Exploring Reality through Contemplation

Copyright by Linda Gadbois's Creative Transformations The Church of Reality is a religion about the exploration of reality both individually and collectively. It is about increasing our understanding of ourselves individually, our human society, and the universe that we live in. In order to do that we contemplate everything we can find to try to understand all of it. We explore reality through individual and collective contemplation. We live in a universe that is incredibly complex and infinitely interesting. We want to understand it all, comprehend it all. Why does anything exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? So here we are, what do we do now? What do I do with my life? We explore reality with our minds. Everything is interesting to us. What we are, who we are, and what we will become starts through contemplation. Contemplation is a sacred act in the Church of Reality. Some religions pray, some religions meditate. We contemplate. Contemplation makes the mind stronger and it reprograms you to live a reality based life. It enforces the habit of critical thinking. Contemplating the Name - What is the Church of Reality? Contemplating the Universe - Science, Physics, the physical universe, things that are real. Contemplating the Tree - Knowledge, what do we know and why do we know it? The collective knowledge of humanity. Contemplating Society - Our relationship with each other. How we get along as members of humanity. Contemplating the Future - What is our destiny? What are we evolving into? Contemplating the Path - Who am I and how do I fit into society? Contemplating Contemplation - My mind, my perception, how our minds interface into reality. This list of course doesn't represent everything that can be contemplated. This is more of a starting point to cover most things. You can also contemplate this list as to whether other contemplations should be added.

 

Contemplating the Name

Contemplating the name "Church of Reality" is the first step in becoming a Realist. The name is the message. The Church of Reality is by definition a religion dedicated to the pursuit of reality the way it really is. But what does that mean? How do you accomplish that? Is this church truly accomplishing this or is there a better way? Let us assume that a Church of Reality is possible for the purpose of discussion. What do you think it should be like? This Church of Reality is the idea of the First One, Marc Perkel, who came up with the name and started this reality based church. but just because it was first doesn't mean that it's being done right. In fact we assume that mistakes are being made and that there is a better way to do what we are doing. Furthermore everyone has a point of view and in order to become a Realist you have to identify with reality from your point of view and what it means to you and your life situation. So before we tell you what we think the Church of Reality means, think about it yourself. Suppose you had the idea of creating a "Church of Reality", what do you think that would be like? You see, the Church of Reality wasn't created of of divine inspiration. We don't have a holy book to follow. It is created by people like you and me wondering about how to do reality based religion right. The name "Church of Reality" is out there. Even if this implementation of the Church of Reality fails the idea of reality based religion isn't going away. The church is created and evolves through contemplating the name.

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Contemplating the Universe

To contemplate the universe is to understand everything that is real. All of it. How does it work? Where did it come from? From the smallest objects to the largest. It's math and science. It's physical reality. It includes things we can touch, things we can build. Why do birds fly towards the equator in the winter and how do they know how to get back? We Realists are a curious people. We want to know everything. We want to know how it works. We want to take it apart and see what's inside. We wonder if we can make it better. We like to build things.

 

Contemplating the Tree

Humanity has the ability to share knowledge. We call our shared knowledge the Tree of Knowledge which represents the sum total of human understanding. The human race is totally interdependent on our collective information. How is this information stored, communicated, and distributed? It's about our use of language both verbal and written. About the means of replicating information through printing, books, audio and video recordings, and the Internet which we call the Golden Router. What are the dynamics of knowledge. How do we know if something is true or not? How do we know what's real? How do we receive information from the Tree and how do we contribute information to the tree. How can we improve our ability to share information and determine the truth?

 

Contemplating Society

Since humanity is interdependent how do we get along with each other? What is right and wrong and why? What are the basic axioms for dicerning morality? What are the axioms that for the basis for law and government? What is community? What does it mean to be an upstanding member of society. What is the relationship of the individual to the collective? What about regional differences? Cultural differences? What about individual rights? Contemplating Society is the search for a consistent set of rules to go by that have a logical basis and represent of best effort to form a set of natural laws that we all should follow. The Church of Reality has laid the basis for natural law by creating the Sacred Principles which represents our current best guess for the guidelines of a reality based society.

 

Contemplating the Future

Where is the human race going? What will we be like 100 years from now? Or 1000 years from now? Or a billion years from now? Will we develop space ships and travel to other star systems or explore other galaxies? Will we run into intelligent life on other planets? Will we cure diseases? Will we learn how to live forever? Will we control our own evolution through genetic engineering and cybernetic implants? What will computers be like? Will we be able to convert mass into energy efficiently? What will society become? Will we have world peace? Will we have a one world government? What will justice be like? Will we ever evolve beyond the need for money? Will we lose our individuality and become one great mind or will will we become more individualistic as we free ourselves of the {ln:cult mind)? Will there be religion in the future and if so, what will it be like? What will the future of history be like? Will we store enough information to allow future historians to look back at us and learn more about how they got to where they will be then? What do we want the future to be and will we be happy with the choices that we end up making?

 

Contemplating the Path

Contemplating the Path is forming a plan and making it happen. Here we are, what do we do now? We want things like world peace, to cure diseases, to explore the galaxy. How do we do that? How do we make it happen? Contemplating the Path is taking control of your Personal Evolution. What is our role in society? What is my role? What am I going to do with my life? What part of the plan will I help formulate? How will I make the plan happen? What is my path in life? We are born. We eat, shit, reproduce, and die. Is that all there is to it? Or is there a purpose to life? Or could we choose a purpose? What is my purpose? What is my path? Life is a journey with a beginning and an end. During the time we live we do things that constitute the record of our existence. We can just exist or we can Own Ourselves and be what we want to be. To do that we have to start the process by contemplating our path and the collective path of the human race and put together a plan to make it happen.

 

Contemplating Contemplation

The famous philosopher Rene Descartes is credited with the concept of Cogito, ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am". Contemplating contemplation is about your mind. Your mind is your interface to reality and the way you experience and interface to the real world. It is the tool you own that you have to use to understand things with. Just as you muscles are used for lifting your brain is used for thinking. Our world view is that your head serves a greater purpose than just keeping your hat from falling on the ground. This is your tool, your brain, and the more you understand it the better you can make it work for you. Your brain is the product of billions of years of evolution. It is not a computer and in many cases it is not to be trusted. It has limited capacity and logic is very new in our evolution as compared to finding food, escaping danger, and mating. We have the ability to share information through symbolic language to interface into the Tree of Knowledge. How do we best do that? What mental abilities do I have and what are my limitations? How can I work with others using my mind to help us all understand reality as it really is.