Church of Reality

What are the Sacred Principles?

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.

The Principle of Positive Evolution

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.

The Principle of Honesty and Integrity

The Church of Reality is about real reality the way it really is. Reality is a holy word to us that has real meaning and is important. The reason our Sacred Question is "What is Real?" is because we really do want to know what actually is real. Real reality can't be faked. It comes from a place of pure honesty and integrity. Honesty and integrity are essential to the core meaning of the Church of Reality.

The Church of Reality has an obligation to humanity to uphold the meaning of our church name. We can only do that if we stay honest.

Reality is about truth. It's about being intellectually honest. It's about putting your personal positions aside to accept what is real. In accepting the title of Church of Reality we make a solemn commitment to the human race to uphold the integrity of the name. The Church of Reality is not just some bullshit religion that is making things up. We are not a scam. We are not a cult. Our world view is that the path to reality requires honesty and integrity and that reality can not be found through lies and deception. We think it is our job to never become corrupt, to never sell out, to never compromise the integrity of our mission. Although no one is perfect, we are committed to doing a damn good job and do the best we can. We intend to live up to the standards that the name of our church implies. We recognize that without honesty there is no meaningful exploration of reality.

See also: Honesty

The Principle of Freedom

It is the dharma of the Church of Reality to be explorers and we therefore must be free to do so. We recognize that historically various societies have imposed severe restrictions upon belief forcing people to accept a world view that is not real - or being prohibited from believing things that are real - or having knowledge restricted by law in ways that prevent us from fulfilling our Sacred Duty. There was a time when people were jailed and killed for believing that the Earth was round and that the Earth was not the center of the universe. People are jailed today for easing the suffering of those who are dying a hideous death from a terminal disease. With these historical facts in mind the Church of Reality - as part of its mission - acts to protect and preserve the freedom in which the pursuit of reality and the Principle of Positive Evolution may flourish.

What is freedom and by what power do we assert freedom? We seem to be here and we seem to exist. We seem to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings. It is the nature of our existence as a species now that we have shared knowledge that we have the freedom to pursue that knowledge, and to understand the understanding of understanding. We are the defenders of the understanding of reality itself and we as a church claim that reality itself needs the freedom to become self aware. We are all part of a reality that we all share. Reality is sacred to us and as explorers, therefore we must be free to explore it. When we make the Sacred Choices and accept the Sacred Duty, we must also pursue the freedom that is required to grow the Tree of Knowledge.

Personal freedom leads to innovation, exploration and positive evolution. We will not progress unless the weird people are allowed to be weird.

Individual freedom is very important to the Church of Reality. Freedom allows explorers to come up with new and interesting ideas. It allows us to think "outside the box" without fear of punishment. If you look at the great inventors and the people who were behind much of the great leaps in human evolution you will notice that most of them were "weird people". It's the weird people who come up with most of the new cool ideas. Cultures that accept weird people, like the San Francisco Bay Area, tend to be the kind of places where innovation occurs. We can not evolve forward unless the weird people are free to be weird. Personal freedom is necessary for positive evolution to occur.

The Principle of Peace

Although war can not always be avoided, there is no honor or victory in war. Our world view is that 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 of 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.

We must never be proud of war. War is always a failure to achieve peace.

The peoples of this planet are all united in the reality that we all share this world together. It is imperative to our existence and our development that we learn how to live together - how to share in a fair and equitable manner. We must all survive together and do whatever it takes to make it work out. We have to be smart - we have to be brave - and we have to be wise. We have to not only be understanding - but also to insure that others understand us.

Terrorism and torture are just plain wrong. There is a basic moral certainty that cuts across all religions and we in the Church of Reality join with the religions of the world who are in opposition to crimes of war. The Church of Reality stands for the advancement of civilization and that whenever possible we must preemptively adapt to a changing political, technological, and biological environment. It is part of our mission to help ensure the Peace.

We realize that there are people in the world who are dangerous to themselves and to others. But our solution is not to fight enemies but to evolve enemies into friends.

