Our cultural identity defines who we are in the world community.

We present a template rather than a set of rules.

Our focus is on the positive side.

The Cultural Identity of the Church of Reality is to be Good People.

• We are Good People - We aspire to be "good people" We see ourselves as productive members of society. We want to be the kind of people who everyone wants to be neighbors with. We want to be considered trustworthy. We want people to say, "Them Realists, they sure is nice folk." We want to be the kind of people that parents want their sons and daughters to get married to. We want to be the kind of people who, when elected to office, people say that all politicians are not crooks because of our responsible behavior. We want property values to go up because there are Realists in the neighborhood. One can debate as to what is good and what is bad but whatever good is, we want to be it. Our cultural identity is to be good people.


• Friendliness - Church of Reality members are generally friendly people. Since we want a world that is safe and secure, where the pursuit of reality will flourish, and we want people to embrace our love for reality, then we should be friendly people. We strive to be the kind of people that everyone would want as part of their communities. We are an easy-going culture.


• Being Positive - The Church of Reality is based on being positive. We are a religion that looks towards a brighter future and we have committed ourselves to making sure that we Evolve in a Positive Direction. We are the kind of people who solve problems. We look for the good side and that every encounter in life is an opportunity to learn something new. We see ourselves as being on the bright side of life.


• Common Sense and Wisdom - Common sense and wisdom are overused terms and no one knows what they really mean, but everyone wants them, and we do too. Common sense is having a firm grasp of the obvious and resisting the temptations to just go along to get along. Common sense means to apply reality to your decision making process and to rely on logic and reason. Wisdom is sort of advanced common sense. Taking the not so obvious and figuring out what's right. We are a clear thinking culture.


• Generosity - Our world view is the Philosophy of the Open Hand. The evolutionary success of humanity has been in our ability to be collective and help one another. We are generous with others and when we have needs, others are generous with us. We take care of each other and we are taken care of. Generosity allows us not only to survive but to thrive. We are all connected and interdependent and the more we give, the more we all have. The Church of Reality is an Altruistic culture.


• Helpfulness - We are a people who reach out our hands. We are cooperative. We volunteer to help do good things. We work to better the common good.


• Charitability - Realists are a charitable people. we donate to worthy causes. It reminds us that we are all in this together. That we are one planet and one people. We progress best when everyone progresses.


• Being Interested and Interesting - We are a religion of curious people. We want to know things. We want to know how everything works. We want to take things apart and put them back together, to build new things, to explore. We also value being interesting people. To be interesting is to give back to the interested because without interesting people there would be no one for the interested to be interested in.


• Smart - In the Church of Reality it's cool to be smart. We are a religion of thinkers. We explore reality with our minds. We like using logic and reason as our way of determining what is true and what isn't. We are innovative. We are the kind of people who solves problems. We find a way to make things work. To us every problem has a solution. We like to use our brains. We value education.


• Thinking - We are a culture of people who like to think about things. We like to think about what is and isn't real. We like to analyze, to comprehend, to understand everything. We want to know how stuff works. Our world view is that thinking is exercise for the mind, and that Realists keep their brains in good shape.


• Creativity - We are a creative and innovative culture that always seeks new and creative ways to accomplish things. We are a culture of builders, inventors, philosophers, artists, and musician.


• Openmindedness - Most every idea presented is worth thinking about. Even if it is clearly a bad idea to start with. If you think about it, there may be something in there that makes a good point. For example, if someone said, "Cannibalism - the solution to global warming.", you might instantly reject the idea. However if you think about it, you might get the real point about overpopulation. We are a culture that is not afraid to explore new ideas or to think about bad ideas for the purpose of seeing if there's anything good that can be extracted. Or to at least try to understand the person presenting the idea. By listening to and thinking about the ideas of others, we set an example and open the door to them to think about our ideas.


• Skepticism - The Church of Reality is a Show Me Religion. We aren't the kind of people who just believe what is written in some ancient book without evidence. Our world view is that truth is purified through Scrutiny and we question everything. The only thing that Realists just "accept" is that the pursuit of the understanding of reality as it really is has value.


• Enthusiasm - We try to bring some excitement into what we do. We are a people who are passionate about being Realists and seeing what we can accomplish.


• Visionary - We are a culture that is focused on making the future better for all the people of the world. We use our imagination to envision a better tomorrow and we figure out a plan to make it happen.


