In 1985 or thereabouts, after I returned from my visit to Israel to see the yeshivas where my brothers were studying (see Chapter 18.D of my Autobiography), there was a lot of loose talk about religion, Providence, special creation, and divinely inspired infallible texts. Just to clarify in my own mind where I stood, I wrote up these seven points; I called them Articles of Religion in reference to the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church, and the 13 articles drafted by Maimonides that supposedly stated the essence of the Jewish religion.
As you would expect, my Articles are pretty rationalistic, for an acidhead. Almost 30 years later they still reflect what I believe, more or less. Need I even say that if you don’t believe exactly the same thing I do, after death you’ll burn forever in a lake of fire? But that is obvious.
Articles of Religion
- The perceived universe has an objective existence outside myself, of which I am a part.
- There is a First Cause of the universe, responsible for its creation and design (= God). The creation of the universe was purposeful but the purpose is unknown.
- There is a perceptible Presence in the world (= God) which I identify with the First Cause. The perception of this Presence is inward, subjective, and unverifiable.
- The universe, including this world and all living creatures, operates according to a Natural Order. The design of all forms, elements and conditions in the universe, and their evolution in time from the beginning, are expressions of this Natural Order. The evolution of the universe, including people, continues at this moment and will continue for aeons to come. There is no reason to believe the Natural Order is ever varied, in response to requests by people or otherwise. The Natural Order was complete at the beginning of its development and its subsequent manifestation requires no intervention, nor is any such intervention possible.
- There is a continuity between people and the rest of nature. People are distinguished from other creatures chiefly by their specialized minds and consciousness. Except as affected by this specialization, people function and behave like other animals. People were not created separately from the rest of nature, but their minds and consciousness may have evolved for a purpose central to evolution on this planet (such as migration from it). Whether there is such a purpose, and if so what it is, is unknown. There is no reason to believe that comparably conscious beings are not found elsewhere in the universe. Evolution operates on species and populations and (except culturally) the lives of individuals have only statistical importance.
- A person’s consciousness (= soul) is without substance. It is individual and limited to that person. There is no reason to believe in the survival of an individual soul beyond the death of the brain, or in any Afterlife, or Judgment, or Resurrection, or Reincarnation. Human consciousness is not coextensive with God’s consciousness, and analogies between people and God are unfounded and probably misleading. No Providence directs or intervenes in the lives or souls of individual people. There is no reason to expect any Messiah.
- All religions are cultural and psychological artifacts. There is no reason to believe any of them to be wholly or even substantially true. There is no legitimate religious authority beyond an individual’s consciousness, and even that is unreliable. All books are of exclusively human origin. No religious premises, including these, can be known with certainty, proved, or even defended against claims that they might not be true.
Articles of Religion
In 1985 or thereabouts, after I returned from my visit to Israel to see the yeshivas where my brothers were studying (see Chapter 18.D of my Autobiography), there was a lot of loose talk about religion, Providence, special creation, and divinely inspired infallible texts. Just to clarify in my own mind where I stood, I wrote up these seven points; I called them Articles of Religion in reference to the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church, and the 13 articles drafted by Maimonides that supposedly stated the essence of the Jewish religion.
As you would expect, my Articles are pretty rationalistic, for an acidhead. Almost 30 years later they still reflect what I believe, more or less. Need I even say that if you don’t believe exactly the same thing I do, after death you’ll burn forever in a lake of fire? But that is obvious.
Articles of Religion