See also: War and Peace

The Principle of Courage

The pursuit of reality the way it really is is not for the timid. Reality takes courage. It takes more courage to stand up to an unjust cause than it does to die in a war. People are herd animals. We want to be part of a community. It is one of our survival strategies that the human race evolved. Much of our information that we rely upon is part of the Tree of Knowledge. But what if a culture has a strongly held world view that is not only wrong, but dangerous? A world view like the world is going to be destroyed in our lifetime? There is a lot of pressure to go with the flow, but going with the flow is not the way of reality. We are committed to what is real, not what is popular.

Realists can expect some persecution for their views. Fortunately in most of the world at present Realists are no longer burned alive for expressing scientific fact. However in most countries it's hard to get elected to public office without giving lip service to the invisible cloud being. The Human brain likes a stable comfortable reality and when one upsets an axiom it causes a lot of mental anguish. This is true not only in religion, but science. The idea that humans have a 98.5% genetic match with monkeys is very disturbing to some people. We want to believe in flat space and linear time and people like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are just disruptive trouble makers. They make us rethink everything.

Change is disruptive and evolution isn't always pretty. Reality isn't always pleasant and it is far easier to go along to get along. Everyone is comfortable and then someone comes along and speaks the truth and you know they are right but you just don't want to have to deal with it. It takes courage to go against the flow, but if you make a true commitment to reality the way it really is, then that's often what you have to do.

It also takes courage to realize you are wrong because facing reality might have a personal cost. This is what keeps people in cults. They are integrated into a community and have a place in an artificial society. But then they realize it's all bullshit. That means they have to leave the cult. If the person isn't ready to leave the cult then the mind will play tricks on itself to keep the person from realizing a truth that would be obvious to someone who wasn't in the cult.

Often bad things are allowed to happen because people fail to speak out to stop them. To be silent when one should speak can become an endorsement. A Realist has to be prepared to pay a personal price to stand up for what is real because if we don't then we allow others to take reality away from the Tree of Knowledge and humanity is diminished. Realism is a religion of courage for without courage reality cannot be meaningfully pursued.

The Principle of Compassion

The Principle of Compassion recognizes the cooperative nature of the human race. We are individuals that are part of a great and evolving society. We are both independent and interdependent. Our societies are what makes us strong, but those societies are made up of individuals who have to be secure and taken care of individually in order to maintain our individualism.

We are one planet, we are all here together, and if we all help each other out, life will be better for all of us.

No person is an end unto themself. We are all totally interdependent. When we are born we are helpless and we depend on others to take care of our needs. The same is true when we are old or when we are sick or injured. There are times in our lives when we care for others, and times in our lives when others care for us. Compassion is absolutely essential for the human race to survive. Without compassion all of society would fall apart and we would become extinct.

The Church of Reality subscribes to the Philosophy of the Open Hand. We are altruistic, generous, giving, sharing, loving, selfless, and caring people. We honor loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, charity, and non-violence. Our compassion is based on the reality of our interdependence, that we are strong collectively, and our independence, that we can be secure individually. We take care of each other, and we are taken care of.

Ghandi

The Principles of Determination and Defiance sometimes represents our religious commitment to the Path of Reality. We have chosen to include in our Life Story a commitment to Positive Evolution and the Sacred Direction. We are committed to the protection of the future. But there are times when systems break down and have to be repaired and maintained. There are times when the judgment of Society is in decline and people become a danger to themselves. In situations where it is absolutely necessary to protect society from doing something that's really a bad idea, it is up to us to be determined to restore the Positive Evolution of the human community.

For example, we Realists accept the truth that a nuclear war is never the best solution to your current problems. Our message is, "Don't even think about it!" And of course this applies to weapons of mass destruction in general. Or to consider the optimum human population of the planet. Or when leaders speak the Language of War. Or to avert a natural or man-made disaster. Or perhaps to protect or restore a sane and stable society. The kind of society where you have the rule of law not the rule of men. A society that lives in peace and harmony where it is a joy just to be alive.