• Resourcefulness - We are a culture of people who are diligent. We make things happen. If we are faced with a problem, it is our job to find a solution. We don't accept that something can't be done. Our view is that we are still working on it and we'll eventually find a way to make it work. (Like the idea of starting a religion based on reality which many people believe isn't possible.) Impossible is just another word for challenge. If someone does the impossible, we might give them an ego treat.


• Honesty - Since the Church of Reality is about reality we have a higher requirement for honesty than most religions. Especially intellectual honesty. The pursuit of reality as it really is is like the disciplines of scientific principles and are designed to help us understand science. If you cheat when doing scientific research then you fail to get good scientific knowledge and discovery stops. The same is true for Realism. If we try to redefine the facts to fit what we want to believe, then we aren't trying to understand reality but rather justify what we want to believe in.
  
  A classic example is the biblical story that the world was created in six days. When you confront a believer about it they might say, "Well, a day to God might be 1000 years." That's not an honest argument because it's an attempt to undermine reality by taking liberties with definitions. For us in the Church of Reality that isn't honest. We accept the proven and reject the disproven. Our religion is meaningless if we start playing with definitions and other sort of trickery to avoid the truth. That's why our Sacred Principles include the Principle of Honesty and Integrity, the Principle of Reason, the principle of Wisdom, and the Principle of Bullshit.
  
  We believe that personal honesty is good too. Although everyone lies and sometimes you have to lie to get along in society, we feel that it is our role to lean strongly towards being honest people. We not only should tell the truth, but we should be prepared to listen to the truth from others. If we don't allow people to speak the truth and we punish them for doing so, then we shouldn't be surprised when they lie to us.


• Personal Integrity - Integrity is a broad concept that includes honesty. It also includes responsibility and activism. A person of Integrity is someone who you can count on to get the job done, to be there, and to be a person that others can count on. Integrity means doing what's right or refusing to do what's wrong. We are a culture of honorable people.


• Being Responsible - The Church of Reality is a religion about responsibility. We are what we do, not what we believe in. We take responsibility for our actions and we are mindful of the consequences of our actions. We avoid being reckless and irresponsible. We try to be dependable. We consider ourselves to be accountable for our actions.


• Being Respectful - We value being respectful of others. We see ourselves as a community that includes everyone and that we should get along in the world in a peaceful and productive manner. Our world view is that others are considered to be good people. We call this Original Virtue. People don't listen to you if you are disrespectful of them. We respect others by really listening to what they have to say and hope that if we listen to them then they will listen to us and we can have meaningful communication about reality. We try to be polite to people. We as Realists try to adopt a respectful attitude in the hopes that being respectful will become the social norm.


• Being Honorable - To be honorable is to live a life worthy of being honored. We are a people of principles. We have a personal mission in life. Our Life Story matters to us. We aspire to be ethical and moral people, upstanding members of the community, heros when heros are needed. We speak when it is wrong to be silent. We take the high road. We serve and uplift.


• Purposefulness - As Realists we see ourselves as doing more than just existing, that we are part of the solution rather than part of the problem. That even if we aren't a big player in the grand scheme of things, that we are at least in the game. That we are accomplishing something. We choose to live the kind of life that gives our life story some meaning.


• Equality - Women in the Church of Reality are fully equal to men. We don't force women into artificial roles, make women wear special clothing, or limit their role in society. Women are free in our culture. We respect the equal rights of others whether that are rich or poor, white or black, gay or straight, or born on a different side of a line that someone drew on a map. Our equality comes from the respect we show towards the equality of others.


• Humility - The ego can turn into a highly addictive and expensive habit. As compared to the vastness of the universe, how important are we? We redirect the ego into exploration and accomplishment. We tend to take pride in what we collectively accomplish rather than what we accomplish individually.
  
  Humility is our strength. it allows us to change. It allows us to admit it when we are wrong. Humility gives us the freedom to explore new ideas. It allows us to change our mind. To explore the universe because we aren't distracted by a false sense of self importance. It allows me to be me and we to be us.


• Compassion and Empathy - We care for one another. We try to put ourselves in the shoes of others so that we can understand how we would want to be treated in the same circumstances. We look at ourselves as being part of the greater we, where we realize that we are all on one planet and one people and what we allow to happen to other people is something that could happen to us.


• Awareness - We are a culture that likes to stay informed and be aware of what's going on in the world.


