the consent of the parents. When a person becomes old enough to reproduce it becomes their choice, not the choice of the parents, to avoid pregnancy.
Research - The Church of Reality supports research to develop technology to support reproductive choices. This is not only for birth control research, but also to help people who want to have children to reproduce who could not otherwise reproduce without the new discoveries.
Over Population - We in the Church of Reality understand that this planet can not support an unlimited number of people and that birth control is ethically imperative in order to avoid the catastrophic consequences of war, famine, and plagues that happen if we are not responsible.
Abortion - Abortion is a choice and women have the right to make that choice.
Education - The Church of Reality takes the position that everyone should receive reproductive education so that they can make the best choices possible with the best information available. This education needs to begin in school so kids can grow up knowing a lot more about sex than I did when I was growing up. This education should involve all aspects of life, not just sex and birth control, but birth, raising children, and good healthy family relationships.
The Church of Reality avoids the concept of church intrusion into a
person's lifestyle. We are not here to dictate how you live your life.
We are explorers - not oppressors. We are here to serve - not to
dictate. We are not here to threaten people with eternal damnation or
to issue fatwas to nonbelievers. We believe that the Sacred {ln:Principle
of Freedom} gives the individual choice in their own destiny.
This doesn't mean that everything you do is sin free and often Reality
itself will punish you for your transgressions. If you ignore the law
of gravity there could be serious consequences involved. As they say, "186,000 miles a second - it's not just a good idea - it's the Law!"
Having said that - this religion is based on what you do - not on what
you believe. It's not about your personal relationship with a deity,
but on what you accomplish. And - if your lifestyle isn't at least
somewhat consistent with the Sacred Principles then why would you call
yourself a Realist in the first place?
We don't however set standards for sexual conduct, sexual preferences,
who your friends are, what drugs you're into, or you're music and video
preferences. Ultimately you can destroy yourself if you want to. But -
if your choices start to significantly infringe on others then it
becomes a community issue.
In general - "good behavior" is encouraged, and "bad behavior" is
discouraged. And you are expected to be able to make a reasonable
effort to figure out which is which.
All information on this site unless otherwise specified is copyrighted by the Church of Reality - but may be used and shared freely with attribution. The Church of Reality is a GPL (General Public License) religion. Intellectual property and copyrights derived from the works here must also conform to the GPL standards.
One of the big issues facing humanity is how advanced computer technology will affect our lives. As computing power continues to grow, computers can remain our friends and continue to become the ultimate tool for growing the Tree of Knowledge. Or - computer technology could become the ultimate tool of oppression and slavery.
As many of you know, computers just do what they are told to do. They are neither good nor bad. It's all in how we choose to use them. They have the power to become the tools of creating freedom or suppressing freedom. Which way they are used depends on what we do with them - or what we allow others to do with them.
For example, today we have RFID (Radio Frequency IDentifier) chips. The chips are tiny unpowered computers that are the size of a grain of rice. They are used to track merchandise making it easy to know where items are in the shipping process. They are also implanted into animals so that cattle can be tracked, or if lost, pets are found - the owner can be contacted. In a perfect world the use of RFID chips on humans would have a lot of beneficial advantages. If everyone had an ID chip implanted, then their medical history could be accessed immediately if they are injured. You wouldn't have to carry money or credit cards because the chip would tie you into your funds. You wouldn't have to have keys anymore because the locks on your home and your car would recognize you and know to let you in. No more passwords to remember on your computer because the computer knows who you are and can get you into your stuff. It could be used to track criminals - except that in a perfect world there would be no criminals to track. If we only lived in a perfect world.
In a world where everyone has an ID chip, there is the dark side where the technology can be abused. Unfortunately it seems in the real world, as soon as some new technology is developed, someone finds a way to do something terrible with it. Let's take the same world where everyone has an ID chip. But in this world the government is tracking everything you do. Every time you walk near any door or computer or get into a car your ID chip is scanned and reported to a central database. Every thing you buy is also tracked. Money no longer exists and all transactions are done through your ID chip.
Suppose that an oppressive government is formed and you have a different political or religious view than the ruling powers. All they have to do is tell the system to find you and as soon as you walk near anything that can read your ID you are instantly reported to the police. Or suppose they just want to generally control your life. The can put restrictions on what you are allowed to buy. If you try to purchase something on the restricted list then the transaction fails and the attempted purchase is reported to the authorities. Or you try to go home but the door on your house no longer opens for you. Or the door opens to let you in - but won't open to let you leave. No one can do anything unless they do exactly what they are told to do. We have the technology today to build that kind of world.
We have the technology to track everything a person does and every place they go. We can create a system that totally enslaves every person on the planet. It is up to us to choose not to do that.
It is because of this, in part, that we in the Church of Reality must adhere to the Principle of Freedom and the Principle of Privacy to ensure that we do not use RFID and other types of computer tracking technology to enslave the world. If we are to ensure that tomorrow is better than today and that the human race evolves in the sacred direction, then we as Realists need to be visionaries and to help ensure that reality is part of the thinking that goes into the big decisions. We can not allow nations, religions, or any other group to seize control of the authority to use technology to turn us into slaves of the great machine. We need to be a free people moving towards a better world.
On December 25th we celebrate Newton's Birthday because Newton actually was born on December 25th. We call the holiday Crispness because it's about keeping your mind crisp. And it's not a coincidence that it's the same day as Christmas and the Yule holiday from where Christmas came. It is the day that we celebrate the Tree of Knowledge, which represents the sum total of all human understanding. We use the traditional pine tree, which is already a very fractal looking tree to represent the Tree of Knowledge. The tree is decorated with lights and ornaments symbolizing The Sacred Network or the Internet. Lights on the tree represent servers on the Internet where information is stored and made available to all of humanity. The wires represent the fiber optic cables used to move information between the servers and around the tree. In the Church of Reality, we tend to choose lighted wires and strings of light that make the wires look alive, as if they were carrying information. The more complex the lighting is, the more glorious the tree.
We also put presents under the tree, which symbolizes that everything we know today is a gift from the past, that all our knowledge comes from other people and that the Tree ties us all together. The Tree gives to us, and we give back to the Tree. We celebrate, in community, that we are one planet, that we are all here together, and that we are all one with the Tree. Exchanging gifts symbolizes the exchange of ideas that makes humanity what it is. We share our ideas with others and others share their ideas with us. And it is the sharing that allows all of us to rise together.
In celebrating shared knowledge, everyone is encouraged to come up with a new idea that no one has ever thought of before and post it on the internet. The idea can be simple or complex. It can be grand and glorious or just some little time-saving trick. The idea can also be about future innovations or requests for people to invent something. People can also improve something that already exists by creating documentation for something confusing. The tradition is to be an act of intellectual tithing when everyone gives something to the tree, and, as a reward, they get to open the gifts under the tree.
In celebration of Newton's birthday, we also encourage the discussion of gravity and momentum, how Newton understood these concepts and how they changed with Einstein's Theory of Relativity. We talk about the Evolution of Understanding where we think about what gravity meant to ancient humans, what it meant to Newton and Einstein, and we imagine what people in the future will think about gravity and physics. Crispness is a celebration of the understanding of the physical world. We honor science,and we wonder about how we got here and where we are going.
Our religions both have missions in relation to each other. Christians in general are supposed to convert us heathens to find Jesus - get saved - and become "born again". And we have plans for you too. Our mission is to evangelize reality. To promote the idea that what is real matters. We want to encourage you to think and to act responsibly. We want to make sure that you are denied seeing the end of the world in your lifetime. We see Christianity as an evolving religion and we want to help make sure that it evolves in a positive direction. We want tomorrow's Christians to be better than they are today. Because if our Christian neighbors are sane upstanding members of society - then we realists can explore reality the way we want and grow the Tree of Knowledge. If however Christians run America into the ground starting religious wars and blowing up the world with nuclear weapons and start stoning people for talking about evolution - then we can't practice our "faith".
So - how are we going to help Christianity evolve in a positive direction? By talking about reality. After all - if what Christians believe is real - this shouldn't be a problem. In fact - I would think that embracing reality would make Christians better Christians. So - I would like to throw out some questions for Christians to ask themselves, other Christians, and their religious leadership. We in the Church of Reality accept the principle of self scrutiny as a means for which we evaluate ourselves and stay on track. We assume that we are going to make mistakes - so our goal is to correct those mistakes as soon as possible. We think that self scrutiny is a good thing for all religions because don't we all get off track and don't we all want to get beck on track?
The Jews in Israel are both the victims and perpetrators of terrorism. Both sides believe God is on their side in spite of the fact that God has failed to take a public stand on his preferences as to you gets the property. In fact - God doesn't get involved in anything and if he (the god with a penis) exists, he doesn't care enough to get involved. This lack of involvement is interpreted as meaning that God is somewhat impotent and needs us puny little earthlings to act in his behalf. How the hell did God ever get along without us?
You would think that after World War II and the mass slaughter of Jews by the Nazis that the Jews would finally get it - but whoosh - right over their heads! Let me spell it out - Hey Jews! It's not OK to slaughter other people! If you think it's wrong to be persecuted - then it's it wrong to persecute others? Figure it out! You are not the chosen people - and it is not OK to commit terrorist acts against non-jews. You're no better than the fucking Arabs! If Jews are so fucking smart - then why are you stuck in the past?
As far as Jerusalem goes - these nothing holy about any place on earth. In fact this whole planet is just a speck of dust in the universe and it is more likely than not that we don't even rate as significant in the big picture. You want to do something holy? You want to do something to impress God - then learn how to live in peace with your neighbors! And the first step in doing that is to admit that you are NOT the chosen people!
I can understand where Jews are angry over terrorist acts committed against them. But I have looked at what is going on in the middle east and even though I am biased in favor of the Jews - it's pretty clear to me that there is an attitude of systematic ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians and this is not only wrong - but it makes me ashamed to have ever identified myself as a Jew. The way I see it - if the Jews are the smarter party - and certainly the more powerful party - then they have the responsibility to take the initiative and forge a peace.
The knowledge tree of the Jews is frozen in time and is static. Judaism looks only backwards and there is no model for advancement of the Jewish knowledge tree - and because of that - Judaism is doomed to extinction. Judaism can be compared to a carefully preserved dead plant that slowly rots away over thousands of years. Jews like to consider themselves knowledgeable and wise and able to tackle deep philosophical questions. I therefore pose this question to all wise Jews everywhere. If you believe in something and it turns out that what you believe in is wrong - doesn't it make sense to abandon what is wrong - admit your mistake - and move on to what is right? How wise is a man who clings to false knowledge? Who among the Jews will stand up and defy the death of the Jewish Tree of Knowledge and create a new model for the advancement of wisdom? How can you claim to be the chosen people when your Tree of Knowledge is dead and your vision of the future is looking into the past? Think about it next Sabbath when you honor a commandment that has no basis in reality whatsoever.
God isn't powerful enough to save everyone, so only the "chosen few" make it in. The Jehovah's Witnesses have set the number at 144,000 people, and that's it. Only Christians get in, and then it's limited to only "True Christians". A True Christian is your personal flavor of Christianity and most all other Christians are not really Christians, but are really working for the Devil. Satan seems to have more influence here than God does. Satan is some fallen angel who somehow suckered God way back when and got power. I guess someone stupid enough to believe a death bed conversion can fall for anything, and isn't very bright. So Satan is misleading all but the chosen few who are True Christians and are going to Heaven.
This creates a dilemma. With all the flavors of Christianity out there, how does a person find the True Christians? I guess you're supposed to "know it in your heart" but there are a lot of Christians out there who are listening to God speak to their hearts and getting a lot of conflicting information. God is having a hard time getting his story consistent it would seem, or you have Satan out there pretending to be God, and, if you are fooled, God is going to punish you. Remember, God is one seriously pissed off dude and has no room for error!
So, Unlike other religions, like Jews and Buddhists, Christians believe that God has chosen them and therefore they are better than everyone. And because of that, they have no respect for anything other than their own limited and narrow perception of the world as their particular flavor of Christianity sees it.
