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Getting Started as a Realist
An Overview of Realism
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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. |
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.
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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?
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.
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In the Church of Reality our religious disciplines are based on contemplation rather than prayer or worship. We tune our minds and exercise our brains so that we might have a better understanding of reality. Contemplation is exercise for the brain and we try to stay mentally fit. If you are new to Realism you can get started by contemplating the Sacred Contemplations.
The first of the Sacred Contemplations is Contemplating the Name (Church of Reality). You may be thinking, "This Church of Reality thing is really messed up. They don't believe in real reality at all." But even if you aren't thinking that, suppose you were given the task of starting something that will be called the "Church of Reality". What would you do? What would your Church of Reality have in it?
This is a good place to start. Think about it. Think about it a lot. We might be on the wrong track. Maybe we are missing the point. Maybe you have a better idea. Maybe you thought of something that we haven't thought of yet. Maybe you can do a better job than we did. If you can do a better job of it than us - we'll join your church.
Contemplating the name is an important exercise for the mind. It allows you to personalize the Church of Reality. To make it part of who you are. It prepares your mind for the journey into Realism. It helps you learn how to give up being a Follower and to become an Explorer. It teaches you to think for yourself -- to make ideas your own.
After contemplating the name go on to the other sacred contemplations. One can spend one's entire life contemplating these subjects and there are billions of things out there to contemplate. Thinking about reality transforms the mind and enriches the soul. It opens you up to all the possibilities that exist in the real world. Why should someone waste their life filling their mind with fiction and dedicating themselves to characters that don't exist when we are surrounded by all this wonderful reality. The universe is an incredible place and we in the Church of Reality invite you to join us in the Tree of Knowledge to contemplate with us.
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So now that you've contemplated our church it's time for us to ask you, what's your story? Who are you? What is the meaning of your life?
In our religion we believe in personal choice. You are who you decide to become. Our world view is that great people are people who choose to do great things with their lives. We believe that you own yourself, that your life is yours. We believe that you are what you think and you are what you do. People make choices and what you choose becomes your choice. When your life story is written what do you want it to say? What do you want people to remember you for? What do you want to accomplish while you are here in this reality, the only reality that we know is actually real?
The Church of Reality is in development. It is always in development. We are always looking for ways to improve ourselves. We are a young religion. You can be part of the process to help us define who we are. We hope that we have given you ideas to think about. We are always looking for new ideas. Reality has changed our lives. It can change yours, too.
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If you are convinced that Realism is going to be your Life Story then the next step is to experience the AH-HA Moment and Accept the Truth. It's what you tell yourself "I'm doing it! Reality as it really is! No more Bullshit. I'm going to give up Living the Lie." You may not know what reality is and you may not know how to determine what's real, and you may have a lot of beliefs that you aren't sure about, but you have accepted Reality as your standard. You are no longer afraid to ask the Sacred Question, "What is Real?" It means that to just believe for the sake of believing is no longer good enough. It means that Reality matters. It means that you are putting Reality First. It means that you will no longer Worship a False Truth. |
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Newsflash |
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The IRS has approved the 501(C)3 tax exempt status of the Church of Reality. |
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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.
"RealityŽ" and "Church of RealityŽ" are registered trademarks of the Church of Reality.
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Getting started as a Realist