Belief System
A Belief System represents a person's generalized world view, typically organized around a religion or philosophy of life. It can also consist simply of one's perspective or interpretation of the universe and how to make the most of our time within it. The key feature is that all of life's experiences are interpreted through the framework of the belief system, hopefully making sense of the universe and making the believer more successful at navigating life.
The metaculture Belief System
The metaculture belief system is based on a Pantheistic interpretation of theology that assumes god and the universe are one and the same. When viewing science and religion from this perspective, everything else follows logically. When viewed through this lens, scriptural allegory must be interpreted in a way that assumes there is a real-world analog. So the creation story is an allegory for the big bang and evolution. Morality handed down from god is an allegory teaching us how to deal with our evolved emotional wiring. Science should be considered a spiritual pursuit because to understand the universe is to understand god.
The other aspect of the metaculture belief system is the fractal organization of the universe. This perspective serves as an overall organizing principle to help understand the interaction of things in the universe at multiple levels of scale. The universe is made up of singular entities that combine in huge numbers to create emergent properties, whether those entities are atoms, stars, or people. The fractal metaphor helps make sense of all kinds of complex systems and therefore serves as a perfect framework for understanding an infinitely complex, self-similar, self-organizing universe.
Some Assembly Required
Traditional religions, are like classic, handmade furniture. It comes to you fully assembled. It looks beautiful and lasts for centuries.
A belief system based on science is like Ikea furniture--you have to put it together yourself, failure to do so successfully can cause emotional strife, and it will probably need to be updated in a few years.
But imagine if you had no picture of the finished product nor any instruction book! That's what trying to create a secular progressive belief system is like these days. You're probably missing a few pieces too.
metaculture is designed to give you that picture (the fractal) and the instruction booklet (best practices) so you can take your science education and create the Ikea Furniture of the Mind that is your core belief. It doesn't quite provide the fully-assembled belief system that religion provides, because it is built on a modern education which can't be substituted by a single book or even a wiki.
With its basis in science and ability to self-correct, metaculture avoids the dogmatic drawbacks that typically come when scripture cannot be updated.
Something for Everyone
The metaculture belief system has something for spiritual seekers of all stripes, with the possible exception of literalists.
Fractal Pantheists
There are many people who have independently constructed a very similar belief system. If you are one of them, then this is right up your alley. You should consider becoming a contributor to this wiki.
Theists
The theology of metaculture is fully compatible with any allegorical reading of scripture. It seeks not to replace religious traditions, only to provide an interpretation that is compatible with science.
Atheists
Pantheism is fully compatible with a materialist view of reality. There is no belief in the supernatural, and debunking pseudoscience is a core value. Atheists are encouraged to find secular spirituality and develop a universal concept that induces happiness.
Eastern and New Age Spiritualists
Mindfulness, consciousness exploration, balance, and many other values associated with eastern spiritual traditions are embraced by metaculture. Practices like Reiki or Acupuncture can be used as honest "Placebo Rituals" that acknowledge the source of their healing power is in the mind.
Psychonauts
Psychedelics enthusiasts will have plenty to trip out on with all the fractals. They will also enjoy the explorations of consciousness.
Progressives
The ethics and economics of metaculture lend themselves to progressive causes like environmentalism, social justice, equality, and a strong social safety net.
Centrists
Nothing radical is being proposed, only adherence to evidence-based best practices. No utopian vision of the future is given, only a goal of continual incremental improvement.
Libertarians
Capitalism is celebrated for its accomplishments and efficient markets are encouraged whenever incentives align with gross national happiness. Freedom, both economic and personal, should be maximized. Authoritarian rule should be prevented in both the government through monopolies on political power, and in the market through old fashioned and new fashioned monopolies.
Futurists
Even though metaculture discourages those who wish to prioritize the needs of future humans over those of the living, contemplation of the future possibilities of human evolution and the ethical dilemmas that they will pose is highly encouraged. It takes a generally optimistic perspective of the future, while avoiding blind faith that all new technology will be beneficial without strong mitigation efforts.
Luddites
The focus on ethical and humanistic integration of technology into society should appeal to those who worry that new tech is constantly unleashed on our unsuspecting brains without regard for its destruction of culture.
Why Hasn't Anyone Done This?
When researching the subjects discussed in this wiki, you will find hundreds of content creators that approach these subjects from a similar perspective. Yet, none of them presents the ideas as a collective whole that offers a unified worldview and doctrine. It is always left to the individual to see the big picture themselves. Why is that?
These pages discuss the aversions that secular and progressive people have to dogma and how it prevents them from unifying behind anything resembling ideology. This leaves the door open for the right wing manosphere to swoop in with the ready-made ideologies that kids crave.
Besides the general reluctance of the secular community to define their beliefs beyond the absence of the supernatural, other reasons a project like metaculture has not been done before include:
- Required technology has only become recently available
- Necessary advances in science were needed
- General awareness of those advances takes time
- What is being proposed is rather audacious
- Only cults and crackpots typically make such proposals
- As a result, grounded people of science don't attempt it
- Science educators are not supposed to talk about religion and most don't
- Similar efforts have been made, they just always lack one or more key ingredients
- Need to both know philosophy and how to configure a wiki site
In other attempts to define the belief system of the future, the most common shortcomings include:
- Incomplete philosophy and theology that fails to address major questions
- Focus on future people instead of the living
- Cool future-tech takes priority over ethics
- Does not address cool future-tech
- Libertarianism
- Too atheistic and leaves no room for spirituality
- Full of pseudoscience and quantum woo
- Is actually a multi-level-marketing scheme
- Fails to satisfactorily resolve science and religion conflict
- Does not incorporate secular institutions that will provide a place for community and ritual
- Does not incorporate ritual
- Is 2,000 years old
- Fails to take principled stances on the nature of reality, ethics, and the best practices for life
- Super racist and/or misogynistic
Because every secular humanist, universalist, progressive and pantheistic belief system out there has one or more of these shortcomings, metaculture shall be defined as the one that doesn't.
Believe in the Power of Video
Unfortunately the loudest voices on the Internet talking about belief systems at the moment is not providing terribly good advice beyond cleaning up your room, so it won't be included here.