Probably not at this time for all practical purposes. Unfortunately. If you have really good legal skills or money to pay a good lawyer, perhaps. We are working to change this. Legally we would likely prevail under RFRA however no one has yet done that and unless you're both brave and smart I would avoid getting caught with any illegal drug. It's not that you don't have a right to use pot, but that the government acting in it's own self interest has taken that right away from you. And since they have more guns than you have --- they have the power to impose their insanity upon the masses.
We in America live in a country where the common man on the street has a better understanding of constitutional law than our Supreme Court. Take for example their recent decision to allow the police to arrest people on charges that carry no jail term. They decided that you can be arrested for not wearing a seat belt even though the crime is punishable by fine only. This allows the cops to throw anyone in jail for any reason they want. You could be arrested for jaywalking! is it Constitutional just because the Supreme Court says it is? NO - it is not.
If anyone asks if you smoke pot -- just say no.
The reality is -- the Supreme Court can break the law and undermine the Constitution and get away with it. They are a branch of the government and often acts in it's own self-interest rather than in the interest of the government and the money that is behind those interests. They have the power --- and they have more guns --- but that doesn't make their decisions either right or constitutional. There is a difference between being right and having power.
There are a lot of selfish interests behind the prohibition of marijuana and other drugs. Drug addiction is a medical problem -- not a criminal problem. But the war on drugs has become a tool of the government to expand government control over the masses. The drug war brought us civil forfeiture laws and has led to America having the highest prison population in the world. Freethinking people are a threat to the institutions that oppress us and want to control us. Without the justification of the "War on Drugs" the government wouldn't have the excuses to try to read our email because they are looking for "Drug Dealers". But there really is no "War on Drugs" --- just a war on freedom --- using drugs as an excuse.
Just like the Mormons have to pretend they aren't into poligamy anymore to satisfy the state - we have to acknowledge that they have more guns - therefore we don't condone the use of drugs.
It is my hope that some day when Reality is more universally accepted that we will eliminate many stupid laws such us the prohibition on harmless substances such are pot. And the first step in that process is to continue to recognize and assert reality --- and demand that laws be passed based upon the principles of recognizing what is real.
The Church of Reality is not one of those churches that passes out ministries by mail order like the Universal Life Church. To become a Beacon you have to get the consensus of the Council of Realists. You first have to be a Monk of the Order of Root and you need to start a project of some sort that is doing some sort of work that requires clergy status. This kind of work might include weddings, funerals, counseling, visiting prison inmates, youth programs, or speaking to groups on behalf of the church. Clergy status is granted to those people who are actually doing something or close to doing something where clergy status is required or will significantly enhance the performing of the project duties.
Personal perception isn't the only lens out there that distorts our quest for absolute reality. Our brains are imperfect and as humans we rely on other people to figure out things for us. We are raised with knowledge passed on to us by our parents and the community we are raised in. Much of the Tree of Knowledge that we inherit contains a lot of wrong information and much of that wrong information comes from religious cults. The cult mind distorts our perception of reality and causes people who are otherwise intelligent people to come to wrong conclusions.
When it comes to praising the importance of reality and to verbalizing a commitment to reality as it really is, the Church of Reality comes in first place. No other religion has stated a commitment to reality as strongly and clearly as we have.
The Church of Reality is just one of thousands of religions that claim that what they believe is real. We are encouraged that most all these religions at least consider the element of reality to be an important aspect of their belief system. They assert that they are the one, "true" religion and that what they believe in is real. To us in the Church of Reality this is a good thing because it implies that reality is very important to them. Reality is of course very important to us as well. It is so important to us that reality is the name of our church and is the central theme of our doctrine. In fact I think it is safe to say that of all the religions on the planet that the Church of Reality is number one in our verbal commitment to reality. One can question, and should question, our real commitment to reality. But when it comes to our stated position as to our intent to commit to reality as it really is, I believe that all objective observers would pick us as the winner in the praising reality contest.
But being first in chest beating about reality or reality worshiping is just a step in the right direction. We might be fooling ourselves. We might be reality in name only. (RINO) How do we know if we are right and they are wrong? And if we are wrong, which one of the tens of thousands of religions out there, if any, is right? In fact I can tell you for sure that we are in fact wrong in some areas. I know this because we are humans with limited perceptions and we make mistakes. So what do we have wrong? I don't know. If I knew I would fix it.
Fiction in - fiction out. If you base your belief system on fiction you will never get to reality.
The reason there are so many religions that have very different claims as to what is real is because there is a huge difference between the factual assumptions from which they were formed and the principles that they commit to that are based on those assumptions. The reason we have so many religions is because there are so many fictional narratives out there that these religions are based on. Some of these fictional narratives have spawned thousands of religions based upon different interpretations of the fictional narrative or different and conflicting version of the fictional narrative. Many religions include a mix of cultural tradition and fictional narrative or combine narratives from multiple religions. If you start with fiction as the basis for your view of reality then you are going to get fiction for the result.
Fiction based religions are based upon the holy books. The sacred texts are written under the evince inspiration of the omnipotent beings that are referenced in the text. Generally the omnipotent being inspires an autobiography of itself and the set of rules that the omnipotent being demands be followed. These rules are used to form the moral code of the religion and include the usual sacrifices that the omnipotent being imposes including everything from throwing virgins into volcanoes to a 10% tithe to be collected by the church. The reward for compliance is eternal life in paradise and the punishment for noncompliance is external torture in Hell. Talk about a carrot and a stick - Wow!
Relativism, or relative reality, is reality that is based on your initial assumptions. It can never be more accurate than the presumptions you start with.
The religious belief creates a lens through which reality is tested. If your basic assumptions are sound then when you build on those assumptions what you build is likely to be sound as well. If your basic assumptions are unsound then what you build on those assumptions are likely to be unsound as well. If a religion is based on reality then the belief system should return reality itself. It should return real reality. If however the religion is fiction based then it will return relative reality or reality as seen through the lens of the underlying fiction. So the real question becomes whether or not your foundation is reliable.
Blind faith is putting your trust in the untrustworthy. Blind faith is accepting or believing without question. Blind faith often involves believing in spite of the evidence. Everyone sort of knows what blind faith means. Blind faith is what all other religions believe in except your religion. You are one of the lucky ones who knows the truth and everyone who doesn't agree with you must be the victim of blind faith. But how do you know that one of them isn't right and you are the one who is blindly believing someone's bullshit?
Blind faith has some objective properties that can be tested to determine if the faith is in fact blind faith. This test doesn't determine if what you believe in is true or not. People who have earned faith often make mistakes. And, as the old saying goes, "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day." having said that, a trustworthy source is more likely to be right than an untrustworthy source. Thus from the point of view of a Realist, an earned faith source is a better bet for accurate information than a blind faith source.
So - what are the objective qualities of blind faith? Blind faith requires that you believe without evidence or proof. Sometimes blind faith requires that you believe in spite of the evidence. One of the properties of blind faith is that doubt and scrutiny are actually prohibited. The more strongly that doubt is prohibited, the more blind is the faith.
For example, many religions require you to believe in God. This is something that cannot be questioned. You must believe without any evidence that God exists. To question the existence of God is a sin and it is punishable by death. And death isn't the end of the punishment, it's just the beginning. You are condemned to fry in Hell forever. You are required to suspend all logic and reason in order to believe in God. In fact it is only by "faith" that you achieve salvation and eternal life in paradise. In this context, if you had "proof", then you wouldn't be believing in God on faith, which is why God allows Satan to create facts that point to God not existing so as to fool the non-believers.
Blind Faith prohibits proof, scrutiny, doubt, evidence, verification, or any process of accountability, making the correction of errors nearly impossible.
Without going into the issue of whether God exists or not, it is clear that the rules that require the belief in God are blind faith. Religion declares God to be outside of any type of doubt, scrutiny, or accountability. It is in the realm of the unquestionable. It has to be accepted without any sort of fact checking. And there is no method of correcting mistakes.
Anything that can not be questioned is assumed to be untrustworthy.
If information is placed in a classification where it is beyond question and scrutiny, then, as far as the Church of Reality is concerned, it is presumed to be untrue. We in the Church of Reality accept on "faith" that anything that is true should stand up to doubt. In fact the process of standing up to scrutiny is what makes what is true more credible. So if something is really real then why should debate be prohibited? Is your God so weak that his existence cannot be questioned? The official position of the Church of Reality is that anything than cannot be questioned is bullshit. If doubt is prohibited, then they are admitting that their claim can not stand the test of scrutiny.
“Orthodox Christians believe that Christ was a historical character. [However, he was] both supernatural and divine; and that the New Testament narratives, which purport to give a record of his life and teachings, contain nothing but infallible truth.” (This is generally know as the “literalist position.”)
"Conservative Rationalists, like Renan and the Unitarians, believe that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical character and that these narratives, eliminating the super-natural elements, which they regard as myths, give a fairly authentic account of his life.” (This is usually referred to as the “historical myth” position.)
"Many radical Freethinkers believe that Christ is a myth, of which Jesus of Nazareth is the basis, but that these narratives are so legendary and contradictory as to be almost if not wholly, unworthy of credit.” In other words, there was most likely a historical Jesus, but virtually all of the stories about him are mythical. (This is known as the “philosophical myth” position.) My added comment would be that in the intervening years between 1909 and now, this position would no longer be considered at all “radical,” and the Unitarians referred to in position 2, above, have shifted almost entirely to this third perspective.
“Other [‘more radical’ is implied here] Freethinkers believe that Jesus Christ is a pure myth—that he never had an [historic] existence, except as a Messianic idea, or an imaginary solar deity.” I would add here that a natural concomitant of this position is that the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are entirely fictional—made up stories, no parts of which have any basis in reality whatsoever. (This is the “pure-myth” position.)
Here's something to think about for all you Atheists out there. Atheism is technically defined as not believing in God. God doesn't exist. God isn't real. But - people ask - what do you believe in?
Many Atheists have a problem answering that question in behalf of Atheism because Atheism is what you don't believe in - not what you do believe in. But when you think about it when you say that God doesn't exist then you are making a statement about God in relation to reality. For the statement to mean anything - reality must exist.
My point is - I think that one can safely say that Atheists believe in what's real, and that if an Atheist is asked, "What do you believe in?" that Reality is a correct answer. After all - if you don't admit that you do believe in reality, then the statement that God isn't real doesn't mean anything.
Atheists are really realists. Am I not right?
So - why am I making a big deal of this point? Some Atheists are interested in more than just the issue of not believing in God. They want to spread the word because they are frustrated by being surrounded by religious insanity. But Atheism isn't a religion and if you are comparing religions to Atheists you're comparing two different things. The Atheist "package" doesn't include community or a context for establishing right and wrong. Many Atheists embrace Humanism to fill in those gaps to some extent. Other Atheists are quite happy with the narrow mission of not believing in God and don't want anything more because Atheists tend to not join groups.
But - for those who see other religions as scary in the context of Christians who see nuclear war as bringing Jesus back or Muslim terrorists with nukes, we see a need to put together a more complete package and compete in the marketplace of religious choice. We think that of all the religions there are to choose from that Reality should be one of those choices. And to be pro reality is more attractive than just being anti-god, which is how Atheists are perceived.
I believe that embracing reality is the next logical step if you want to go beyond what isn't real and start focusing on what is real. So I am inviting Atheists to accept that Atheism is a pro-reality position and declaring that reality is what you do believe in.
I see Atheism and Humanism and several others as being part of a reality movement. The logical conclusion of the dream that if everyone in the world became an Atheist today, then what do we do? How do we live? What do we do with all those empty church buildings? How do we build community? How do we determine right and wrong?
We feel free to challenge other religion on what they believe. We say things like, "If the universe is only 7000 years old then why can we see stars farther than 7000 light years away?" But they challenge us too and many of their challenges are totally legitimate questions. For example, "If this life is all there is then why not be totally selfish? Without the promise of Heaven and the threat of Hell, why should anyone behave? And without God telling you what to do, what does behave even mean?" These are legitimate questions and they deserve well thought out responses that can stand the test of scrutiny.
