Just gonna leave this here:
This has been incubating in my mind for well over 3 months now. This is a religion that is much like Thelema in that it supports that there is no one particular aim for all creatures in the universe, rather each and every creature must follow its own star, and in fact, it has no choice. My religion, whose name has not occurred to me yet, neither is it important, seeks to improve upon the thelemic idea by exploring, in a scientific and logical manner, the mechanisms behind all things in our lives. Here are its basic tenets as of now:
[font=Times New Roman]1. All things have an ultimate purpose.[/font]
From the beginning of a human’s life, their quest for survival and self-propagation does not stop until death. For humans, this is their ultimate purpose, this which gives them ultimate happiness. Even if one were to make an argument against the meaninglessness of this purpose when explained by a non-human perspective, this does not change the fact that not only humans, but all things were predestined for a purpose which might or might not be clandestine to them, which might or might not cause them grief in the short term, but rest assured, regardless of the time frame of this purpose, it will give the creature absolute happiness upon its completion.
[font=Times New Roman]2. One’s choices in life are determined by this purpose.[/font]
Once your purpose is set in place, you have no choice but to follow it. This is not a ‘follow your purpose or be killed’ kind of situation; There literally is no other choice you can take. If, at one point, you stop and consider whether or not the choices you have made in the past were correct or not, the correctness of those actions is not undermined; Every single moment, the choice you make is the one you were always supposed to make.
[i][font=Times New Roman]3. At any given situation, there is only the individual, the scope of which is determined by this purpose.[/font]
Consideration of one’s external universe cannot take place, because that would require one’s ultimate purpose to change, which is not possible. Thus, there is only one’s own universe, since the existence of another is forbidden by a law which is fundamental for the existence of the individual’s universe. The illusion of an external world is created by human social instincts, as well as the way our sensory system works. This tenet is not meant to promote selfishness and being inconsiderate towards one’s colleagues; Factors which escapes the individual’s control and power in their own universe are still part of it, and thus have control over the future one will carve out, and should be treated accordingly.
[font=Times New Roman]4. The realms of existence in any universe are determined by this purpose.[/font]
A universe could have a number of factors (‘realms’) that would factor into any outcome that ranges from 1, to any finite positive whole number, but not an infinite number of factors. An infinite number of factors would 1) Make it impossible to complete the ultimate purpose, which is a violation of universal law, and 2)The existence of an infinity violates this world’s mathematical rules, and thus is prohibited. An infinitely expansive set of factors (one which has a finite number of factors at any given time, but which increase constantly) is also impossible, since that would require the alteration of the ultimate purpose with each addition of a new factor. The number of factors cannot change unless the ultimate purpose is completed.
With this religion, as a complement and also indispensable part of what it represents, I will also introduce the ‘Strategic Dialectic’.
[font=Times New Roman]THE STRATEGIC DIALECTIC[/font]
The strategic dialectic consists of 1)Knowing the factors that influence the outcome of your specific situation, and 2)Understanding how you can interact with them in order to get the results you want in the time frame that you want them. This is done by first experimenting with different actions and outcomes, and analyzing the data from those experiments in order to understand how your universe works. Ideally, each experiment is different; meaning that you do not make two experiments that result in the same knowledge being made clear. In order to become better in the application of the Strategic Dialectic, it is recommended that you read a lot of texts on the assessment of situations and decision making (I recommend Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ as a good entry-level text, since it teaches you how to assess your power against an adverse force-which is every force, unless it fully serves you as much as possible.), studying everything around you and practicing asking the right questions that will lead to more knowledge being gained (This can be accomplished by various actions; My favorite ones are subscribing to newsletters about things I have not studied before, such as science, politics, military and various other fields. Your fields of choice may differ.), and also playing a lot of strategic games which involve critical decision making, such as chess. In fact, the idea for this religion occurred to me after a few months of playing chess.
In order to understand the decision making process (and thus the process of all things) I have created a philosophical construct I call ‘The Triumvirate’:
[font=Times New Roman]THE TRIUMVIRATE[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The King:[/font]The King is your ultimate purpose, he who dictates the fate of his servants, and he who guides his kingdom to its ultimate destiny. The King is clad in the most striking of garments, and adorned with the purest gold, for he is the most precious man housed in the palace.
[font=Times New Roman]The Bishop:[/font]The Bishop is the King’s first advisor, the King’s commanding scepter, which ensures the allegiance of all of his subjects. The Bishop represents all the choices one can make in any given situation. He is the King’s earthly power given form, his face to the people.
[font=Times New Roman]The Knight:[/font]The Knight is the King’s second advisor, the King’s judging sword, his answer to any opposition. The Knight represents the force which narrows down the choices and possibilities laid out by the bishop, singling out the one which best serves the King’s wishes.
It is everyone’s duty to apply the philosophy of the Triumvirate to every single decision, no matter how small, for every single one matters to the ultimate purpose.
The followers of this religion are basically everyone, but since not everyone will desire to take part in the study and application of its principles, the followers of this religion will be the ones who understand its tenets and their consequences, who understand the philosophy of the Strategic Dialectic and of the Triumvirate and who put those philosophies to practice.
There are a few practices I would recommend a follower of this religion to adopt: Namely, meditation, which clears the mind and stills the emotions, so that decisions may be made with greater clarity and without error, chess, so that one’s critical thinking and decision making ability will improve, continuous study of one’s environment as explained above, and rigorous discipline to the above. These are not necessary for your understanding and application of the religion’s principles, but they do help greatly.
The religion is now called Oratism.
