#reject the very CONCEPT of clan as you make war on the beings that define it

[penny-slaying]

How do you feel about the Camarilla

Ah, the old nemesis. The dupes of the ancients...

... or are they merely in the way? Do they merely occupy a space, and resources, that are needed for the greater battle to come?

More of them are believers than they - or we - like to admit. Their sin is not one of ignorance, but of abnegation. They shrug their shoulders at revelation, ask "what of it?" and resume the petty, pointless amusements of the - slave is not the right word. Perhaps prole. They are diverted from stepping into their true potential, from realising themselves, with - what the ancients called bread and circuses. The go-round of gossip, of influence, of debts owed and repaid, of pastimes - endless pastimes - they have all the time in the world, and encourage one another to kill it instead of putting it to use. They are as lulled and as compliant as the herds they shepherd - as below, so above.

In truth? The capacity for that delusion was ripped out of me before my Embrace. I was shown that the life I lived - the human life - the existence of the prole - was nothing but a whisper in the dark. It was taken from me - and I was left on the bridge with nothing but the will to live and transcend.

I should like it noted that it was an officer of the august and humane Camarilla who did this to me.

To be antitribu is a blessing, if one's tribe would hurt one so.

[gentlesquid-blog1]

I just founded a smart Religion, and so should you!

Part I: Why bother with religion at all?

I was raised by atheist parents. Ever since I can remember, religion was something dubious to me. Its teachings seemed so far off and far-fetched from an evidence-based, modern worldview. The fact that so many people in the world held religious believes with bizarre stories about humanoid animal-gods, omnipresent beings, creation myths and so on seemed odd - and, admittedly, a bit silly.

As I grew older, it started to make more sense to me why people would imagine stuff like that: religious believes clearly had something to offer beyond the strangeness. It provided them with easy answers for difficult questions, like how the earth was created or what happens after death. It awarded them with sense of importance, with concepts of people “build after the image of god” and earth as the center of the universe. And of course, it gave hope and something to hold on to for people unhappy in their live by promising rebirth, nirvana or life-after-death. So, while religion never made sense, I could make sense of why people would falsely belief in it. This is something called an Error Theory in Philosophy.

Based on this reasoning, one might assume that religion looked childish but harmless to me. But I was also told about the cruelties a zealous faith can cause. Over thousands of years, people all over the world were oppressed, tortured and murdered out of religion reasons. There were wars and terrorism, slavery and witch-hunts, forced marriages and female circumcision, all justified and supported by religious beliefs, communities and leaders. Religion was not a harmless game of make-belief, but a force of evil that not only stood in the way of reason and progress, but also brought out the worst in humanity and turned them into savages attacking each other in the name of this book or that prophet.

In my adult life, I finally matured into a more benevolent perspective. I still lack a true understanding of how a deeply religious mind perceives the world. It feels strange and alien to me to take religious stories and teachings at face value. And I still see the dangers of religious belief for a rational and humanitarian agenda. But I got to know more religious people and I started talking to them about their faith. It turns out to most of them, religion is something profoundly positive. It not only makes their own lives better with a profound feeling of being connected, loved, taking care of, but it also provides them with moral guidelines and motivates them to be friendly and helpful to other people. For them, their faith was a force of good and not of evil.

The factual claims of their faith still seemed dubious. Surprisingly, many of them agreed. It just didn’t matter that much to them. This got me thinking. How much does that really matter? Do people really have to base all their beliefs in evidence? By what authority? This is a question discussed in philosophy as the Ethics of Belief: what is the normative force to demand someone to believe one thing rather than another? It would take us too far astray to dive into the debate and all its nuances, but I invite everyone to read up on it as it is an utterly fascinating and very underappreciated subject.

Reading up on this subject, my conclusion was: No, they don’t. Evidence is not the only thing that matters. I’m not saying that people should belief anything arbitrarily and that there should be no discussion about competing beliefs. Far from it. I still think we should be able to justify what we believe in. I still require reasons. What I’m saying is that evidence is not the only way to justify a belief. Due to my background as a moral philosopher, I think every normative justification ultimately boils down to being good to yourself and others. So, the “best” belief is not equivalent with the most truthful belief.

However, in most cases, a truthful belief will turn out to be the best belief. Imagine a person asking you to use your smartphone for a quick call. The person could be either of two things: they could sincerely need you help or they might want to steal your phone. In this case, holding a true belief about their motives will lead to the best decision. But this is not necessarily always the case. Imagine knowing the exact time of your death. It may cause you immense distress for all your life, counting the years, days, hours, seconds until your inevitable demise. Not knowing or even having a wrong belief (that there is still plenty time while in fact there are only a few more days left) might be the better belief.