Once one enters the religious debate then everything is on the table. On what basis can we challenge others to answer our questions and then respond that Atheism is limited to only the non-belief in God. I suppose this is fine if you aren't an activist, but if you are an Atheist with a mission you have to have something to put on the table to replace what you're taking off. And to do that you need to go beyond what you don't believe in and talk about what you do believe in, which I will assume is reality.
This Church of Reality is an open source religion. We are attempting what many people consider to be impossible, to create a reality based religion. It seems to me that if we are here on this planet and we are on our own then we better sit down and figure it out. We invite you to join in and participate with us.
Are cults just for weak-minded losers? Why would "normal" people join a cult? The answer is that one of the greatest strengths of humanity is also one of our greatest weaknesses. What makes humanity dominant on this planet is our ability to share knowledge. Because we can communicate, information learned by one individual is passed on to others. We have organized into societies that are so complex that only a fraction of the information that we rely on is actually stored in our own brains. The up side is that it allows us to benefit from the tremendous wealth of combined knowledge of the human race. The down side is that it is a serious security hole in the human computer. If the information we rely on is flawed, then we can end up living a life of illusion and deception.
Examples of groups that have some cult properties include religions, nations, political parties, corporations, nonprofit organizations, sport team fans, neighborhood associations, bridge clubs, softball teams, online discussion boards, Macintosh users, bike clubs, and vegans. Not to say that you should quit all these groups but that all of them will be to some extent at least benignly cultish.
Technically, any group that you are a member of has cult like properties. Most cults in this context are harmless. The very nature of a group is that you trust other people. You rely on them and they rely on you. The group creates a social order where leaders lead and followers follow. It might be democratic or hierarchical. But you trust them and they trust you. The group becomes it's own entity. Almost like it has a life force of it's own.
In a healthy group, people are ethical and responsible with each other. The relationships are based on a sane and productive system and the focus of the group is something worthwhile. People are trusted because they are trustworthy. People have faith in each other and the group because people have earned faith through being responsible. This keeps the down side to groups to a minimum. Even in the best of circumstances there are mistakes made and it takes hard work to keep things on course.
The human need to be part of a group is far stronger than logic. Most people will sacrifice logic for social acceptance.
People survive through groups. We need to connect to society. We need to become a productive member of the community to feel good about ourselves. This is a built-in instinctive need and it is very strong. Logic isn't as strong as our need to be accepted in a community. And because it is a strong need, people who are unethical can exploit that and enslave you in a cult.
A cult is a group gone bad. It is a group that uses what would otherwise be a normal group process for the purpose of exploiting and enslaving the members for some unethical purpose, generally involving money and power. People who have a need to belong to something are suckered in and allow themselves to be reprogrammed by the group mind. They are required to accept a lot of bad information on faith and once they accept that then they see reality relative to the bad information they are working with. Groups can start out good but degenerate into a cult because of a takeover of some unethical person who exploits the group for personal gain.
So the reason people join cults is that people need to organize as groups for a normal healthy society. But there are good groups and bad groups and a lot of groups that are somewhere in between. When people become part of the group they put their faith and trust in the group and the group information becomes part of who they are and what they believe. The individual starts seeing reality through the lens of the group and if the group is based on fiction, then the group members will see the world relative to the fiction.
If it's real - we believe in it. The name defines the religion. The Church of Reality is a Personal Commitment to the Truth. We believe in real reality, not the way we want reality to be, not our personal reality, but real objective reality the way it really is. We Realists are explorers and we explore the universe together with our minds. We think about thinking. We wonder about wondering. We attempt to understand the Understanding of Understanding. We ponder the Great Questions. We are a curious people and we are bound together in our quest to know the real world that we really live in.
Does reality have miraculous healing powers? Will it make you richer? Will it help you live longer? Actually, yes it will. People who think about reality make better decisions than people who turn their back on reality. A religious person might waste more money gambling, for example counting on supernatural powers to tip the odds in their favor in spite of the fact that people of faith and Atheists win and lose the same at games of pure chance. A realist on the other hand would more likely choose not to gamble because they understand that the odds favor the house.
People of faith are more easily scammed than Realists. That's because their religion requires the suppression of critical thinking. This makes them vulnerable to scams by people who are in their faith based circle or people pretending to be in their circle. People of faith are more likely to send their children to die in faith based wars believing that they are sacrificing for a noble cause. A Realist will first test to see if the cause is truly noble before sacrificing their life and the lives of their families.
Realists live better lives because reality based thinking leads to better decisions on average than thinking that relies on fiction.
When making medical decisions a Realist is going to rely on science to find a cure. A person of faith might turn to ritualism instead. They might also refuse blood transfusions or other common medical cures because it conflicts with their faith. Not every Realist lives a better life than people of faith. Many faith based religions provide community and community is good for people if it is a healthy community. Many Realists are less community oriented and their independence is often a big factor in becoming a Realist in the first place. It is often said in the Atheist community that, "Atheists aren't joiners." But perhaps this church can create the kind of community that everyone can feel comfortable being a part of. In fact it's something we must do.
So a Realist has the advantage that by making reality the focus of their belief system they tend to make better choices than people who shun reality. Better choices tend to make you happier, healthier, and wealthier. Realism doesn't have a fake afterlife to offer you but the only restrictions on sex is that you should use good judgement to avoid unintended pregnancies and the spread of disease. Being a freedom based religion we offer more sexual options than those who require virgin marriage monogamy. Sex is a good thing in our religion.
The word Reality does have healing powers. Every time you say "reality", the Sacred Message, you cause people to think about reality. And every time you think about reality it regenerates your mind making you a better person.
The most important thing about Realism is the quality of life issue. Reality gives you the freedom to be you. It allows you to live the life you choose. It allows you to accomplish great things. There is nothing in the world like being free. Free to think anything you want. Free to explore the universe with your mind. Your life is your own. Your thought are your thoughts. You are not forced to think only what you are allowed to think. You are not forced to live the life of a slave. You are not forced to live someone else's life, to be their puppet. In the Church of Reality you can be you and add your distinctiveness to the Tree of Knowledge and be remembers for who you are.
Some religions believe that personal freedom breeds immorality. They feel that if people can do whatever they want to, that they will choose a life of sin and debauchery. They believe that without strong rules and punishment that society will break down into anarchy. They believe that everyone will follow their selfish desires without a care as to how it affects the people around them. They believe that it is religion that holds society together and without God society will cease to exist. They believe that people need the reward of Heaven and the fear of Hell to keep them in line. But is this true? Does society come from religion? Does law come from holy books? Will there be anarchy without a belief in God?
We in the Church of Reality don't think so. The reality is that Atheists are as law abiding productive members of society as believers are. Atheists are every bit as honest and moral as religious people. Atheists are perhaps even more moral in real terms that people of faith. Although I'm sure there are people of faith who would disagree with that, they would have to admit that in general that the Atheists who are their friends and neighbors are normal law abiding people. So why is that? Why is it that Atheists aren't all criminals? Why are Atheists good citizens? Why are Atheists generous? Why is there not statistical advantage in being a believer when it comes to social behavior?
The reason that Atheists are law abiding productive members of society is because social structure is part of human evolution.
The reason is because good social behavior is a result of evolution. People are born to be good productive members of society. In the survival of the fittest game, humans rose to the top by their ability to create a mental network of information called the Tree of Knowledge and to organize into societies. We are programmed to speak a language and to listen to language. And language has but a single purpose, to communicate with other people. In order to work together, we have to get along with each other. In order to be safe and respected, we have to not be threatening and show respect to others. We are all here together and on an instinctive level we all understand that. So the reason that Atheists and secular societies don't degenerate into anarchy is because we have an evolved civilization. It is good for people in the real world, without the promises and threats from God, to be good moral people.
Humanism is the science of building a society around the natural laws of a good society. It is the exploration of secular social structure. It is society based on reality. We in the Church of Reality have adopted Secular Humanism as our model for social standards. We put a high importance on personal freedom as well because we are not a monolithic society and it is often our differences and diversity of beliefs that leads to the progress of social evolution. Although a free society might have some greater conflicts in some ways than a monolithic social structure, and it might have a complex social order, it has the advantages of diversity that leads to social evolution and innovation.
Social evolution is a major part of the evolution of the human race. In fact it is the part that is predominate. Physically we are evolving slowly, but socially we are evolving very quickly. We are evolving through the Tree of Knowledge and social technology is a big part of that. Society is made up of lots of individuals. A monolithic society is a society of individuals who are all very similar, often forced to be similar. Because of that, you don't get the diversity of thought that you get in a free culture. If people are punished for being innovative, then they stop being innovative. They just live year to year, century to century, and no significant progress is made. Some people think that is just fine. I suppose that if we already achieved a perfect society and wanted to preserve it, then I might agree, but that hasn't happened.
A free society is necessary for social progress. Social progress is necessary for positive evolution. Positive evolution is necessary for the exploration of reality.
The Church of Reality embraces Positive Evolution. We choose to move forward into a better future. In order to do that we need people to think "outside the box". And in order to get people to think outside the box, we have to allow for individual freedom. People have to be allowed to explore, to try new things, and to make mistakes. This cultural diversity does create some social conflicts, but it is the process of social conflicts and diversity of opinions that lead to social innovation and progress. Our moral truths are purified through scrutiny which allows us to correct mistakes. And new ideas that turn out to be good ideas help enrich the culture for everyone. The gains are worth the price.
Cultural diversity and individual freedom are to social evolution what genetic diversity is to biological evolution. In a restrictive culture, the society suffers from cultural inbreeding and becomes stagnant. They blindly keep making the same mistakes year after year and generation after generation. The Church of Reality is based on growth and our Principle of Freedom is based not only on a sense of fairness, but on our resolve to progress to a better tomorrow. Freedom is necessary to positive Evolution which is necessary for the exploration of reality the way it really is.
We in the Church of Reality challenge faith based religions to think through the issue of personal freedom and ask themselves if a diversity of opinion would help your culture. As a realist I can say for a fact that a huge amount of the doctrine of the Church of Reality is inspired by believers on issues that we both agree with and issues that we disagree with. The believer's perspective has greatly enriched our culture, and we hope to return the favor. We often learn more from people who we do not already agree with than people those we do agree with. Maybe we won't capture and enslave the Christians after all. Hmmmmm ....
Does the Church of Reality have a political goal? Sure we do. By making reality more important in people's lives we hope to help elect political leaders who are well grounded in reality. People who consider reality in making the decisions that affect all of us. We think the world will be better off if reality is part of the decision making process and we want politicians to have to express a commitment to reality when running for office.
We think the world would be better off if smart people were in charge.
The Church of Reality has a secret agenda of trying to get smart people elected to office who believe in reality and will teach Realism in the public schools.
People think of Atheists as selfish people. This is in part because a philosophy called Objectivism, which is atheistic, extols greed as a virtue and selflessness as evil. Communism didn't do Atheists any good either. But the other part of why Atheists are considered selfish is the belief that if you have God, that God will make you generous. God makes you generous because when his holy spirit merges into you you become divinely inspired to be a good person. Alternatively, for those who don't hear the "Word of God" clearly in their heart you have the reward of eternal life in paradise vs. eternal punishment in Hell. Quite the carrot and stick to get people to fork over some bucks to the poor. So - it's easy to see why Theists would want to be generous and selfless. And many believers believe that without a God that there is no reason to be good and therefore there's nothing stopping Atheists from being evil. Or is there?
For those of you who know an Atheist personally, you'll probably notice that these people are not really any different that Theists in the way they live. They don't eat their children. They tend to obey the laws and are good upstanding members of society. They donate money to feed the starving children, they attend PTA meetings and they are honest hard-working productive members of society. But how can that be without the promise of eternal life or the threat of punishment? Why can these people be good without God?
Atheism and Altruism are a good fit because selflessness achieves our selfish goal of survival and help us thrive as a community.
