Church of Reality

What is a Religion?

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What is a Religion?

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.

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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.