We as a society have to be smart enough to figure out how to do it right!

Nelson Mandella

We believe the Wisdom comes from having an intimate relationship with reality. So it is up to us as Realists to bring wisdom in to society. We have to inject the importance of taking reality into consideration when making important decisions. We raise the question, "Is what we do today good for our future?" "Will we look back at this moment with pride or shame?" That is why the Sacred Direction is sacred because if we screw up we're not going to achieve Positive Evolution. If we screw up then tomorrow won't be better than today and our children will live in a worse world than the one we came into.

Let us be calm and reason together.

Martin Luther King

These are values that represent the kind of people we are as a religion. The dream of tomorrow must never be abandoned for the passions of the moment. Nor do we sacrifice the future for personal greed. But with defiance comes Responsibility. There should be a good reason to explain why defiance is the best choice.

We have a responsibility to give sanity a voice.

Every religion has a system of values. What is Sacred? What is Holy? Just because we don't have a deity in no way means that we don't have a system of morality. Our determination is a statement of our religious commitment to the future. But we have a responsibility to get it right, and not to be merely stubborn.

The Principle of Communication

The Tree of Knowledge is the sum total of human understanding and it is shared knowledge. Because this knowledge is shared, it exists only because of communication. The Tree of Knowledge is by nature dynamic and the knowledge within the tree must flow. Speech is communication in all forms. It is how the data move. It is the motion of the sap of the Tree of Knowledge. It is those data and it is the connections that carry those data. To speak freely is to do the dharma of the Church of Reality. Thus the Church of Reality recognizes that in order to pursue the understanding of understanding, we must be able to speak freely. To be silenced is to be oppressed.

The Principle of Communication is also the principle of free speech. What good is knowledge if it isn't communicated?

Since speech in the Church of Reality also includes the technological systems that carry, store, and distribute speech, the Church of Reality considers the development of better technology to enhance communication within the Tree of Knowledge to be our Sacred Duty and we therefore, as a Church, honor all communication technology that makes up the Golden Router and the Internet which is the heart of the Golden Router. The Internet is our Sacred Network. Conversely, the denial of technology isolates individuals and prevents communication between people who wish to communicate and this denial becomes a form of oppression.

The Principle of Justice

In order to grow the Tree of Knowledge and to be a free people, to explore reality as it really is and to pursue the understanding of understanding, it is necessary that we do so in an environment of fairness and justice. Justice and fairness is the dharma of our morality. And our morality is the part of the Tree of Knowledge relating to how we best live together as a society and grow as individuals within the human species. Our justice system reflects the total of our morals and our understanding of maintaining ethical standards, and respecting each other and our combined growth. Justice is our set of rules by which society flourishes and allows mankind to evolve in the Sacred Direction. Conversely - injustice manifests in laws and rules and corruption that oppress us and cause society to deteriorate into oppression.

Justice is not a black robe - a title - or the ability to exert power and authority. Justice is the responsibility to maintain the highest ethical standards and to be as fair as one possibly can be. Justice is to not only uphold the rules - but also to apply wisdom to bend the rules to apply fairness to new and evolving situations. Justice should never be a set of static rules and procedures but should always be tested against the Sacred Question and the application of wisdom should be allowed to override the rule of law. We think justice itself must be committed to evolving in the Sacred Direction.

The Principle of Inclusiveness

The pursuit of the reality as it really is and the understanding of understanding is available to everyone. We are not an exclusive club and we do not discriminate based on minor genetic differences, cultural background, political affiliation, religious history, the geography of your birth location, sexual preferences, lines on a map, your gender, the shape of your body, or what frequencies of light are reflected off the surface of your skin (color). Although some people are smarter than others, everyone can improve themselves. So if you have two brain cells and are tired of living the lie, the Church of Reality is available to you. We are one planet. We are all part of the human race. We are all here together. We have to learn how to get along in a manner that is eqitable to everyone.