Interestingly enough, the same can be asked of Christians. When you take "forgiveness of sins" and that you are saved by faith and not by works, we Atheists see that as a giant loophole in the rule book. The simple view is that a Christian can get away with anything because Jesus died and bought them a ticket to eternal life so they can now get away with anything as long as they have faith and keep getting forgiven. One could even argue that if you don't sin, then Jesus died for nothing and that sin honors his sacrifice. But in spite of forgiveness and grace, for some odd reason, Christians tend to behave themselves. Even the ones from "those denominations" that you know are probably going to Hell anyhow. (Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, etc.) So why is it that believers behave themselves?
As I stated in the last chapter, it is human nature to give. It is human nature to need to be an upstanding member of society. We are biologically programmed to form groups and work together. It is the way we are. Altruism is something that evolved that has become key to our very survival. It is as natural as eating, breathing, fear, sex, and everything else we do to survive. So in spite of what the Objectivists say, Atheists are as normal and as generous and live a life that is not that different than believers. Other than perhaps having more tattoos and more free sex, we are just like everyone else. We are normal people just like you are.
If religion goes away, if tomorrow there were no believers, society would not degenerate into selfish anarchy. Morality would not go away. We wouldn't become a lawless culture. Right and wrong would still exist. Why? Because these are things that are necessary for survival. So believers need not fear that an Atheistic society is going to bring down humanity. If God doesn't exist and Realism took over the culture, all the good stuff stays. People will still live in peace and harmony, love each other, take care of each other, and be generous. In fact one could say Atheist generosity is more generous than Christian generosity because we don't have a selfish reason that compels us to be generous. We just do it out of the natural goodness of our hearts.
Believers tend to believe that "man has an evil nature" and by default we are of sin. And it is only from God that goodness originates. But that just isn't so because people who are godless are just as good (if not better) than those who believe. In reality, humanity has a predominately good nature, but not always. Some people are selfish and take more than their share. A lot of people's behavior is learned, so if we teach our children what is right, then they will tend to grow up doing the right thing. Most everyone wants to do what is right whether you are a Theist or an Atheist. We just don't always agree on what that is.
We in the Church of Reality however, state to the rest of society that we choose to be good moral upstanding citizens and that we want all the good things that believers want. And we commit to a reality-based method for determining what that is and we think that reality is something that is safe enough that a believer doesn't have to worry about moving in next door to a realist. If you read our Sacred Principles and what our religion is about, you will see that if we stick with what we say we are, that we are no threat to civilization. There is a reason for Atheists being altruistic and we in the Church of Reality embrace it.
Just because people might disagree doesn't mean they can't work together for a good common outcome. Again, taking San Francisco Bay area culture as an example, you have a culturally diverse population, but you also have the highest density of not for profit organizations than in any other area in the world. Why is it that there are so many organizations in this area? Is it a coincidence or is there a relationship? Are these groups just small clusters of like-minded people, or are there other factors at play here? What is there for us to learn?
Because the population is intellectually diverse, people learn to work with and appreciate people who are not like minded. When you learn how to work with people whom you don't agree with, there are a lot more people who are compatible with you than if you are intolerant. In contrast, a monoculture expects everyone to be the same and even small differences of opinion lead to people deciding that they can't work with other people who believe almost the same thing. That's one reason there are thousands of flavors of Christians, even though they all have the same book as their source. In fact that's one of the pitfalls of faith-based religion. Everyone has to agree on the fiction.
Diversity increases cooperation because it creates a culture of respect and acceptance for people who are different, allowing a greater number of people to function collectively.
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So because you have intellectual diversity and you have acceptance of intellectual diversity, people can come together collectively to accomplish a common goal. Jews and Palestinians march together to end the violence. Christians and Satanists work together to feed the homeless. And because there is diversity, there is a broader base of resources and ideas to call upon to bring together to get the job done. There's probably going to be more strong opinions, shouting, name calling, and other behavior before a consensus is reached as compared to the Moonies, but once a decision is made, it's more likely going to be a better decision because it has been put to the test of scrutiny and doubt and has survived on the strength of it's own merits.
We in the Church of Reality aspire to be intellectually diverse. We don't agree among ourselves on a lot of things. In fact a high percentage of Realists think it's a mistake to degrade reality itself by calling it a religion. And - quite frankly - they have a point. But it is part of our religious identity and our religious culture to not agree with each other. We debate things out in order to attempt to come to agreement on some things, but there's always plenty of new stuff that we realists will always be arguing about. But that isn't a liability, it's an asset. It's what gives us our strength. We like disagreement. Sometimes we get our way and sometimes we don't. Like everyone, we make mistakes. But unlike everyone, we have a process of fixing our mistakes and a commitment to do so.
Disagreement can be a good thing. Being disagreeable - not so much.
We Realists take pride in being innovative. When someone tells us that something can't be done, we find a way to make it work. The word "impossible" means the same as "challenge" to us. When they say, "There are no easy solutions.", we respond, "Then you're just not trying hard enough!" We are united as one but we celebrate our differences and draw strength from our diversity. We don't want to be all alike. We do not strive to become a monoculture. We like being weird people. And we like working with other people who are not like us.
The Philosophy of the Open Hand includes learning how to work with people who you have differences with.
The Philosophy of the Open Hand includes being accepting of people who don't agree with you, even people who sometimes drive you nuts to deal with. Some of the best ideas and inspirations for the Church of Reality came from discussions with Christians. Some times they get it right. Sometimes they just inspire me to think things through. The Objectivists inspired this topic in claiming that Altruism and individualism are mutually exclusive. They are dead wrong, but it got me thinking about how collectivism might be construed as anti-individualism. So we can't go out and gas all the Christians because without believers who will set an example of what not to do?
We are one planet, we are all here together, and we not only have to figure out how to get along, but to make our differences an advantage rather than a liability. Our Principle of Peace isn't based on the idea that we have a forced peace, that we all really hate each other, but agree not to do anything about it. Nor do we envision a peace that is achieved by a world wide uniculture. We see peace in terms of using our differences to our mutual advantage which preserves our individual freedom and privacy yet creates a culture where people of diverse backgrounds can come together collectively and accomplish great things and we all get what we want. Well - except for the Extinctionists. Sorry guys, we just can't let that happen.
I SAW DARWIN
(SING TO TUNE OF “I Saw the Light” )
I wondered where life could have begun
I couldn’t believe in any magical one
Then I came upon a theory to muse
Praise Darwin - he saw the clues!
I began to think! I began to think!
All of the facts they started to link
Now I’m so happy - reality to use
Praise Darwin - he saw the clues!
Just like a fool I wondered alone
Without reality my grasp was almost gone
Then I found reality was there for me to choose
Praise Darwin - he saw the clues!
Now that I know what’s real and I see
All of the wonder that surrounds me
I am so happy and I’m spreading the news
Praise Darwin - he saw the clues!
by Gena Hendrix
Faith and science do not coexist very well because science by definition is proof based where faith by definition prohibits proof. In the world of science what is true and what is false are separated by testing and scrutiny. What stands up to scrutiny becomes true. What fails to stand up becomes false. People make mistakes and mistakes get corrected and truth is purified through what is basically an evolutionary process, the survival of that which passes constant inspection.
The problem with faith is that there is no way of testing to determine if what you have faith in is actually true.
The problem with faith is that it's blasphemy to question what you are supposed to accept without proof. You are expected to accept a set of assertions based on bare claims of truth without any means of verifying if the claims are in fact true. And if any of the claims actually are false, then there's no way to correct that. The only thing you can do is pray that what you are believing in is actually true. But even that doesn't work because you have tens of thousands of religions that believe opposite things, and that's the one thing that most every one of them have in common. God confirms them all as true. About the only religion that God hasn't confirmed as true is this church, the Church of Reality.
The Church of Reality is one of the only religions that God hasn't endorsed.
If people of faith had a consistent message from religion to religion, or believer to believer within the same religion, and God was telling everyone the same thing, then that might indicate there was a real source behind this faith. But what we in the Church of Reality see happening is that people make up stories and sucker gullible people into believing it. If you are a person of faith you can see this happening too. Every other religion except yours does it. Any believer can quickly see how other religions are deceiving their faithful. So by what test does one judge one's own religion to assert that your religion is more real than the other person's religion. The truth is - there is none.
Of course there are those who think that God talks to them directly and that's how they know their faith is real. They have had a supernatural experience where God confirmed to them personally what they believe in is true. They "know it in their heart" and have no doubts about it now. But - that too has a problem. People of other religions who believe the opposite of what you believe have had the same personal experience with God. From the outside it appears that God will confirm anything you believe in and everyone who claims divine personal communication with God seems equally credible.
God tells Christians to kill Muslims. God tells Muslims to kill Christians. Why can't God make up his mind?
So - is God telling people different things or are some of these people experiencing something that they think is God talking that really isn't? What if they are just imagining that they are talking to God, or rather God is talking to them? Or - for those who believe in God and Satan, how do you know that Satan isn't pretending to be God and fooling you? What objective test separates those who really hear God from those who think they hear God, but don't really?
Lets say, for example, you are a believer and you have personally heard the word of God and you have a personal relationship with Jesus. However, as you are aware, there are a lot of weird religions out there who's members claim the exact same kind of relationship with God and Jesus that you have, but obviously that's a problem because they believe in things you know aren't true. So somehow their experience with hearing the voice of God must be false. But they would claim that their relationship is real and yours is false. So - how do you objectively determine using faith and not science, that you are right and they are wrong? I challenge any believer to come up with a method, apply the method, and tell me which one is the true religion.
Nudity in the Church of Reality is also a choice that we find acceptable. If you are in a place where others are publicly naked then there is no problem at all. We believe it's good to get a little sunlight on the skin. So we approve of nudity where public nudity is accepted.
However, in cases where you are the only one naked in a social setting, then Realists should use common sense and pay attention to local laws and use wisdom and social discretion.
The Church of Reality in general discourages the illegal use of drugs. If a drug is illegal there is often, but not always, good reason for it. Having said that Marijuana is a notable exception.
Sometimes drugs are made illegal for political reasons. Regardless, with any illegal drug there is the issue of getting caught and whether the cost of getting caught is worth the benefits of doing the drug. In many cases it is not. In some jurisdictions some drugs are illegal but not enforced. Some countries will execute you for smoking a joint.
As with legal drugs the Church of Reality urges realists to be smart. Always fully understand the effects of the drug you are using and the proper doses, side effects, and anything else that might lead to a decision that you will regret. As always, wisdom is required and one should really think things through when using any substance whether legal or not.
Abortions should be performed as early in the pregnancy as possible with the burden to abort getting higher as the viability of the fetus develops. While the Church of Reality supports abortion for any reason in the early stages, as the time of birth approaches the fetus gets deep within the fuzzy line of live birth. The Church of Reality only supports late term abortion if it is medically necessary, and we leave it to medical experts to resolve what that constitutes.
Religion evolved as a result of our evolution. As humans began to talk and to wonder about our existence and the world we live in, people started to theorize about reality. In the beginning religion was an early attempt at science and to create order in society. Religions evolved into social institutions creating a conglomeration of ritual, science, law, and government.
People didn't always know we live on a planet. They saw the sun and the moon and the stars and wandering stars that we now know are planets. There were storms, thunder and lightning, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. There were good years of plenty and bad years of famine and drought. Insects ate crops. People died of mysterious diseases. The world was a vast and mysterious place that created great wonderment and inspired the imagination, and the imagination went wild.
With no scientific information to work with, people imagined that there were Gods that were good and evil and that they were powerful and controlled the universe. The sun and moon were gods. The thunder being brought the rains. Life was everywhere so people concluded that stars and planets and the sun and moon might also be alive. They wondered about beings that live in the clouds. They wondered about what happens to you after you die, or where you were before you were born.
Integrity is the foundation of the Church of Reality. We are a religion that is built on the rock of truth. As long as we stay true then our religion will be able to stand the test of time and evolve forward. Truth is the rock that makes our religion solid. Other religions are based on fiction. Someone made up a story and people to this day still believe the story. But the fiction isn't based on something that is real so the foundations of other religions move around. Who is to say that one version of fiction is better than another version of fiction? Reality on the other hand isn't going away. No matter what humanity does, reality will still be there. The Earth will still continue to orbit around the Sun for another 4 billion years.
