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.
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