All people have intrinsic value. People are born in different locations and in different economic circumstances and different cultures. But we are all people and every individual has certain rights for just being a member of the human race. The Church of Reality recognizes that it is in the best interest of all of us to support social justice for everyone and to recognize that true wealth comes only when the basic needs of all of us are met. Inclusiveness insures that everyone has a place at the table.

The Principle of Respect

The Principle of Respect is the acceptance that every other person is a person just like you. That they are all individuals who are trying to survive and do the best they can with what they have to work with. The Principle of Respect is to accept that everyone is one of "us" and not just a member of a group of "them". To respect someone is to recognize that they have intrinsic value and to accept all individuals as fellow members of humanity.

We are a religion that gives respect and expects respect. Respect is the basis for the Principle of Inclusiveness, the Principle of Peace, and the Principle of Compassion. We honor the individual and we expect others to honor us. To us a stranger is just a friend who we haven't yet met.

Respect is also the core of the Vocabulary of Peace and it undermines the Vocabulary of War. To respect a person isn't to agree with them or to give any appoval to what they are into. But it does require that you think of them as a fellow human being who is a member of the human community and deserves a chance to establish a peaceful relationship. When you respet someone you personalize them, recognize their original virtue and identify with who they are. We give respect, and we expect to be respected. You are not a "them", you are an "us". We are an "us" too.

The Principle of Scrutiny and Doubt

The Principle of Self Scrutiny is the recognition that we are imperfect and that the pursuit of reality is always a goal and that knowledge is ever growing. It is the acknowledgement that sometimes we get it wrong and that we should always test ourselves and our world view to make sure that what we think is real actually is real. This is what we call the Purification of Truth. It is a test to ensure that we are not fooling ourselves. It makes sure that we are not living the lie. And it makes us accountable to the truth.

The Church of Reality is a doubt based religion as opposed to a (blind) faith based religion. Realists are required to doubt everything and to continually test both old and new ideas to verify that they are still true. Blind faith is irresponsible and bypasses accountability. We doubt everything because we care about reality. By doubting we accept responsibility for preserving the integrity of the truth.

We welcome doubt and scrutiny as a means of purifying truth. It makes us accountable and ensures the integrity of our beliefs.

We are of limited knowledge with a limited brain; primitive computers trying to understand our existence. We need to be humble in our understanding of understanding and fully aware of our flaws and the processes that would lead us to a path of self illusion. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who don't know and those who don't know that they don't know. Let us never become the latter.

We as Realists practicing Realism must therefore always rely on our doubt to test ourselves and to test our world view against reality. We need to continually reexamine our world view to look for errors or to have a deeper understanding of what we think we already know. There is always a certain amount of trash in the Tree of Knowledge. Much of this trash comes from old world views that were never challenged or the lies of people who would distort reality for selfish reasons. Purification of Truth requires doubt as the process of cleansing the Tree of Knowledge of error, and is a necessary process in Positive Evolution.

The Principle of Reason

Realists are a thinking people who use reason to explore reality the way it really is. We love to discuss things, invent stuff, solve simple and complex problems. Reason and Wisdom are not the same thing. Reason allows us to design a nuclear bomb. Wisdom allows us to choose not to use it. Reason is more technical while wisdom is more visionary.

Realism is a religion of the mind. Our mind is our tool for understanding. We are also emotional beings and we are the product of evolution, living in a society that has evolved based on survival. But we have evolved to the point where we can apply reason to our life situation and try to understand things like spiritual experiences and separate our emotion from our thinking and understand who we are and how we work.

The Principle of Reason is also a personal commitment to apply reason to our daily lives. We ask ourselves if we are being reasonable. We want to know if decisions are based on reason. We are advocates for applying reason to situations and to think things through to ensure that we make a better decision than if we ignore reason. Some religions are spiritually driven where emotional states and fiction drive the world view. Some of these religions have an Extinctionist philosophy. Realists choose reason and we are committed to making sure that our world view is reason based. Reason is the path to reality.