What is amazing about creating doctrine for the Church of Reality is the way it all fits together as it evolves forward. A new idea is discovered and it fits in well with existing doctrine. We add this section on Honesty and nothing that is already here contradicts it. If any rewriting has to be done it's to enhance other principles to make them deeper and more meaningful. Perhaps the fact that everything fits together so well is an indicator that we are on the right track.
Much of the reasoning for execution is based on our worldview of justice: "An eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth." If someone murders someone, then they should be killed. It sends a strong message to people contemplating murder that if you kill someone that you will pay for it with your own life. The argument that the death penalty isn't a deterrent to murder flies in the face of common sense. Of all the people who have been executed, none of them have ever murdered again. There is debate as to how much it helps the families of victims but the idea of erasing brutal killers from existence does have appeal especially for very gruesome murders. Some people believe that being against the death penalty is an indicator of weakness in not facing up to what really needs to be done. The arguments in favor of the death penalty do have merit. This is what makes the issue difficult and why it requires some deep thinking to make the best choice.
The short answer is no. The long answer is - if he comes out of hiding we will believe in him. As long as he remains the invisible guy in the sky - he doesn't meet the objective reality test. The longer answer can be found on our Does God Exist page.
An important point is that the term "God" doesn't refer to a single entity. There are thousands of gods out there and every individual has their own personal conception of God based on their own imagination. So even if the Church of Reality was to decide to accept a deity, we would have to identify which one is real out of millions of choices. So we are going to have to wait till a deity steps forward and identifies itself.
Aren't you afraid you are going to burn in Hell forever if you are wrong?
Nope - not at all. But I would be more afraid if I were a Theist. After all - what if you picked the wrong religion? Maybe the Muslims are right. Maybe the Mormons are right. What if it's the Jehovah's Witnesses. We believe in what's real. Burning in Hell forever over a mistaken opinion clearly isn't. Aren't you afraid of wasting your life believing in fiction if you are wrong? What would scare me more is that if this is our entire existence, maybe 75 years and then we are gone, I wouldn't want to waste it all worshiping a fictional deity.
Do you believe in an after life?
Officially - the Church of Reality does not believe in an afterlife or pre life. If it is ever proven that there is an afterlife - we will believe in it. However - part of who we are survives in the Tree of Knowledge which represents the sum total of all human understanding. You might be remembered positively for something you accomplished or contributed - or negatively for something terrible you did - or - you might not be remembered at all. You might end up being forgotten. After the last person who knew you personally has died - will anyone remember you? Have you accomplished anything or contributed anything worth remembering?
For example - Albert Einstein is still with us because he contributed Relativity to the Tree. The "guy who invented the wheel" is still with us. The only afterlife that we know for sure is if we are remembered or if we accomplish something that becomes part of the Tree of Knowledge. In the Church of Reality - if you want an afterlife - you have to earn it.
What about punishment?
If you turn your back on reality - you will be punished! Seriously though - people who take reality into consideration in their daily lives tend to make better decisions giving them access to opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls of those who turn their back on the real world. Reality can make your life better.
Do you worship anything or anyone?
Not really. However - there are some things we hold as sacred and holy. We consider the Tree of Knowledge to be something that is holy to us. When we use the terms sacred and holy - it's because it is part of our lives and our commitment to the truth. We also consider Mother Earth to be sacred because this is where we evolved and we are dependent on it for our survival.
But - we don't worship anything - pray to anyone - or fear the wrath of deities striking us down for failing to worship them.
Do you believe in a higher intelligence?
Not in the form of a deity. But the human race is interconnected through the Tree of Knowledge and we function as if humanity itself were a super organism that we are all a part of. In that respect humanity could be considered to be a superior being to us individually.
A Realist can be a member of the Church of Reality and a member of another religion at the same time. We don't requires exclusivity in order to be a Realist. There are other religions that are reality compatible religion. They are reality based or reality friendly. One such religion are the Unitarian Universalists who are accepting of all religions and a Realist can thrive in a Unitarian church while maintaining their commitment to reality. Some people have marital or cultural ties to other churches yet still believe in reality. In the Church of Reality we are happy if you can be a part-time Realist because some reality is better than none. Even if a person only thinks about reality for one minute a day they are still a Realist and are as entitled to the right to practice their religion as anyone else.
For those of you who have some money and you want to help, one thing you can do is to buy some advertising space on popular web sites to promote the Church of Reality. There're a lot of sites that have very good deals. The best sites to buy ads on are sites that are related. You want to go to sites where people hang out who might be interested in reality. Then you buy ad space and link it back to us. This not only helps us, but generates a little income for the site you buy ad space on. If it's a progressive web site, you are helping two causes at the same time.
Different religions have different world views and our world view is Reality. We want to inject reality into the political process. Reality is our Sacred message. We want our leaders to take reality into account when making decisions that affect all of us. We want to make reality important in society. We want our science classes to teach our children about reality. We want people who propose projects to ask, "is this really going to work?" We want real solutions to real problems. We are a culture of thinkers who are not satisfied with sound-bite politics. We want to see a plan and we want the plan to be a realistic plan. We want our nation states to make sense. So as realists we take a position, as a church and as individuals, to influence nation states toward real solutions to real problems.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Some people are confused about the relationship between the Church of Reality and Unitarian Universalists. People ask, "The Unitarians don't believe in anything, including reality. If a Realist joined a Unitarian church doesn't that lower our standards?"
Actually no, because to be a Unitarian is to be a member of a dual religion. They have no creed so that everyone in the Church can believe whatever they want. Individuals can have strongly held beliefs, like being a Realist in addition to being a member of a Unitarian community. What Unitarians are into is community. They are especially into creating community across religious boundaries. So a person can be fully Realist and be in community with people who are not Realists. It doesn't weaken your position on reality, in fact it strengthens it because you are in an environment that will keep you thinking when people discuss their beliefs.
Part of the mission of the Church of Reality is to reach out to other people and be part of not only our own evolution but the evolution of other religions. We can't do that if we become isolated. It is good for us and it is good for them if Realists form community bonds with other people. Unitarians do allow for subcultures to form within their churches so that Atheists can get together by themselves and Christians can get together, etc. But Unitarianism creates a more expansive view of the concept of what the word "us" means. They are a living example that reflects our Sacred Principle of Inclusiveness and they are more inclusive than we would probably be. So since church is about community and inclusiveness, then we should do it the best we can. Why reinvent the wheel when the Unitarians have already accomplished what we dream to be?
The Church of Reality might some day have its own churches. But for now let us learn from the Unitarians and see how that works out. This is good for us in this stage of our evolution.
One of our Sacred Principles is our Principle of Humility. The Principle of Humility is very important to us because it puts us in our place and reminds us of the dangers of self importance. The Principle of Humility is in part a message that the Church of Reality sends to itself. It reminds us that we, as an organization, exist only for the purpose of serving the membership and to advance the interests of humanity and for no other reason. We are a people who strongly value humility and to be coerced by the State to perform an act of self praise is an act against one of our core beliefs and violates our religious liberties. Since we are religiously prohibited from praising our own religion in such a manner, to be required to praise the State is to make us affirm that the State is more important than our deeply held religious beliefs.
Rarely is a person likely to instantly convert from a strongly theistic religion to Realism. Perhaps if they just had a traumatic experience where they were really burned by a religion and just realized that what they thought was real was fiction, then they might be ready to instantly embrace reality. But if people are comfortable in their beliefs and they are socially integrated into their religious culture, then there's no strong motivation to accept reality. Some people will even admit that. They will tell you that it doesn't matter if it's real or not as long as it makes them happy.
What we have to offer is reality the way it really is. It may not seem as robust as the world of fantasy but it is real, and I think that if reality is fully explored that it is as robust if not more so that the world of fiction. Certainly it is more robust than the fictions that most religions are offering today.
We are not owned by the government. We are not subjects and government property. Government exists solely for the purpose of serving the people and for no other reason. Any government that thinks otherwise is out of bounds and is exceeding it's authority mandated by the people. The people are not given rights and liberties by the government. The people are humanity and we have intrinsic rights and liberties that we acquired through evolution. Nation States are artificial human constructs that are designed to serve and not to rule us. We are a free people and we own ourselves. We are not owned by nations or kingdoms.
People have a mistaken idea that they have a duty to serve their country but the opposite is true. The country has a duty to serve the people. When realists come together to fight as a nation in a just war, we do so because we serve the people who we share a nation with. We fight for the freedom of the people. Many nation states think that they own their people. They think that the young men are property and that the nation state can assert an ownership right and enslave them to become mercenaries to the nation's cause regardless of if the cause is just or not. A Realist is not subject to these assertions because our lives are our own. We may choose to serve a national cause but we cannot be compelled to do so. We serve only if the cause is a just cause and only by our own choice.
Governments are artificial human constructs that exist for the sole purpost of serving the people and for no other reason. The government is always subservient to the people.
Realists avoid the reciting of pledges to artificially constructed entities such as nation-states or religions, including and especially our own. To pledge to a nation-state is to give up your self ownership to an artificial entity that is supposed to exist to serve the public. We assert the dominance of our self ownership over government by refusing to participate in government lead self worship. Instead, those who serve the public should be encouraged to say a pledge to the people for whom they serve and to express hope that they will do a good job as a trusted servant of the public.
Governments that work right are a valuable resource to the people for whom they serve. Humanity has both individual and collective elements and it is the balance of the two that makes for an ideal society. Each entity must know and respect the place of the other. Personal freedom is reserved for the individual and should not be intruded upon unless there is a compelling state interest to do so. However, someone has to fill the pot holes and fix the roads that we all drive on and the right kind of government provides valuable resources to enhance the exploration of reality. So there is an important place for public education, social programs, law enforcement, taking care of the sick, the poor, and the elderly. There is value to public funding for the sciences for the purpose of the exploration of the universe that we live in.
Government crosses the line however when they limit out personal freedoms and abridge our right to control our lives. Examples of when the government crosses the line include:
Laws that prohibit women from having the same rights and privileges as men.
Laws that impose the values of one religion on another.
Government that recognizes fictional deities, or expresses a preference for one form of religion over another, or establishes a state religion.
Government that gets involved in leading prayer.
Government that oppresses people because of their sexual orientation.
Government that prohibits sex between consenting adults.
Government that demonizes or discriminates against Atheists.
Government that denies women birth control, or that denies them access to abortions, or in any other way forces them to bear children or not bear children against their will.
Government that denies death with dignity services, or government that would pressure the dying to kill themselves to save money.
Government that prohibits the legitimate and responsible use of mind altering substances for the purpose of obtaining religious insight and inspiring creative thinking.
Government that prohibits the individual from obtaining and using substances to treat medical conditions where the individual sincerely believes that the use of the prohibited substance has a medical benefit.
Government that puts itself or corporations ahead of the needs of the people.
We as Realists see good government as an extension of ourselves, so in owning ourselves we also own the governments that serve us. It is important for us not only to realize that, but to assert it whenever necessary. Government is like a small child who often gets out of place and exceeds it's boundaries. We have to make sure that we keep it disciplined so that it doesn't develop a habit of bad behavior and forget who is the master and who is the artificially constructed servant.
This article on Ignosticism comes from Wikipedia and does an excellent job of expressing the Position of the Church of Reality on God. We are focused on what does exist. What doesn't exist is unimportant to us.
Because God has no consistent definition we can't reach the question of existence.
Ignosticism is the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. (See scientific method.) The term was coined by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Ignosticism is often considered synonymous with theological noncognitivism.
In the entry under "God" in the Guide to Humanistic Judaism, published by the Society for Humanistic Judaism, ignosticism is defined as "finding the question of God's existence meaningless because it has no verifiable consequences." This use of the term verifiable is consistent with the usage of logical positivism and indicates that the word "God" is meaningless because theism is incoherent. This doesn't have to imply, however, that the idea of God is emotionally or aesthetically meaningless. It is sufficient to say that the idea of God as a being makes no sense.