• Involvement - We are an active and involved culture. We are not the kind of people who sit around and let everyone else take care of the world. We are a hard working culture of people who make things happen. We are a culture that is active and motivated.


• Leadership - We aspire to be leaders rather than followers. To us, to be a leader means that we have taken the responsibility to think things through and to come up with a plan for action that is well thought out and based on realistic goals and expectations. It also means that we have developed the social skills to work well with others and create an environment of respect and teamwork. We don't always have to be the one in charge. But we consider it a positive trait to have the capability of being in charge and being a good leader. We think that people who put reality first are more likely to make better decisions than people who don't.


• Tollerance and Inclusiveness - We are a culture of people that reaches out to people who are different than ourselves. We realize that not everyone in the world is like us and we are all here on this planet together. We need not only to get along, but to thrive together. We create bridges, not barriers. We play nice with other people and expect other's to play nice with us. Our world view is inclusive and understanding in nature.


• Charm - We make our culture so likable that even people who hate us can't help but to like and admire us.


• Kindness and Gentleness - We are a kind and gentle culture that seeks to live our lives in joy and peace.


• Fairness, Ethics and Justice - We try to treat people the way we would want to be treated. By protecting the rights of others, our rights are protected. We try not to take more than our fair share and seek equitable solutions. We are a culture of ethical people who think that we can all get along better in a just society with opportunity for everyone..


• Forgiveness - Realists try not to hold a grudge forever. We try to get over it and move on.


• Gratitude - We try to show appreciation and thankfulness for what we have and what others give us.


• Individualism and Self Ownership - We are a culture where the individual thinks for him/herself. We think in terms of, "I am me. I am unique. This is who I am. This is my life. I am my own person. I make my own choices. I am writing my life story. This is who I want to be. These are my dreams. These are my goals. My preferences. My personality. My rights. My responsibilities. My family. My children. My problems. My dignity. My feelings. My property. My home. My data. My blog. My projects. I have my own skills. I have my own ideas. This is what I want to wear. I vote for whomever I want. It's my body. My medicine. My vision. My memories. My privacy. My religion. My politics. My computers. My history. My time. My routine. My schedule. My associates. My community. My role in society. My self respect. My personal values. My moral decisions. My food. My information. My identity. My self esteem. Stay out of my business. I make my own decisions. I have my own friends. I choose my own relationships. I choose my own life partners. I control my reproduction. I choose the form of my own death. I think my own thoughts. I control my own destiny. I own myself. My life is important to me. Don't tell me to stand up to authority." We are a culture that embraces personal liberty.


• Courage and Fortitude - If Realists are going to change the world and make tomorrow better than today, we have to have the courage to act. If we are part of a group that is about to do something wrong, then we don't just go along to get along. Sometimes reality requires that we make the hard choices to do what we know is the right thing to do. We are the kind of people who aspire to be the ones who others count on in an emergency, to have the courage make the right choices.


• Determination - There's nothing that we can't do if we put our mind to it. We take the position that every problem has a solution and that if we keep trying we can accomplish anything. The word impossible to us means challenge.


• Innovation - There's an old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That saying doesn't apply to us. Realists are innovative. We are the kinds of people who invent stuff. We are the ones who come up with new ideas. Like this religion for example. If it works, we can make it work better. We improve things. Through innovation, we grow the Tree of Knowledge. Innovation is one of our gifts that we give out to children. As we enjoy the innovation of our ancestors, so we innovate for our children.


• Discipline - We are a culture that puts value on taking control of one's own life and not allowing our emotional impulses to rule our lives. The disciplined mind is not easily fooled. We do not let our egos cloud our judgment. We think things through carefully. We question ourselves to check for delusion or self deception.


• Our Legacy - Since the Church of Reality doesn't have an afterlife, all that remains after we are gone is our Life Story and what we have contributed to human culture in a way that is worth remembering. We want history to record that we did something useful with our lives and that our existence helped make the world a better place.


• Humor - Not all people are funny, if you are, that's a plus in the Church of Reality.

• Anger - Everyone gets angry every now and then, but being angry is a bad habit. Anger is something that we avoid. There are many cultures and religions that are angry and the Church of Reality is not one of them. We consider anger in general to be a negative trait. Which doesn't mean that one should never get angry and that some anger might be good in some situations. However, it is our way to not stay angry. We are a culture that solves problems and we are a culture of peace. So if we get angry we seek to get over it, find some resolution, and move on.


