"The religion to end all religion"

Consider these four simple precepts:

 

There may be some sort of God who created the Reality we model via our Laws of Physics, but we don't know and may never know.

The essence of the philosophy of science is similar to that underlying ethics, law,and commerce: without verifiable evidence you have no claim.  One therefore ought to respect all four of these disciplines.

All religions, including the major ones, therefore have no foundation.  None of their assertions would stand up in any scientific or legal court.

Even our most `modern' societies have moral codes, many ultimately derived from once-dominant religions.  It is perhaps best these codes stay unwritten and unformalised so they can evolve to meet the new ethical challenges presented to us by science and technology.  This also reduces the risk of principles being turned into perversions in the way religious terrorists of all creeds currently illustrate so appallingly.

For many folk these four precepts will look like common-sense, indeed you may already live by them or similar ones.  If you are one of those people who feel a need for a religion which you cant quite explain,  yet are revulsed by all the nonsense that goes with conventional religions, you  might like TTTM Religion, which is based on those four precepts. Since it derives solely from the philosophy of science, not from any other religion, it carries none of their baggage. 

        To gain a deeper insight into the nature of TTTM Religion, you may like to read the following two essays:

---

THE NUMBER OF GOD

When you were young, you too no doubt asked those Great Big Impossible Questions About Life like `What's it all about? Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? Chances are you either grew out of asking them as a part of coping with Life in the Here and Now, or you tried to cheat and `look up the answers in the back of the book' by subscribing to a religion or some other belief system. A few of us however never stopped. We either became scientists or, for those of us who couldn't handle the math, philosophers and science fiction writers. The Number of God revisits those questions in a short, simple, straightfoward way. It is grounded securely in science and, like science, does not attempt to create yet another belief system. It's also rather fun, especially for those you who have discovered that the best way to cope with Life as We Know It is with a sense of humour and nerves of steel.

6340 Words

---

  

THE WORD OF GOD

Humans are such emotional creatures. Most can’t help using words like `dry’, `nihilistic’, even `sterile’ when they encounter succinctly-stated theories as to the nature of reality that science and science-based philosophy can provide. The Number of God above would for them be a classic example. They cannot live without some notion of Purpose, or Point to it All. There has to be a `God’ of some kind, whether it derives from one of the many pre-packaged religions or equally numerous pseudo-sciences like astrology or witchcraft.

        Science of course is entirely neutral on the subject. God is a matter of `faith’ or `personal choice’. Science only suggests that Articles of Faith should not be in conflict with evidence-based scientific theories which, though always provisional, can be accepted as `true’ in most practical circumstances. `Evolution’ is the classic example here. Could a religion be designed which actually incorporates the philosophy behind all science, yet satisfy that emotional need for `God’? Plenty have tried, including one that has to remain nameless because of its unfortunate propensity for pursuing lawsuits against its critics. The Word of God suggests how such a religion might be constructed; as well as illustrating why belief systems, and systems expressly designed to avoid belief,  like science, are fundamentally incompatible. Considering the extraordinarilly silly anti-science religions currently growing in popularity however, perhaps this now ought to be attempted, no matter how philosophically distasteful it may be. TTTM Religion represents such an attempt.

5780 Words

For further reading beyond these two essays, you might like to take a look at the companion site to TTTM Religion:

 TTTM Religion is perhaps like the `third wheel' on a kiddies trainer bicycle. When the rest of Planet Earth finally realises that there is no special favourite version of `God' any more than there is a Father Christmas (sorry, kids...), maybe that wheel can finally be unbolted and put away with all the other childhood things. Only then can we hope to finally pass into adulthood and maybe head out into the Universe...

Ivan Millett Invercargill New Zealand

Comments?  Here. You will find a WebLog page  here  on which I gather together all the more interesting comments you make, along with my replies. so that other folk can see them. These will be presnteed anonymously unless you clearly indicate that you would like me to include your name and contact details. 

I will no longer debate religious issues with religious people.  It is too much like trying to converse with a `Jesus chatbot', an `artificial intelligence' computer program that simulates a conversation with Jesus, but soon reveals itself to have digital feet of clay. 
`

You might wonder why I am running ads on this site. In accordance with precept two above, it seems more appropriate than seeking donations. Promoting TTTM Religion so that people can know about it is expensive, and I need to recover at least some of my costs.For the same reason, commercial sponsorship would be welcome.  Contact me here.