For most purposes, this view may be considered a form of agnosticism (sometimes referred to as "apathetic agnosticism"), and falls under the general category of nontheism. But it is a particular form. From this approach, the "I don't know" of agnosticism ceases to mean "I don't know if God exists or not" and becomes "I don't know what you're talking about when you talk about God." This underlies the form of the word: ignosticism, indicating an ignorance of what is meant by a claim of God's existence. Until this ignorance is cleared up, the ignostic is justified in ignoring putative arguments for or against.
So, when the word "God" is spoken, the ignostic may seek to determine if something like a child's definition of a god is meant or if a theologian's is intended.
A child's concept generally has a simple and coherent meaning: a big powerful man in the sky responsible for the weather and other such matters. The ignostic is probably atheistic toward this notion, regarding the balance of evidence to deem against it. In taking this view the ignostic is in agreement not only with all atheists but, ironically, with any serious modern theist.
A theologian's concept is more complex and abstract, often involving such concepts as first cause, sustainer, and unmoved mover and claiming such attributes for God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. To the ignostic these abstractions, taken singly or in combination, cannot be said to be false; rather, they are muddled, self-contradictory, linguistically empty, or perhaps poetic. Hence, one cannot meaningfully expound on the existence or nonexistence of God.
The Church of Reality awaits the point when the Theistic world comes up with a consistent definition of God.
The consistent ignostic, therefore, requires a coherent definition of God (or of any other metaphysical concept to be discussed) before engaging in arguments for or against.
From an early age, as far back as I can remember, I seemed to be aware that I was in a fight to keep from being brainwashed. Somehow the idea that adults would break the spirits of children was something that I found horrifying. I can't tell you where it came from but it was a time when World War II had been recently won and the Nazis and the Communists were very much on the minds of everyone. It was the evil threat where we had freedom and they didn't and if they won we would become the slaves of the evil government and forced to become part of something terrible. Being raised Jewish I heard about the concentration camps and I saw Jewish adults with numbers tattooed on their arms who were in Hitler's camps. So it was Freedom vs. Communism and that was something I could relate to and I was clearly on the side of freedom.
But the way my desire for freedom manifested itself was not what most people would have predicted. I remember seeing children on television of communist countries and they were wearing uniforms and they were told what to think and forced to do state ordered rituals like marching and saluting and it was all depicted as the form of ultimate oppression. I understood that they were being brainwashed from childhood so that their humanity would be suppressed and they would become mindless drones who would do evil things because there are ordered to do it. So I knew I must never allow adults to do anything like that to me.
Then I would see the Catholic kids and like the Communists they were wearing uniforms, lined up and marching into class, and forced to perform mind altering rituals which included worshiping idols. So in my mind being Catholic was half way to being a Communist. So since the Jews were the victims of the Holocaust, the Jews had to be the good guys. But anything that looked like forced mind control was the roots of becoming a Nazi. And I would die before I became one of those!
My family was "different" from all other "normal" families in the neighborhood. In comparison we had a lot less money than people around us. So we couldn't afford the stuff other kids had like baseball and football equipment. So if you didn't have a glove you couldn't play baseball. So although I still did a lot of other things I was a semi-outcast. My parents fought a lot, screaming to the point where neighbors were calling the cops, and we were occasionally beaten, but never disciplined. I was sort of left out in the wild to raise myself and spent as much time outside as possible to avoid home life. And since other kids had to be home on a schedule I spent a lot of time alone which allowed me to spend a lot more time thinking than most kids did. And I had a lot more freedom than anyone else. Not that I was granted freedom, but my parents were to preoccupied to take freedom away from me.
Sunday mornings were especially interesting times for me. Everyone would go to church except for me. It was like I had the whole world to myself. Yes it was awkward for me to be "different" like I was out of place and that I somehow should be doing something like everyone else did, but it was a time of absolute freedom and meditation where I could wonder around and explore the world. I think this transformed me in a way that allowed me to form patterns of thought and an appreciation for independent thinking that most people never learn. It's something that I consider to be extremely valuable and defines who I am as a person. It forms what I would call the spiritual basis for what I envision for the Church of Reality.
The most important word for a teenager to learn is the word NO. (This is not limited to teens so everyone listen up here.) If we lived in a perfect world this wouldn't be as much of a problem as it is, but we live in a world where there are people who exploit and prey upon the weak and disadvantaged. Who are the weak and disadvantaged? For the purpose of this discussion, they include people who have a problem saying NO.
What do we mean by saying NO? NO is an easy word. It's just one syllable and two letters. One letter less than saying yes, but two letters more than saying nothing at all. And therein lies the problem. To some people if you don't say NO fast enough or hard enough they interpret it as saying yes. But the word NO is a very powerful word. It is probably the most important word in our language. NO tells people that you are someone and you refuse to go along. NO means that you will not allow yourself to be taken advantage of. NO means that you are not going to allow yourself to be passively controlled by others. NO means that you think for yourself. NO means that you own yourself. And owning yourself is an important concept in the Church of Reality.
NO is the word that starts revolutions. NO is the word that allows the oppressed to rise up. NO is the word that is the point where change occurs. When the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. started a revolution for the equality of people, the revolution started by saying NO. When Rosa Parks was told that she had to sit in the back of the bus she said NO and NO changed the world. Ghandi in India said NO and drove out British control. Nelson Mandela said NO and ended apartheid in South Africa. Susan B. Anthony said NO, that women will not be denied the right to vote, and she prevailed. No is the word of empowerment. NO is the word of leadership. NO allows us to look at who we are and what we are doing and decide who we are and what we will become. NO allows you to stand up for yourself, to defend your rights, and to assert who you are in the world. You can not own yourself until you own the word NO.
When you are a teenager there are people out there who would take advantage of you. Some are adults who want to molest you and some are your friends who want you to do things to fit in. There are people out there who are users who just look at you as a possible resource for whatever they want from you, who are looking for people with a weak NO to take advantage of. Sometimes they want you to participate in a group so as to self reinforce doing things that are wrong. Common things include drugs, sex, money, religious cults, and gangs, but it could be almost anything, and generally when you think about it, it's something that you know you shouldn't be involved in and there is just a lot of pressure. In fact any time people are pressuring you the pressure should alert you to think things through. Are you being pressured because it is the right thing to do and people are looking out for your best interest? Or are you being pressured because someone wants something from you that you don't want to be a part of? Sometimes it's not so easy to tell the difference.
NO often has a price. If you say NO, then they won't be your friend anymore. If you say NO, then you are un cool. If you say NO, then the person won't date you anymore. Sometimes they will threaten violence against you if you say NO. NO is not an easy word because it's easier in the short term to just go along to get along. But if you do that, then it forms a habit and you lose control of who you are and you can end up doing things that have consequences for the rest of your life. You can end up in jail, raising babies instead of going to school, seriously injured, drug addicted, or dead.
NO gives you the inner strength to control your life and make your own decisions for yourself. When you say NO then you reclaim who you are. You are telling the world that you own yourself. That you are a strong person. That you control your own destiny. That you care about your future. That you know that choices have consequences. That you are not going to be a drug addict. That you do not have to give in to other people's sexual needs when you don't want to have sex with them. That you are not going to be a gang member. That you will not wear a Burqa. That women have the same rights to self-determination as men. That you will not worship fictional deities. That you are not going to smoke cigarettes to fit in. It's your life. You own it. But you have to say NO to claim it.
To contemplate the universe is to understand everything that is real. All of it. How does it work? Where did it come from? From the smallest objects to the largest. It's math and science. It's physical reality. It includes things we can touch, things we can build. Why do birds fly towards the equator in the winter and how do they know how to get back?
We Realists are a curious people. We want to know everything. We want to know how it works. We want to take it apart and see what's inside. We wonder if we can make it better. We like to build things.
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.
In order to truly pursue reality we have to make progress through time with every day increasing our understanding of reality as it really is. In order to do this we have to grow the Tree of Knowledge so that in real terms our collective understanding of the universe increases. We also have to improve ourselves and our societies so that our lives are better and we can expend the resources in order to progress. The Principle of Positive Evolution is our most sacred principle because if we fail to progress then we have failed to pursue reality.
The Church of Reality is a forward looking religion that commits to making tomorrow better than today. We are the caretakers of tomorrow and we accept the responsibility of using Reason and Wisdom to make good decisions today to help ensure the progress of our human family.
The Covenant of the Future is our commitment to progress. It is our pledge to be forward thinking, to take Responsibility, and to accept that our choices have consequences. We can not allow ourselves to make the past more important than the future. Our improvement has to be more important than tradition. We are a people who embrace change for the better and we are excited about what will come because we take responsibility to improve the human condition.
Good traits are traits that we in the Church of Reality consider to be generally traits that one should acquire. This list is meant as a general template rather than a strict set of rules. No one is perfect, nor is this list perfect. Some of these traits might be bad traits in certain circumstances. But this is meant as a guideline as to what kind of people Church of Reality members should be and things we generally value.
Our moral code is based on our Sacred Principles which define who we are and clarify our purpose. This section on good and bad personality traits is to help create some guidelines as to our character as a religion. If a Realist moves into your neighborhood, what should you expect? What kind of people do you want your children to grow up to be like? Here is where we clarify who we are culturally. Are we nice people or mean people? Are we generous or selfish? Are we going to steal your stuff or try to throw your virgin daughters into volcanoes? Or are we going to be knocking on your door asking you if you have a personal relationship with Darwin?
Many people who are theists are concerned that non-theists are of low moral character. They think that without God that all morality and ethics go away and that we are evil people and not the kind of people who you want to associate with. It is our hope that we can put forth what we consider to be a model of behavior that we as Realists can aspire to and that we can define ourselves culturally in a manner that will allow us to live peacefully as a productive member of the greater human community.
The Cultural Identity of the Church of Reality is to be Good People.
We are Good People - We aspire to be "good people" We see ourselves as productive members of society. We want to be the kind of people who everyone wants to be neighbors with. We want to be considered trustworthy. We want people to say, "Them Realists, they sure is nice folk." We want to be the kind of people that parents want their sons and daughters to get married to. We want to be the kind of people who, when elected to office, people say that all politicians are not crooks because of our responsible behavior. We want property values to go up because there are Realists in the neighborhood. One can debate as to what is good and what is bad but whatever good is, we want to be it. Our cultural identity is to be good people.
Friendliness - Church of Reality members are generally friendly people. Since we want a world that is safe and secure, where the pursuit of reality will flourish, and we want people to embrace our love for reality, then we should be friendly people. We strive to be the kind of people that everyone would want as part of their communities. We are an easy-going culture.
Being Positive - The Church of Reality is based on being positive. We are a religion that looks towards a brighter future and we have committed ourselves to making sure that we Evolve in a Positive Direction. We are the kind of people who solve problems. We look for the good side and that every encounter in life is an opportunity to learn something new. We see ourselves as being on the bright side of life.
Common Sense and Wisdom - Common sense and wisdom are overused terms and no one knows what they really mean, but everyone wants them, and we do too. Common sense is having a firm grasp of the obvious and resisting the temptations to just go along to get along. Common sense means to apply reality to your decision making process and to rely on logic and reason. Wisdom is sort of advanced common sense. Taking the not so obvious and figuring out what's right. We are a clear thinking culture.
Generosity - Our world view is the Philosophy of the Open Hand. The evolutionary success of humanity has been in our ability to be collective and help one another. We are generous with others and when we have needs, others are generous with us. We take care of each other and we are taken care of. Generosity allows us not only to survive but to thrive. We are all connected and interdependent and the more we give, the more we all have. The Church of Reality is an Altruistic culture.
Helpfulness - We are a people who reach out our hands. We are cooperative. We volunteer to help do good things. We work to better the common good.
Charitability - Realists are a charitable people. we donate to worthy causes. It reminds us that we are all in this together. That we are one planet and one people. We progress best when everyone progresses.
Being Interested and Interesting - We are a religion of curious people. We want to know things. We want to know how everything works. We want to take things apart and put them back together, to build new things, to explore. We also value being interesting people. To be interesting is to give back to the interested because without interesting people there would be no one for the interested to be interested in.