The Principle of Wisdom

The Principle of Wisdom is a personal commitment to not only work towards becoming smarter - but also wiser. Wisdom is the ability to arrive at the truth in spite of influences that would lead to the wrong conclusion. To be wise is to develop methods of extracting the truth against adversity.

We recognize that much of what we are taught is not true and that we become comfortable with our erroneous knowledge. We also recognize that there are complex emotions and expectations of society that pressure one's mind into fooling one's self. We recognize that there are people in the world who are not very honest who would use deception, illusion and the abuse of logic in order to get people to believe things that aren't true. But in spite of this - we are committed to extracting the truth and learning methods that allow reality to be known even in adverse circumstances.

To be wise is to have a highly disciplined mind and strong commitment to the pursuit of reality the way it really is. It represents not only personal skills, but also a strength of character to be able to face reality. It is to be a responsible person who can see past the confusion of the moment and to grasp the big picture. Wisdom requires strength of will, courage, discipline, humility, and commitment. Wisdom is something that is learned and everyone can become wiser than they are now.

As members of the Church of Reality we honor wisdom and we choose to commit ourselves to becoming wiser personally and to supporting the principle that we, as a society, are better off by elevating the status of Wisdom. As individuals we should be asking ourselves and asking other people, "Are we being Wise? Is there Wisdom here?"

The Principle of Personal Responsibility

The Principle of Personal Responsibility is the recognition that how we behave personally affects who we are as a species and how the Tree of Knowledge will evolve. We can choose to live our lives in a manner that is beneficial to society or to live in a way that is detrimental to society. What is good for humanity and what is bad for humanity is - like everything else - subject to debate and exploration. As a church we ask the question - "What is moral? What is right and wrong? What is good and evil?" These are questions that we ask as explorers in the pursuit of the understanding of understanding and to know the meaning of meaning.

We recognize that the concepts of good and bad exist and sometimes they are clear and sometimes they are not. But as individuals we recognize that if we are going to grow the Tree of Knowledge that we have to evolve in a positive direction and that our personal behavior makes a difference. As members of the church we choose to strive to do what is right.

The Church of Reality is more than just being on a membership list. It is not a title but a way of life. To be a realist individuals must perform the dharma of the church. Membership is a series of acts and the acceptance that what we do in life matters. In the living of our lives our conduct reflects our moral code that is to be judged against the Principle of Positive Evolution and if what we are doing is moving society in the Sacred Direction. Thus - as individuals we take responsibility for our decisions and are committed to pursue a life that is constructive rather than destructive. And that the pursuit of perfecting society and behaving in a manner to promote the growth of the Tree of Knowledge constitutes the basis for a moral code under which we can all live together in peace and harmony to allow people to flourish individually and as a species.

The Principle of Personal Responsibility recognizes that what we do as an individual matters. Everyone affects the Tree of Knowledge in some way. We recognize that people have the ability to choose and that different choices have different results. Self improvement often requires change and the pursuit of reality, the way it really is, often has a price. And to pursue reality often involves taking control of our personal lives and affirmatively determining the direction our limited existence will take; to decide what we will become rather than be driven by the circumstances around us. Although we often have little control of what hand life deals us, we choose how to play the hand we are dealt. We choose to be good upstanding members of society working towards moving mankind in the Sacred Direction.

The Principle of Bullshit

The Principle of Bullshit recognizes that things that aren't true just aren't true. It doesn't matter how many people believe it - it doesn't matter that people have believed it for thousands of years - it doesn't matter if you want to believe it - bullshit is bullshit - and if it isn't true - it isn't true. There is a difference between something being true and something not being true.

The Principle of Bullshit is all about refusing to live the lie; to be able to call something the way it really is. It is the ability to face the reality of being wrong so as to create a starting point to make a better choice. It is to accept that you can't truly pursue reality if you continue to believe in things that aren't real. You may have made a mistake - or millions of people might have made the same mistake for thousands of years. But when you know it's all bullshit then you have to call it - accept it - and move in the Sacred Direction. If you're a Realist then by definition you are supposed to give up what's not real - or at least admit your denial if you aren't ready to face reality.