Another example more closely related to religion is the solace some people find in the notion that they will someday be reunited with their late loved ones or the unfounded hope that can provide strength to people in dire circumstance who would crumble in the face of the evidence-based chances for survival. Again, I must concede that this is an insufficient discussion of the complex relationship between evidence and other reasons for belief. We are just touching the surface here and many important things remain unsaid. And again, I must insist that evidence is a great reason for believing something and there are significant dangers straying from the path of truth.

Still, I stand by point. Truth is not all there is. And religion has something to offer that can’t be dismissed by pointing out a lack evidence. If a religion can offer something good for you and the world, it is worth believing. And I think there are good beliefs hidden in all religions I have read or heard about. Sadly, and to my utter distress, these faith-worthy beliefs are buried in a pile of garbage. The same religion that preaches to love your neighbor demands to smash his head in if he praises the wrong wooden idol. The same religion that preaches the sanctity of life defines another race as “less than human” and encourages abuse and slavery. And of course, almost all religions come with a baggage of empirical statements that are disproven and obsolete in the modern era, but can’t be dismissed or reformed because they are part of the canon – like every creation myth ever.

Part II: Criteria for a smart religion.

So, what if we had a religion that gets rid of all the bad beliefs and nonsensical historical baggage, but tries to keep and refine what is good and precious about religious faith? This is what I am proposing: to create a new religion, not based on any tradition, scripture, prophet, or relic, but with the clear and only goal of bettering the life of believers and the people they interact with. This is a constructed religion, but not a satirical one. It is serious, even though it doesn’t claim any evidence to support it. However, it doesn’t engage in any conflict with evidence and science, but makes sure to know its proper place in the overall system of believes.

I will make a proposal for such a religion in a moment – in acknowledgement that there is a plethora of other ways a smart religion could be constructed. I invite you to join me as fellow believers or make up your own religion and share it with the world. Too long was founding religions only something for people in the past or people with delusions of grandeur or ulterior motives. It’s time to reclaim religion as open-minded, creative and progressive people. But before we can dive into that, we need to clarify the criteria: what is the best a religion has to offer? And what is the worst it often carries along?

One of the main appeals of religion seems to be a feeling of connectiveness. Religious people often feel close to each other in light of their shared belief and tradition. But its more than just religious practice that unites them. Most religions promote an idea that people are in some sense spiritually connected to each other. This feeling can not only increase the quality of life of believers, it can also encourage them to be nicer to each other. I reject the notion that religion is the only (or even best) foundation for moral interaction. But I can’t dispute that for many people, kindness and decency towards each other is informed by religious beliefs and this is certainly something to appreciate.

Another important aspect is that faith can comfort people. It can give them meaning and purpose when they feel lost. It can help them surviving rough patches of life with the knowledge that some sort of happiness awaits them and that their suffering is not in vain. It can provide them with hope and encourage them to move on. And it can also give them a feeling of self-worth. Most religions stress the fact that people are more than “just” a collection of atoms, meaningless among all the other thing in the universe. Instead, people are unique by the fact that they have some sort of spirit, soul or essence that is immensely valuable – and so are they by possessing it.

Last but not least, religions often excel at telling wondrous stories about the universe and everything. This may sound condescending, but as a storyteller, I have the utmost respect for it. Sharing stories is a crucial part of being human. Religious narratives have a sense of grandeur that elevates them from down-to-earth literature. They explain the world in a way that is deeply relatable and convey this magnificent sense of wonder that makes people tell them over and over again. I consider this religious sense of wonder something very precious.

There are also bad habitats that a smart religion needs to avoid. Faith can not only unite, but also divide. It can make people turn on each other – on members of other religions or clans, as well as on members of their own religion or clan. A smart religion should not steer people in conflicts. It should accept the equal value of all people and not degrade some to elevate others. It should also refrain from pressuring people to act according to narrow, culturally-biased set of standards. It should encourage people to live the life they chose without any fear of spiritual repercussions or punishment. A smart religion should never make anyone afraid or question their own worth.

Part III: Faith of the Inquisitive Souls Collective

So, without further ado – and we certainly had enough ado by now – let me present to you a smart religion called the Faith of the Inquisitive Souls Collective.

There is a vast collective of souls floating in a semi-fluid space beyond the stars. Everyone who ever lived is part of that collective. It dwells in the accumulated experiences of all mankind in a state of eternal bliss and wonder. Being perfectly self-sufficient, it is still extremely curious and in a state of ongoing exploration of itself and its potential. So, from time to time a brave soul decides to manifest in the material world and sets forth on a Journey to gather new experiences to share. This is the Great Journey called life.

These valiant adventurers are prepared to face periods of great discomfort inherently to life and unnatural to their blissful natural state to return with marvelous new experiences. It might feel tiring and even senseless from time to time, but the great comfort is that they cannot fail. Whenever they return to the collective, they will bring something valuable to share. Just by starting the mission, they already accomplished its objective. But the longer they move on, the more joyful moments they experience and the more they learn about themselves, the more they will be able to contribute. Even stretches of suffering will be gladly taken once they return, as all experiences have a hidden value and meaning the collective will discover. And it grows bigger and wiser with each returning soul.