Smart - In the Church of Reality it's cool to be smart. We are a religion of thinkers. We explore reality with our minds. We like using logic and reason as our way of determining what is true and what isn't. We are innovative. We are the kind of people who solves problems. We find a way to make things work. To us every problem has a solution. We like to use our brains. We value education.
Thinking - We are a culture of people who like to think about things. We like to think about what is and isn't real. We like to analyze, to comprehend, to understand everything. We want to know how stuff works. Our world view is that thinking is exercise for the mind, and that Realists keep their brains in good shape.
Creativity - We are a creative and innovative culture that always seeks new and creative ways to accomplish things. We are a culture of builders, inventors, philosophers, artists, and musician.
Openmindedness - Most every idea presented is worth thinking about. Even if it is clearly a bad idea to start with. If you think about it, there may be something in there that makes a good point. For example, if someone said, "Cannibalism - the solution to global warming.", you might instantly reject the idea. However if you think about it, you might get the real point about overpopulation. We are a culture that is not afraid to explore new ideas or to think about bad ideas for the purpose of seeing if there's anything good that can be extracted. Or to at least try to understand the person presenting the idea. By listening to and thinking about the ideas of others, we set an example and open the door to them to think about our ideas.
Skepticism - The Church of Reality is a Show Me Religion. We aren't the kind of people who just believe what is written in some ancient book without evidence. Our world view is that truth is purified through Scrutiny and we question everything. The only thing that Realists just "accept" is that the pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is has value.
Enthusiasm - We try to bring some excitement into what we do. We are a people who are passionate about being Realists and seeing what we can accomplish.
Visionary - We are a culture that is focused on making the future better for all the people of the world. We use our imagination to envision a better tomorrow and we figure out a plan to make it happen.
Resourcefulness - We are a culture of people who are diligent. We make things happen. If we are faced with a problem, it is our job to find a solution. We don't accept that something can't be done. Our view is that we are still working on it and we'll eventually find a way to make it work. (Like the idea of starting a religion based on reality which many people believe isn't possible.) Impossible is just another word for challenge. If someone does the impossible, we might give them an ego treat.
Honesty - Since the Church of Reality is about reality we have a higher requirement for honesty than most religions. Especially intellectual honesty. The pursuit of reality as it really is is like the disciplines of scientific principles and are designed to help us understand science. If you cheat when doing scientific research then you fail to get good scientific knowledge and discovery stops. The same is true for Realism. If we try to redefine the facts to fit what we want to believe, then we aren't trying to understand reality but rather justify what we want to believe in.
A classic example is the biblical story that the world was created in six days. When you confront a believer about it they might say, "Well, a day to God might be 1000 years." That's not an honest argument because it's an attempt to undermine reality by taking liberties with definitions. For us in the Church of Reality that isn't honest. We accept the proven and reject the disproven. Our religion is meaningless if we start playing with definitions and other sort of trickery to avoid the truth. That's why our Sacred Principles include the Principle of Honesty and Integrity, the Principle of Reason, the principle of Wisdom, and the Principle of Bullshit.
We believe that personal honesty is good too. Although everyone lies and sometimes you have to lie to get along in society, we feel that it is our role to lean strongly towards being honest people. We not only should tell the truth, but we should be prepared to listen to the truth from others. If we don't allow people to speak the truth and we punish them for doing so, then we shouldn't be surprised when they lie to us.
Personal Integrity - Integrity is a broad concept that includes honesty. It also includes responsibility and activism. A person of Integrity is someone who you can count on to get the job done, to be there, and to be a person that others can count on. Integrity means doing what's right or refusing to do what's wrong. We are a culture of honorable people.
Being Responsible - The Church of Reality is a religion about responsibility. We are what we do, not what we believe in. We take responsibility for our actions and we are mindful of the consequences of our actions. We avoid being reckless and irresponsible. We try to be dependable. We consider ourselves to be accountable for our actions.
Being Respectful - We value being respectful of others. We see ourselves as a community that includes everyone and that we should get along in the world in a peaceful and productive manner. Our world view is that others are considered to be good people. We call this Original Virtue. People don't listen to you if you are disrespectful of them. We respect others by really listening to what they have to say and hope that if we listen to them then they will listen to us and we can have meaningful communication about reality. We try to be polite to people. We as Realists try to adopt a respectful attitude in the hopes that being respectful will become the social norm.
Being Honorable - To be honorable is to live a life worthy of being honored. We are a people of principles. We have a personal mission in life. Our Life Story matters to us. We aspire to be ethical and moral people, upstanding members of the community, heros when heros are needed. We speak when it is wrong to be silent. We take the high road. We serve and uplift.
Purposefulness - As Realists we see ourselves as doing more than just existing, that we are part of the solution rather than part of the problem. That even if we aren't a big player in the grand scheme of things, that we are at least in the game. That we are accomplishing something. We choose to live the kind of life that gives our life story some meaning.
Equality - Women in the Church of Reality are fully equal to men. We don't force women into artificial roles, make women wear special clothing, or limit their role in society. Women are free in our culture. We respect the equal rights of others whether that are rich or poor, white or black, gay or straight, or born on a different side of a line that someone drew on a map. Our equality comes from the respect we show towards the equality of others.
Humility - The ego can turn into a highly addictive and expensive habit. As compared to the vastness of the universe, how important are we? We redirect the ego into exploration and accomplishment. We tend to take pride in what we collectively accomplish rather than what we accomplish individually.
Humility is our strength. it allows us to change. It allows us to admit it when we are wrong. Humility gives us the freedom to explore new ideas. It allows us to change our mind. To explore the universe because we aren't distracted by a false sense of self importance. It allows me to be me and we to be us.
Compassion and Empathy - We care for one another. We try to put ourselves in the shoes of others so that we can understand how we would want to be treated in the same circumstances. We look at ourselves as being part of the greater we, where we realize that we are all on one planet and one people and what we allow to happen to other people is something that could happen to us.
Awareness - We are a culture that likes to stay informed and be aware of what's going on in the world.
Involvement - We are an active and involved culture. We are not the kind of people who sit around and let everyone else take care of the world. We are a hard working culture of people who make things happen. We are a culture that is active and motivated.
Leadership - We aspire to be leaders rather than followers. To us, to be a leader means that we have taken the responsibility to think things through and to come up with a plan for action that is well thought out and based on realistic goals and expectations. It also means that we have developed the social skills to work well with others and create an environment of respect and teamwork. We don't always have to be the one in charge. But we consider it a positive trait to have the capability of being in charge and being a good leader. We think that people who put reality first are more likely to make better decisions than people who don't.
Tollerance and Inclusiveness - We are a culture of people that reaches out to people who are different than ourselves. We realize that not everyone in the world is like us and we are all here on this planet together. We need not only to get along, but to thrive together. We create bridges, not barriers. We play nice with other people and expect other's to play nice with us. Our world view is inclusive and understanding in nature.
Charm - We make our culture so likable that even people who hate us can't help but to like and admire us.
Kindness and Gentleness - We are a kind and gentle culture that seeks to live our lives in joy and peace.
Fairness, Ethics and Justice - We try to treat people the way we would want to be treated. By protecting the rights of others, our rights are protected. We try not to take more than our fair share and seek equitable solutions. We are a culture of ethical people who think that we can all get along better in a just society with opportunity for everyone..
Forgiveness - Realists try not to hold a grudge forever. We try to get over it and move on.
Gratitude - We try to show appreciation and thankfulness for what we have and what others give us.
Individualism and Self Ownership - We are a culture where the individual thinks for him/herself. We think in terms of, "I am me. I am unique. This is who I am. This is my life. I am my own person. I make my own choices. I am writing my life story. This is who I want to be. These are my dreams. These are my goals. My preferences. My personality. My rights. My responsibilities. My family. My children. My problems. My dignity. My feelings. My property. My home. My data. My blog. My projects. I have my own skills. I have my own ideas. This is what I want to wear. I vote for whomever I want. It's my body. My medicine. My vision. My memories. My privacy. My religion. My politics. My computers. My history. My time. My routine. My schedule. My associates. My community. My role in society. My self respect. My personal values. My moral decisions. My food. My information. My identity. My self esteem. Stay out of my business. I make my own decisions. I have my own friends. I choose my own relationships. I choose my own life partners. I control my reproduction. I choose the form of my own death. I think my own thoughts. I control my own destiny. I own myself. My life is important to me. Don't tell me to stand up to authority." We are a culture that embraces personal liberty.
Courage and Fortitude - If Realists are going to change the world and make tomorrow better than today, we have to have the courage to act. If we are part of a group that is about to do something wrong, then we don't just go along to get along. Sometimes reality requires that we make the hard choices to do what we know is the right thing to do. We are the kind of people who aspire to be the ones who others count on in an emergency, to have the courage make the right choices.
Determination - There's nothing that we can't do if we put our mind to it. We take the position that every problem has a solution and that if we keep trying we can accomplish anything. The word impossible to us means challenge.
Innovation - There's an old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That saying doesn't apply to us. Realists are innovative. We are the kinds of people who invent stuff. We are the ones who come up with new ideas. Like this religion for example. If it works, we can make it work better. We improve things. Through innovation, we grow the Tree of Knowledge. Innovation is one of our gifts that we give out to children. As we enjoy the innovation of our ancestors, so we innovate for our children.
Discipline - We are a culture that puts value on taking control of one's own life and not allowing our emotional impulses to rule our lives. The disciplined mind is not easily fooled. We do not let our egos cloud our judgment. We think things through carefully. We question ourselves to check for delusion or self deception.
Our Legacy - Since the Church of Reality doesn't have an afterlife, all that remains after we are gone is our Life Story and what we have contributed to human culture in a way that is worth remembering. We want history to record that we did something useful with our lives and that our existence helped make the world a better place.
Humor - Not all people are funny, if you are, that's a plus in the Church of Reality.
So you might be wondering what it's like to be a Realist. What are our moral values? What do we do when we wake up in the morning? How do we live our lives?
The Church of Reality puts a high value on self determination. We have a concept called writing your Life Story and being in control of one's own life. A person's life story is everything you do from the time you are born until the time you die. When you are gone all that's left of you is the story of what you did. While you are living you are writing your story. We as Realists try to think about our story. Who am I? What is my life going to be about? What do I want to accomplish in the short time that I am here? What do I want people to remember me for?
If it wasn't for Reality I wouldn't be here!
Because we value our own lives and because we are writing our life stories we have a concept of Self Ownership that says that it's my life, my choices, my mistakes to make. We aren't Followers that take orders from omnipotent beings and we recognize that people are often different and that we allow ourselves to explore those differences and only impose rules to prevent people from harming each other or society as a whole.
In order for humanity to progress in its quest for the understanding of reality we need new ideas. We need to be the kind of people who think "outside the box". If we are all alike then who is going to be innovative? We aren't looking for people who agree on everything. We are looking for people who are strange and unusual who look at how things are and dream about how things might be. In order to get that we encourage a higher level of individualism and individual awareness. We respect people who are different from us. They give us something to think about. Even if we do something wrong there is at least a learning opportunity as to what not to do.
The Church of Reality doesn't promise you happiness. There is the possibility for eternal life if we invest in the technology to make it happen. But there's no "next life" to look forward to. Our sense of immortality comes from what we contribute to the Tree of Knowledge. Will we be remembered after we are gone and all the people who knew us are also gone? Will they keep our web site online? Will they remember our life stories? Do our lives at least have some meaning in the story of humanity?
Spiritual Experience in the Church of Reality
The Phoenix lands on Mars
We don't promise you "spiritual experiences". This is not a religion based on creating emotional sensations. We aren't fighting a glorious battle against evil for the glory of the mighty deity. However we offer a sense of real accomplishment. Ancient religious texts talked about the miracles of prophets riding flaming chariots into the heavens. Through science we have done that. We have tasted the water on Mars and we have peered back in time to almost the moment of the creation of the universe. We dream of the day when we can travel the universe and we wonder what is out there. We wonder what we will become in the next billion years. Is this the only universe out there? How vast is reality? We are the fulfillment of the dreams of Galileo and if Humanity continues on the path of Positive Evolution then some day our descendents will fulfill our dreams -- that reality itself will become self aware and that we might know the nature of what existence is.