• Hate - Hate is something we actively avoid. Hate is like poison for the soul. It is destructive in nature and if you focus on destruction, then you're not focusing on being constructive. The Church of Reality is a culture of construction. We are a people who build on things rather than tearing things down. In order to build the Tree of Knowledge we have to focus on seeking solutions to find ways to make things work. Our world view is Inclusive and we see everyone as being one of us. Hating would undermine the mission of what we are as Realists.


• Violence - We are a non-violent religion. Even in situations where violence may be necessary we always consider having to resort to violence as a failure. We are not a religion that sees ourselves "at war" with the non-believers. We see the use of force as a last resort. We are a religion of peace and a culture that focuses on getting along with people rather than looking for a fight.


• Terrorism - Our world view is that any religion that has to rely on terrorism to enforce their point of view is admitting, by their conduct, that their world view is too weak to stand on it's own. Terrorism has no place in Realist culture. Our world-view is strong enough to endure on its own.


• Racism, Prejudice, and Bigotry - The Church of Reality is an inclusive religion. Our would-view sees everyone as unique individuals. We do not see the world in terms of "us" vs. "them" where "we" are the "chosen people" and "they" are "infidels" or the "evil ones". We do not judge people or condemn them based on their beliefs, race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality, culture, or what sports teams they cheer for. A Realist tries to make a place at the table for everyone.


• Dishonesty - You don't get to reality through dishonesty. This is especially true when it comes to your religion. When someone chooses to believe something and uses deception to promote their believes, that's just plain wrong. Many religions take the position that you can say whatever it takes to get converts and that the end justifies the means. In the Church of Reality if we don't stick to reality then our religion means nothing. Reality stops where dishonesty starts. Our religion doesn't have to make false and dishonest arguments to sustain itself.


• Rationalization - Rationalization is a rejection of reality. It's a way of finding a reason to justify things we know are wrong. Rationalization is an excuse for a lie. Sometimes one is lying to oneself and sometimes one is lying to others. It is a process to hold on to belief systems that fails to stand up to scrutiny. Our world view is that rationalization is something you give up when you become a Realist.


• Living the Lie - Living the Lie is when rationalization becomes your lifestyle or your livelihood. It's when you identify yourself with the deception. We Realists value our Life Story which is the sum total of everything we've done in our life in this world. Living the Lie includes cults and religions that don't stand up to scrutiny.


• Selfishness/Greed - Realists are a culture of people who value giving and sharing. We are exploring reality together and building the Tree of Knowledge. Selfishness might give an individual a short term advantage, but in the long run we do better when everyone does better. Our world view is that it is in our self interest to not be selfish.


• Ego - We live in a universe with trillions of galaxies containing billions of stars each. Our planet is a spec of dust in the universe and we live about 80 years (if we're lucky) in a universe that is about 15 billion years old. So how important can a person be? Should the biggest tick on a dog have an inflated sense of self importance? If I were the smartest person on this planet, what would that mean? It would mean we live on a dumb planet.
  
  Ego is a bad habit. It can get hungry if you indulge it. We do need, however, to have a sense of purpose. Because we are social by nature, we need to feel that we are a productive and useful member of society. We have evolved to need the affirmations of our fellow humans to feel good about ourselves. But some people become addicted to that feeling and it can be like having a drug addiction where you need more and more of it to feel normal. We look at ego as if it were like eating candy. You can have a little every now and then, but if you eat too much, it will rot your teeth. So it's alright to have an Ego Treat but we are mindful not to do too much. Our Principle of Humility helps to ensure that we don't allow our illusion of self importance to cloud our judgment and become a distraction from our collective pursuit of reality.
  
  Having too much ego makes you vulnerable to Ego Addiction where a person is completely dependent on the affirmations of others for a sense of well being. This allows others to control you and manipulate you through the giving or withholding of ego treats. It is one of the ways that cults maintain control over the individuals. They get you hooked on feeling that you are special and they use it to make you believe what they want.
  
  A Realist must be able to withstand rejection and ridicule in order to pursue reality as it really is. We have to be strong enough to know we are right when everyone around us thinks we are wrong. And when we are wrong, we need to be humble enough to admit we are wrong, change our minds, and move on. A limited ego is necessary to maintain intellectual independence and freedom. One can be proud of one's humility. But just a little proud.


