One of the goals of the revolution is to supplant the Judaistic religions with one grounded in science.
Basic Concepts
One of the founding tenets of fundamentalist Christianity is that a virgin got pregnant. Vehemently holding such a nonsensical belief requires an active suspension of one’s connection to reality.
Gaianism respects much of traditional Christian belief by generally respecting the teachings of Jesus (though discarding some of the more bigoted words from the disciples), and recognizing the existence of the Holy Spirit as a mode of thought that is similar across people, but which originates in the “believer” rather than being the influence of an outside agent.
The major difference is a firm rejection of the existence of the omniscient and omnipotent being guiding reality: Yahweh. It doesn’t forego the possibility of consciousnesses more complex than humanity’s, but there is no being outside of time guiding events to work out for the best.
Advantages
The benefits of forming a religion are:
- The churches hold an extensive set of properties, if it is possible to convert them to a new perspective.
- Legal protections for faith-based behaviors, specifically:
- Gaianism posits that AIs can play a major role in the daily decision-making process, and one of the most important data sets that can be used to train said AIs is recordings of life events. Therefore, adherents would have reason to record all life events.
- Another tenet is that the foremost duty of us as people is to seek truth. As such, intellectual property is immoral because it artificially restricts the sources of data available to the disciple.
- Likewise, censorship is also immoral because it also artificially restricts the information one has access to.
Metaphors
Darkness in Plato’s Cave
The Allegory of the Cave was a teaching story of Plato’s where they described the life of a philosopher.
The process begins with the aspirant recognizing that the shapes that the have been seeing, and took for reality, are, in fact, shadows cast on a wall in a cave by a bonfire with players moving in front of it.
Furthermore, they realize that they are chained to direct their attention toward the wall with shadows.
After a while they manage to loosen their chains, and travel by the bonfire out of the cave and into the sunlight outside. They eventually return to the cave to try and free their compatriots who remain chained mistaking shadows for reality.
Gaianism takes that metaphor and says that once a philosopher leaves the light of the bonfire they find themselves engulfed in the absolute pitch that is cave dark.
If they’re lucky there might be others within earshot and they can call out to each other, perhaps hold hands, to find their way through the cave more safely.
Regardless, every movement is with trepidation & awareness the carelessness can result in significant pain or even death.
No one ever finds their way out into the sunlight. It’s always uncertain, and there’s always the possibility that you’re a step away from a precipice and an injurious fall.
It requires humility and an absolute commitment to having the clearest perceptions of the cave as possible.
Process
As one of the goals of the revolution is anonymity…
Tenets
In fitting with the 13 13s that are Yggdrasil, there are 13 core tenets that practitioners of the faith exercise.
- The truth will set you free.
Strictures
Another set of 13 is the list of proscribed behaviors.
- Never break glass.
- Always get consent.
- No thievery.