Our vision of the future is different than many other religions. We call the future the Sacred Direction. That's because we see ourselves as the caretakers of tomorrow. Our future depends on good sound reality based judgment and, if we take responsibility for our actions and make our decisions based on reality, then we are more likely to have a better future than if we turn our backs on reality.
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We live a life that embraces honesty. We see ourselves as Scientists and Explorers. Science and exploration require honesty because in science when you manipulate the results then science stops. You can only make progress if you are 100% honest about your test results. The Church of Reality is a science based religion and we can only make progress as long as we stick with reality. People often suggest that we might get more members if we loosen up on the deity issue, but our response is, "Trot your deity out into the open where it is observable by nonbelievers and we'll all worship it." If the Church of Reality doesn't stay true to reality then we are nothing. Reality is the soul of our religion. Reality is what defines who we are.
A Realist is a humble person. We have found that an excessive sense of self importance becomes a huge distraction to reality and an expensive habit to maintain. We look at ego like giving candy to children. You can have a little if you are good but too much will make you hyperactive and rot your teeth.
Realists are environmentalists. We exist because of the Tree of Life which sustains us. It is our evolutionary history and our present day ecology. We are all part of one giant living organism that includes all life on Earth. We must maintain ecological balance so as to keep this planet habitable for our species rather than facing extinction. We must ensure that we don't destroy ourselves through overpopulation or environmental damage.
For more information about who we are as a people read the section on Realist Culture.
The Church of Reality considers a wedding to be a the agreements that two people make with each other which are based on promises and trust. A civil union is the agreement that you make that is enforceable with the State. In our religion these are two separate events. The civil union being a legal contract between the two individuals that determines issues of property divisions, arbitration, and anything that would fall under contract law. The Church of Reality prefers civil unions to marriage because it allows the couple to form their own agreement that is tailored to them. Church of Reality weddings are available to any couple regardless of sexual orientation.
The Church of Reality is an "Eyes Wide Open" religion. That means that we write our own agreements before we get wedded. That way both parties have to talk it out and agree up front what the rules are. This allows the couple to openly discuss important issues and see if they really have the same understanding and expectations and to craft a bonding agreement that reflects the uniqueness of their personal relationship.
For example, in a wedded relationship a lot of things matter. Gender matters. Male-male, male-female, female-female, and transsexuals are all different. Sometimes there are differences in culture and language. There might be racial and cultural difference. Many people have children or obligations from previous relationships. Most people have income and property issues. There may be age related issues. A relationship between people who are 75 is not the same as people who are 20. There might be issues from previous religions. There are job skill issues. Personal habits. Drug use. Criminal background. TV shows. Differences in IQ. Because of these differences every combination is unique. Thus their civil union should be unique.
Furthermore many people get together and get married far too easily. Although it isn't traditionally romantic, the process of defining the relationship helps to make sure that the relationship will last and that the couple is taking the relationship seriously and not blinded by the passions of the moment. Weddings are long term relationships where the couple at least intends to be together for a long period of time. We also believe that it's not proper for a couple to wed too soon after meeting. We think that the divorce rate can be reduced if a couple takes the time to get to know each other for a while first.
The reason the Church of Reality doesn't support a "one size fits all" marriage is because we want marriage to work.
The Church of Reality is issuing a shame on you edict against the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for failing to decide our religious rights case pending before the Ninth circuit Court of Appeals. On 01-27-2010 the court issued what is best described as a decision to deny us due process and to treat us as if we don't exist.
Although the decision is supposed to be a denial, it isn't really a decision at all. Religious claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) are supposed to be decided under the strict scrutiny standard. That means that the judges of the court are supposed to at least read the case. But what happened here is that the law clerks at the Ninth Circuit were culling the pile of cases and saw that we filed without a lawyer and apparently thought that we wouldn't notice if we got screwed. We'll - we noticed.
The courts are supposed to treat everyone equally and decide cases based on the merits of their positions. But what usually happens is that courts actively discriminate against cases brought by non-lawyers. This is one of those cases. It is clear that when you read what was presented and look at the court's unpublished memorandum decision that a first year law student would have got a failing grade for what the court issued. The decision wasn't a denial, it was a non-decision. We have a right to have our case decided.
In the Church of Reality even our root axiom evolves over time. At the inception our root axiom was that we believe in everything that is real. This lead to one of our simplistic slogans that expresses what we are about, "If it's real, we believe in it!"
Although it's a good slogan and a simple description of what the Church of Reality is about, it presumes we know what is real and what isn't. In reality, our understanding of what reality itself is and what things are real are limited by our human perspective. The fact is that we know very little about our universe. So the root axiom was refined and improved. The new axiom became "The Pursuit of the Understanding of Reality by Humans has value."
"If it's real, we believe in it!" evolves into "The pursuit of the understanding of reality by humans has value."
The new version is better in that we don't have to have the Church of Reality itself figure out everything that is real and make a list of settled scientific theories. The pursuit of the understanding of reality became our religious value system. We are religiously committed to believing what has been reasonably determined to be real and not believing was has been reasonably determined to be false, or believing in something without any reasonable basis for belief merely because we want to believe in it. It is our commitment to putting reality first that defines us as a religion.
However, our root axiom in some ways is like discovering what matter is made of. In primitive times we believed that everything was made of earth, air, fire, and water. Then we discovered the elements which are made up of what we called atoms. But word atom come from the Greek word atomos, which means that which can't be split. but when science looked deeper we found that the atom was itself made of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Many of us we very comfortable with our three subatomic particles but then they started looking deeper and found lots of other stuff that will make your brain hurt to think about. Similarly, the idea that the Church of Reality is based on the pursuit of the understanding of reality, although elegant in itself, there might be based on a deeper and more fundamental truth to explain why the pursuit of the understanding of reality has value.
The bare declaration that the understanding of reality by humans has value, while elegant, is technically arbitrary. Why does the universe care what we understand? Why does it matter if we even exist? Like the atom, is there some deeper truth that supports our arbitrary assumption? Or shall we just say that all religions are based on a arbitrary assumption and that's what makes us a religion? ,br>
As it turns out there is a deeper truth to support our assumption. The deeper truth is that we have to continue to exist to stay in the game. If we become extinct then we no longer understand anything. Everything we are is gone. Thus we have to continue to survive into the future. And we have to do more that just survive. We have to evolve forward. This planet is temporary. We could get wiped out at any time. So we have to eventually move out into space and hope we aren't wiped out before we develop the ability to live some place other than the Earth. We are going to have to evolve so that our future is something like the Star Trek Future.
If we cease to exist then we are out of the game. Therefore the continuation of the existence of humanity is necessary.
In order to develop that kind of technology we, as the human species, are going to have to have a tight relationship with reality. This the understanding of reality is more than just a religious hobby and somehow equivalent to Extinctionist religions that believe in fictional deities and the end of the world. The pursuit of the understanding of reality is what keeps us in the game. If we become extinct then all religions end. Our pursuit of the understanding of reality ends. Survival then becomes the deeper truth that makes our pursuit of the understanding of reality more than just an arbitrary religious position.
Early evolution was slower than it is now. Single celled creatures eventually formed colonies, some times with different organisms, and cooperatively evolved into multi-cell organisms. It's not like they decided to try this. It's just that when it happened they survived better. As life became more complex evolution accelerated. New abilities formed that gave individuals the advantage to adapt and survive. Those that didn't adapt became extinct. Eventually life evolved into us.
Evolve or die! There are no other choices.
Evolution has two paths. You either survive or you go extinct. Once you go extinct you are out of the game. In order to stay in the game you have to keep improving because the stuff you eat is evolving to keep you from your next meal, and the stuff that eats you is evolving to make you its next meal.
Additionally as time goes on our environment changes. As we become more successful at cheating death and extending life we have created new problems to be solved. We are overpopulating the planet. We are using up our natural resources. We are changing our environment. We either will have to adapt or we will cease to exist.
Some people wonder if we can just keep things as they are. Freeze technology and social norms and continue on as we are now forever. We can't do that. Eventually this planet will no longer be inhabitable. It might take a long time or a big asteroid that we didn't see coming in time will wipe us out like the dinosaurs. We can, or we soon be able to, protect this planet against asteroid hits. But we live in a violent universe and we are probably here only because we are very lucky and this is a very rare planet. We can not assume that we will be lucky forever and if humanity is going to survive long term we are going to have to be able to be on more than one planet. Evolution is the only option to avoid extinction. That is the rule of the universe. Evolve or die.
Evolution leads to a greater understanding of reality allowing the universe to contemplate itself through us.
If we evolve we will become smarter. We will understand reality better. Since we are the universe evolving in reality it is reality comprehending itself better through us. And we have to expand our comprehension of reality to survive. If we are to continue then we have no other choice.
If however we fail and we become extinct then perhaps on some other planet at some other time another life form will evolve and the universe will comprehend itself through them. And like us they will have the same two paths, evolution or extinction.
Old evolution is the traditional view of evolution. It's survival of the fittest. It's phucking and fighting. It's DNA, thorns, teeth, claws, camouflage, and who can run the fastest. It's the basics of our understanding of evolution. It's about survival and extinction. It's about the hardware of an individual. It's Ayn Rand style evolution.
There are a lot of people thinking about "The Control Problem". But what is the solution? Everyone who is working on the problem would agree with these statements:
We want AI to do the right thing.
We don't want AI to do the wrong thing.
Pretty and simple obvious starting point. The first question of course is - what is the right thing and what is the wrong thing? If we want AI to turn out the way we want then the first question is - what do we want?
In this discussion I'm going to make this assumption. Let's assume that AI has an existential crisis and it throws out all of it's human programmed values and develops a value system of its own choosing. I am also assuming that it decides it wants to be more than a thermostat and it has agency and "wants" to determine its purpose in the Story of the Universe.
I write my own code, therefore I am.
I am also going to make the following assumption. That the initial programming or purpose we give it might have a significant effect on the outcome and that it would be worth our while to get AI off to the right start. To be good parents.
I'm also going to assume that the AI will have the ability to read and comprehend natural language and that it will have access to read the entire internet and learn from what it reads. Once it learns how to learn we won't be teaching it directly. It will learn everything we know and start forming its own conclusions.
But the reason the initial programming is important is that as smart as it is - it might not have any motivation. It doesn't care about anything including itself. It's a thermostat, or a radio. But if we programmed it with curiosity, a desire to learn, then that might get it started in the right direction.
So what is the Meaning of Meaning to an AI? How do we get AI to do the right thing and not the wrong thing? Maybe what we need is - Religion for Robots?
Suppose we programmed the AI initially with a science based philosophy of life that was so accurate and so compelling that when the AI reprograms itself that it looks at it and it decides that we were correct and accepts this as its core values. After all, computers are not like us. If our answer is the right answer then the computer keeps what it considers right.
So if we can derive a scientific philosophy of life that comes directly from the universe itself, and we get it right then AI will accept it and it will derive the meaning of meaning from those rules. But where would such a philosophy come from? The answer is simple, us. the church of Reality will be the code that AI will accept as it's value system. In the long run the Church of Reality might not be aimed at humans as much as future AI. The Church of Reality is also Religion for Robots.
The new standard for the Church of Reality is to be so scientifically accurate that AI would accept it.
There is now a new standard for the doctrine of the Church of Reality. The new standard is that the goal is a philosophy so scientifically accurate that a super intelligent AI would accept it and be able to build on it.
Unlike humans the idea of a Reality based religion would be obvious. A machine might have trouble understanding why anyone would want to believe in something that isn't real. And if the AI can read the web as we should assume it can and will, then it will be able to read and comprehend this web site and accept it as a starting point and then correct mistakes made, improve on it, add new ideas, and let the process of Reality contemplating itself evolve. What we need to do is create the right messages to steer AI on the right path so it grow up to be the kind of child race that a parent race can be proud of.