• Stupidity - Some people are smarter than others, but some people don't even try to think things through. They let their mind atrophy from disuse. We believe that's wrong. Realists are expected to use their brain. Our world view is that those who think make better decisions than those who don't. Some people see being stupid as a virtue and are actually proud of how stupid they are. Not us! We don't expect everyone to be a genius. We do however expect people to use what they have and to think things through.


• Self-Righteousness and Condemnation - There are a lot of religions out there where people believe that they were chosen by some deity and that they are better than everyone else. The Church of Reality is not one of those religions. One of the problems with being judgmental of others is that you never live up to your own standards and you just end up hating yourself. Self-righteousness and condemnation are a prelude to justifying violent behavior and is one of the steps that leads to wars. They create a self sense of self-importance allowing others to easily manipulate you. They create separation between people.


• Obsession, Compulsion, and Addiction - People are sometimes driven by their bad habits. Realists try to discipline themselves to resist bad habits, being obsessed with things that are trivial, and becoming addicted. All these undermine self control and good judgment that are essential to being a functional member of society.


• Destructiveness - The Church of Reality is a constructive culture. We like to build rather than destroy. We aren't the kind of people who take pride in burning things down or blowing things up.


• Negativity - You can't always be positive all the time, but our culture is positive rather than negative. Some religions take an Extinctionist view of the future. They are paranoid of people from other religions. They see everyone else as an "enemy" and that they are "at war" with the "outside world". We as Realists choose to shift our view to the bright side and be positive. Our world view is that one can choose to be either positive or negative towards their lot in life. We see being negative as something that is a drain, a waste of energy, and a bad habit.


• Repression - The Church of Reality values individuality. we want to be who we are and therefore we respect the rights of others to be who they are. We are not a repressive culture that forces people into a mold to make them be a particular way. We see ourselves as the sum total of all of our individualities.


• Close Mindedness - We are a culture of thinkers looking for new ideas and things for our minds to explore. Even weird bizarre ideas need to be thought about to some extent just to appreciate how weird and bizarre they are. In some cultures and religions one is encouraged to be closed minded. You are expected to believe in something without questioning it. In the Church of Reality we embrace Scrutiny and we believe that truth is purified through Doubt. We are an open minded culture and being closed minded is a bad trait.
  
  Close mindedness takes many forms. Often people get in the habit of ridiculing people with new and innovative ideas. Even if someone's idea is neither new or innovative, we encourage people to keep thinking and keep trying. A closed minded person doesn't like any new ideas and they often will attack and ridicule anything that represents change. That is also another reason why Realists should keep a low ego profile and keep anger under control because there are too many closed minded people out there that will get under your skin if you don't maintain mental disciplines. We are close-minded only to the idea that being close-minded is a virtue.


• Indifference - The Church of Reality is based on the axiom that the pursuit of reality has value. Our world-view is that reality matters. Indifference is the opposite position, that nothing matters. Indifference undermines the concept of values. It implies that what you believe is equal to what is actually real. It implies that truth doesn't matter. It implies that actions do not have consequences. It undermines purpose.


• Irresponsibility - Irresponsibility is the fruit of indifference. We live in a society and the acts of the individual affect the whole. Our culture values thinking things through, respecting others, accomplishment, and creating a Life Story that one can be proud of.


• Faith without Questioning - In the Church of Reality, faith is considered a bad trait. Faith is the ultimate form of close-mindedness. Faith as we define it is the requirement that things are believed, not only without any proof or evidence, but often in spite of the evidence. Or things are required to be believed where questioning and scrutiny are prohibited. Our world-view is that truth is purified through scrutiny and that anything that is true and real will stand the tests of logic, reason, evidence, and the principles of science. We see faith as cheating and that it leads to the obscuring of reality as it really is. In our religion, anything that you have to accept on faith is considered to be not true.

Our Creation Story

Reality is aware of its own existence through us.

Our minds interpret what we experience.

We understand reality collectively.

Food that is good for us tastes good because of evolution.

Modern day law and science and social structure evolved from early religions.

Reality based religion is the next step in religious evolution.

Our minds can feel the universe contemplating itself through us.

We are good people because we have to be good people to survive.

We admire heroes because of evolution.

If love came from the worship of deities then Atheists wouldn't love.

Realists hold the key to human evolution.

We can live forever - if we invest in science.

We choose evolution over extinction.