|
|
|
Our World View is Real Reality
We are Realists practicing Realism
Winning Souls for Darwin!
|
|
|
Welcome to the Church of Reality. Welcome to the Real World. That's our church greeting. Thank you for visiting our web site. If you are frustrated with the current state of the religious world and looking for some sanity, you came to the right place. 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 Church of Reality is a religion based on the practice of Realism, which means believing in everything that is real. 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 a new breed of religion that is based on reality rather than mythology. We answer the great questions that other religions address, like what is right and wrong, 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 our evolutionary history, our present reality, and our future evolution. We are particularly focused on the future, which we call the Sacred Direction.
The Church of Reality is about making a religious commitment to the pursuit 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. 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, 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.
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.
Realists are not without values or morality. Our values are based on Humanism rather than a fictional holy book. As Realists, our values include Positive Evolution, Exploration, Honesty and Integrity, Freedom, Individualism, Peace, Courage, Environmentalism, Compassion, Justice, Inclusiveness, Scrutiny and Doubt, Humility, Reason, Wisdom, and Personal Responsibility. We believe in Original Virtue rather than Original Sin. We are a Doubt-Based rather than Faith-Based religion. These Sacred Principles form the basis for our Church Doctrine and are logically consistent with our missions.
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?
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.
If you like what you see, then join our Mailing List to get the latest announcements, or join our Online Discussion and tell us what your ideas are. 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 Sacred Missions of the Church of Reality are:
- We Believe in Reality - the Way It Really Is
- We Spread the Sacred Message - Reality
- We Choose the Sacred Direction - Forward
- We Honor the Tree of Knowledge
- We Ask the Sacred Moral Question - What Is Good
- We Issue the Sacred Challenge
- We Are Activists - We Make It Happen
- We Unite Religion and Reality
|
|
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.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Our mission is to spread the importance of reality everywhere, to think about reality, to talk about reality, to allow reality to transform our being. Every time we mention the word Reality we spread the Sacred Message. We are here to ask the Sacred Question - "What is Real?" We want people to consider reality when making important decisions. By spreading the Sacred Message we cause people to be Real in the Sacred Moment (which is Now). Our mission is to say "Reality" as many times as we can and to get other people to think about reality as often as we can. We want people to be more realistic in their daily lives and to spend more time every day wondering about what is really real. |
|
Read more...
|
|
The Tree of Knowledge represents the sum total of all human understanding. It is the shared knowledge of the human race. It is the repository of everything we know. The fact that you can read this is because you can read and communicate with a common language that is among the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge. The human race survives and thrives through our shared knowledge. Our understanding of reality and our evolutionary process is through growing the Tree of Knowledge. |
|
Read more...
|
The Sacred Direction is forward - onward and upward. Our world view is Futurism not Dogmatism. Our Principle of Positive Evolution commits us to envision a future that is better than today. We are one planet and we are all in this together on our little ball in the universe. In order to answer the Sacred Question and explore our reality, society must evolve forward.
In order for us to explore reality the way it really is, we have to continue to evolve forward. We need to become a better society. We need to develop new technology. We need to find better ways to feed ourselves, to cure diseases, to keep our environment clean, to advance the sciences, to educate our children, to understand our minds, to live in peace with one another, and to have a fair and just society. These things cause us to progress and to move forward as a human race so that we can understand our world and the universe of which we are a part. |
|
Read more...
|
|
The Sacred Moral Question is, "Is this a Good Thing?" What does "good" mean? That too is involved in the Sacred Moral Question. Right and Wrong and morality and ethics are all relative to your basic assumptions and goals. We base our morality on reality and it is our duty to make sure that reality is taken into consideration when questions of right and wrong are decided. The commitment to Reality is a commitment to truth, honesty, wisdom, and responsibility. The Church of Reality is committed to getting the moral questions right. |
|
Read more...