If the inquisitive souls experience too much pain in the material world, they might need more time in the warming bliss of gentle togetherness before they set forth on a new adventure. They have all the time and peace they need. If they feel they missed chances or that their life ended prematurely, they can set out again immediately. Or they can dwell in all the experiences every other soul has gathered. Trillions of lives, unimaginable joy and wonders, all waiting to be explored by the inquisitive souls.

All souls are distinct, but not separated. If they chose to, souls can merge into bigger and stronger units. For many adventuring souls, meeting other souls to reunite after the end of their journey is one of the greatest prices for visiting the material world and spend there a life or two. Imagine it like a lava lamp, always in a trance-like movement, seamlessly connecting in bigger groups and then splitting again into smaller units. People that created a particular strong bond in life will eternally merge in this collective and never part again.

There is still room for dissent within this framework. I link to imagine that there is still some sort of individuality and even privacy possible in the soul collective. Others might instead prefer to believe in the ultimate dissolution of self. Both can be possible in the same collective, though. Another open question would be the status of animals, plants or any other living being. Do they have a soul? I personally remain agnostic about this point, but feel free to imagine them all joining the collective. Imagine yourself being able to be reincarnated as any being that you consider a fit vessel for your soul.

There are a few religious practices – that are, of course, completely voluntary. For once, each year the 25th of august is sharing day. This day people that feel close to each other get together and share one of their most valuable experiences of the last year with each other. They describe it as vivid as possible to make the people excited about experiencing it itself one day.

A second practice comes into use when two souls get to know each other in life and plan to bond once they are back in the collective. As a symbol for that, they will mix two differently colored, non-soluble liquids in a glass container with water. At the anniversary, they will heat it and watch the liquids tenderly floating around, connecting and disconnecting. Of course, this bonding ceremony is not limited to any number of participants.

Part IV: What’s so smart about it?

For me, this religion has a lot to offer. I particularly enjoy the notion that all of us are heroes. Just by being born, by having decided to take the Great Journey, we risked all the perils life has to offer to inquire existence and gain new experiences to keep or share. And we are not just heroes, we are also already winners. Just by existing, we accomplished our biggest task. There is no pressure to compete with anyone or live up to artificial standards. On the other hand, there is still an incentive to do create the best possible live for us: so we can return with the possible experiences.

It also establishes a deep connection between all beings. We are not only infinitely valuable, immortal souls. We are also partners on the same mission. We all come from the same source and we will all return to the same place. Everything you experience, every joy you feel, is valuable to me too, because one day we might share them. On the other hand, I do not want you to die or suffer, because I want you to experience more and don’t be too traumatized when your Journey ends. I want you to return with the energy to go back and gather ever more magnificent lives.

Another aspect that is very important to me personally is how it solves the dreadful particularity of existence. My mind feels capable of so much more than living this particular life and this particular world in this particular body for this particular time. No more of that, I say! Now I will be able to experience everything ever experienced and will go forth and seek new experiences whenever I chose to. I can relive the best moments of my own life and the life of everybody else. I experience all ages of mankind or spend millennia in never ending orgasms or a trance-like like nirvana.

I am not saying that this religion is immune to abuse. Imagine a violent, masochistic psychopath that murders other people to experience the pain he inflicts first-hand once he returned to soul collective. What I am saying is that “how could a violent psychopath interpret a religion to justify inflicting pain” may not be the best test. Every theory can be spun to a certain agenda, no idea is immune to abuse. The more modest standard of a smart religion should be to not be inherently abuse. I consider the Faith of the Inquisitive Souls Collective sufficiently humanitarian in this respect.

However, the content of a religious belief is not all that matters. It is not only important what is taught, but also how it is taught. My firm belief is that people should not be born into religions. People must autonomously choose a religion, only then can it become an essential part of their being instead of a contingent part of their upbringing. Religious institutions, teaching and indoctrination is another subject, though, and shall be discussed another time.

Part V: Final plea.

I want to stress the point again that this is not the end, but the beginning. If you feel fine with any of the big religions, go for it. If you feel fine without any religion, go for that. But if you feel religion might have something to offer but don’t feel at home at any big religion, get creative and create your own.

Society loves to perpetuate the idea that religions require ancient traditions and millions of members to be taken seriously. They do not. History has repeatedly proven that millions of people are not smarter than a few. All religions are abstuse and you will not come up with anything weirder, sillier, more far-fetched than the things billions of people believed for thousands of years. So, don’t be intimidated, be inspired. There is no sanctity in the divine except that which you imbue in it.

Your faith is your own. You are free to believe in whatever you chose to. And you should always choose to belief what’s best for you.