Bullshit is bullshit no matter how many people believe in it.

Truth must be purified through scrutiny and doubt. There is nothing that rises above these tests. Anything that is prohibited from being questioned, is not subject to doubt or scrutiny, is assumed to be bullshit per se. If you are required to believe something without question then that something is bullshit, even if it turns out to be true. (Of course it couldn't turn out to be true unless it were tested against some objective standard. And if so tested, it would be subject to doubt and therefore no longer bullshit per se.)

There are those who would twist the truth, be misleading, tell half truths, hide the truth, use double meanings and distort definitions, be deceitful and deceptive, and flat out lie. People would require you to accept beliefs on faith and prohibit you from questioning those beliefs. Faith is often used to deceive people because it prohibits scrutiny, doubt, and accountability. This is not the way of the Church of Reality. We embrace doubt and scrutiny for the purification of truth.

The Tree of Knowledge is built on what is real and what is true. Bullshit that is passed off as reality poisons the Tree of Knowledge and creates a weakness in knowledge itself. It creates a rotten spot in the Tree. It inhibits growth and holds back our development as a race of humans. It keeps us from developing in a positive direction. Part of the Sacred Duties of the Church of Reality is the purification of knowledge through the expression of doubt. We choose to expunge the bullshit through doubt and scrutiny and to replace it with what's real. The Principle of Bullshit asserts a duty to resist the powers of bullshit by questioning everything. This moves us towards reality the way it really is. It requires courage, humility, wisdom, doubt, and strength of character to go against the cult mind and refuse to live the lie.

The Principle of Activism and Maintenance

Often societies and religions deteriorate because good people stand by idly and let bad things happen. To do nothing and allow something to happen can often be as bad as causing it to happen. Everything needs maintenance in order to preserve what has been accomplished. There are times when we can not stand by and allow things to go in the wrong direction. Reality is something that is actively pursued and it requires an active effort not only to pursue it - but to maintain the systems that allow it to be pursued. We therefore choose to commit to being actively involved in moving forward and to prevent those who would move us backward from succeeding.

It is the dharma of the Church of Reality to spread the Sacred Message - which is reality - and to promote reality not only in our own daily lives but in the groups that we belong to. It is up to us to raise the status of reality in society. We commit to promoting reality wherever we are. Reality has healing properties. It helps to free people from the slavery of the Cult Mind. Every time you say the word you cause people to think about reality and that causes them to be real in the Sacred Moment. It promotes Positive Evolution by helping humanity make better choices.

The Principle of Historical Preservation

We as a human race learn from our past and our past is a basis for what we decide to do in the future. As technology increases we can better analyze preserved information. Thus - the preservation of information and knowledge is one of our Sacred Duties. The Tree of Knowledge can not grow unless we preserve its information. Data is sacred because data helps us understand the truth. One example of the preservation of historical data is the Wayback Machine at Archive.org. It is storing the historical content of the Internet. And because they are storing the history of the Internet they preserve data for future understanding. The Archive of the Internet is one of our Sacred Databases and the Church of Reality hereby declares it as a Sacred Shrine and we are interested in not only its preservation, but its ability to gather and store data. Some day we will be able to go back and extract knowledge about ourselves that will be possible only because we save that information today.

It is also our duty to preserve history from distortions that create false knowledge about what really happened in history. We recognize that there are those people who would conceal and distort the historical record or try to forget important things that should not be forgotten. Often in war the history books are written by the victor and the truth is slanted in a way that doesn't represent the way things really happened.

The Church of Reality promotes looking at historical events the way they actually occurred without giving flavor to events to obscure unpleasantness. It is our view that history happened the way it happened and should be viewed in terms of what actually occurred. And we have a Sacred Duty to preserve historical data so that in the future when we have better technology we can extract a more accurate picture of the past.