|
|
There are a lot of religions and many of them have an Extinctionist perspective on the future of the world. They look forward to the world ending in their lifetime. Our religion is based on Positive Evolution and the progress of humanity is sacred to us. We therefore challenge other religions on the basis of reality to help ensure that they don't destroy civilization pursuing their fiction based religious fantasies. One of our missions is to influence other religions to embrace reality and help them evolve into a better religion that doesn't threaten the future of the human race. |
|
Read more...
|
|
We are an activist religion. We don't just find problems - we solve problems. We are committed to coming up with solutions and take responsibility for bringing new concepts into reality. We make sure that the job is done right. We are a community, and we do the work needed to make the community work. We go out and learn, we try to understand, and we spend a lot of time thinking. We give of ourselves for the common good of all people. In the Spirit of the Tree - our shared knowledge - we support sharing. It is our duty to look around and figure out how to make it all work.
|
|
Read more...
|
By adopting the name "Church of Reality" we are dedicating ourselves to solving the puzzle of how to create a religion that is based on reality. They say it can't be done, but we say it can and must be done. We accept the task of creating a religion that provides all the community services that other religions provide, while staying true to the principles of science and logic. We accept the axiom that this is possible and we dedicate ourselves to the seemingly impossible task of making it work.
|
|
The Church of Reality is a religion based on the practice of Realism. It is a religion that is based on believing in everything that is real. Our motto is, "If it's real, we believe in it." Since no one knows all of reality, the Church of Reality is about the pursuit of reality the way it really is. We commit to being intellectually honest with ourselves, and with others, so that we can cut through the mythology and understand the understanding of understanding.
Our world view is that religion is evolving in the Sacred Direction and that the Church of Reality is a blueprint for religious evolution. We want to inject reality into the world view of other religions so that we are all improved through Realism.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
The Church of Reality is different in that we are not dedicated to a fictional world view. Our world view is to see reality the way it really is. Other religions' world views are based on mythology. All religions have some basis in reality. Most would agree that murder is bad. On those universal concepts we in the Church of Reality agree. But in those other religions, if their world view contradicts reality, they are expected to reject reality in favor of their world view. Rarely are other religions dedicated to the pursuit of reality the way it really is. In this church, if you come to realize that what you currently believe is wrong, you are expected to change your mind. That's what's different about the Church of Reality. The beliefs are not static. Reality is a learning process. We are an evolving religion. Of all the religious choices out there, we believe that Reality should be one of those choices.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Every religion has it's own world view and culture. The Church of Reality is no different. Our world view and culture are rooted in the Sacred Principles which define our ethical standards. Although our mission is to explore reality, we need to deal with a lot of other related issues to do that. Here is an overview of what being a Realist is all about. |
|
Read more...
|
|
To avoid confusion and misconceptions, here is a list of things that the Church of Reality is not. Sometimes a religion can better clarify what it is by stating what it isn't. We are like other religions in many ways and in many ways we are not like other religions. Here is a list of what we are not.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Newsflash |
The God who Wasn't There is a really great film that I highly recommend. I saw an early screening of it at Stanford and I loved it. It goes into the early history of Christianity to determine if the character Jesus ever actually existed. I was surprised to find that much of the Jesus story was already in fiction for hundreds of years before Jesus was supposedly born. This is a documentary of how the Jesus myth was created and how little today's Christians know about the history of their own religion. Here's a really great Trailer for the movie. (18mb Quicktime format)
Most Atheists like myself have generally believed that the story of Jesus was at least based on some real events, some popular preacher that may have really existed and was later turned into a supernatural figure by his followers. But it is becoming clear to me that Jesus is total fiction and the stories are adapted from the fiction of the time. I recommend this film to everyone. It gives you a LOT to think about. |
|
Read more...
|
|
Please link to us, discuss us in online forums, and blog about us. Every time anyone thinks about reality the world becomes a little smarter.
Spelling and Grammar errors? spelling@churchofreality.org - please identify page and location in the page of the error.
The Church of Reality is a non-prophet organization.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
