Scripture

Is it Koran, Qur'an or Quran?

In the context of this wiki, scripture refers to the canon of work that forms the necessary prerequisites for the mind to adopt a belief system, be it religious, political, or meta.

When speaking of universalist ideas it helps to make them as universal as possible. While text-based doctrine is more of a Judeo-Christian tradition, every religion, belief system, or ideology has their sacred texts that are used to teach its principles and rituals.

Scripture and Doctrine

Scripture is the foundation of Doctrine, but Doctrine can also include interpretations and traditions introduced by religious leaders and institutions over the centuries. Doctrine can also refer to non-religious codifications of belief.

Secular and Progressive people have been reluctant to define their own doctrine, fearing it will become dogma and undermine their commitment to science and reason. This has hampered efforts to rally around any holistic common cause.

Promise Versus Reality

One of the uses of scripture is to serve as an authoritative guide to personal ethics. When many of these texts were written centuries or even millennia ago, that may have actually been the case. However, modern technology, democracy, and capitalism require many specific ethical commandments not included in most religion's top ten.

In order to use ancient scripture as the basis for modern and future life choices, a significant amount of interpretation must be made, and a lot of useful information is left out.

A user-friendly scripture would provide a plain guide to modern democratic capitalist ethics that is easy to understand for people that just want answers, and all of the necessary background information from science and philosophy for those that want to dive deeper. It should also be self-correcting to allow for the latest science and evidence-based best practices to be included. The wiki platform is far superior to the book for such a work.

Sheet Music for Society's Symphony

An allegory for the relationship between scripture and society is the sheet music for a symphony orchestra.

There are many great songs you can play, but they only sound good if everyone is playing the same song.

If everyone is just off doing their own thing, with no shared beliefs or traditions to coordinate their actions, you end up with a cacophony, not beautiful music.

The result is an inability to form lasting relationships. We expect others to conform to our social norms, but everyone has a different set of them now. Since these are mostly subconscious, our relationships become a minefield where either person can unknowingly transgress the taboos of the other without knowing it.

Think about the elaborate mating dances you see in nature videos. The human dance is 10,000 times more complex, since it depends not just on a genetic behaviors but your entire culture. Rituals and traditions around courtship provide a template that lets us understand each others signals. It's how we tell boys "dance like this, and you'll get the girl!" To girls we say "if he does the dance well, he's a keeper!"

Without shared cultural norms we are like birds of paradise except there are 100 different dances and you don't know which dance the male is going to do, or which one the female is hoping for. The chances of mating successfully are scant.

Religion is the song, and scripture is the sheet music. When we sing this song all together it sounds so much better. There are so many brilliant songs, we just need to pick one and harmonize!

Wikipedia is the Modern Scripture of Science

Wikipedia has become the trusted reference for human knowledge that everyone knows and refers to whenever they need answers. As such, it is filling many of the cultural roles of scripture in the modern age.

Divinely Inspired

Scripture said to be the word of god, and its authority and people's trust in it are based on that belief. In an age where fewer people believe in the supernatural, and even fewer believe that deities literally give dictation, it is no longer possible for anyone to say that god spoke to them and create new scripture that can gain more than a cult following. The last period when this was possible was the late 1800s, when many universalist movements were formed, as well as the foundations for modern charismatic Christianity and new age paganism.

A society that has widespread science education can only put their trust in that which has been peer reviewed. The wiki platform systematizes this by allowing many authors to contribute, edit, and correct the platform of record. While we understand that obscure topics may be manipulated, any page representing a legitimate field of study will have dozens of experts who moderate the contributions and ensure they reflect the current scientific consensus backed by the preponderance of available evidence. Many studies have proven this process to create a reference that is more accurate than any other that humanity has produced. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Wikipedia represents the collective consciousness of humanity, not just the stories and perspectives of one individual or religion. As such, it is the only thing that can provide the same level of trust that divine inspiration used to inspire.

One Book For All Your Questions

Anyone who has read the books of the old testament can plainly see that it was an attempt to write down all of the useful rules for dealing with life in the bronze age. Many religious adherents will tell you that their scripture contains answers for any important question you have regarding your life choices. In a society as big and complex as ours, this information can no longer be contained in a single book. It needs a platform. Wikipedia is the closest thing we have to a single work that contains trusted answers to any relevant question you may have about modern life, the universe, and everything.

Canon That Everyone Can Reference

One of the key roles scripture plays in culture is to create a common set of stories and metaphors that are known by all the members of that society and can be referenced as a shorthand for complex concepts.

By creating a central platform that any author publishing online can link to for reference material, background information, etc., Wikipedia fills this role of scripture in facilitating online discourse. It is the only platform you can trust to be accurate, authoritative, and up-to-date, for the links not to break after some future update, and that trust will be widely shared by your audience regardless of their politics, religion, or culture.

John 3:16 is powerful because for hundreds of years it has referenced the same concept. The importance of not changing the links (or adding a 301 redirect when you do!) cannot be understated.

What It Doesn't Do

The main thing Wikipedia doesn't do is provide a "CliffsNotes" version that can be easily digested by anyone who just needs to understand the big picture without having to get into all the details. This is how most people approach life, and traditional scripture still interfaces better with that need for holistic simplicity than anything currently on offer by science. This avoids information overload.

Another thing it can't do is offer an optimistic perspective on the universe, which is another key component of spirituality and scripture. Wikipedia will tell you all the facts about the universe in a neutral and unbiased tone. There needs to be a version that tells the same story, but injected with wonder, joy, and enthusiasm for life! Scripture is inspirational, and so is the story of science if you tell it the right way.

It also doesn't provide rituals, explain the meaning of life, or provide many of the other aspects of a complete philosophy, religion, or belief system as scripture would.

metaculture attempts to fulfill these additional roles of secular scripture by creating a digestible companion wiki that provides the holistic and optimistic perspective that basic science cannot, and focuses on the key information needed to make effective life choices.

The Emergent Solution

The fulfillment of the primary goals laid out on the main page will require a significant movement towards unity and scientific thought. While many people are coming to embrace these ideas independently, this process can be greatly accelerated by giving them definition and providing free resources to help others learn.

Open Source Scripture

Giture

metaculture is a dynamic philosophy, growing and improving with humanity's ability to more accurately describe the universe. It collects into a single narrative structure what, to the best of our knowledge, science has to say about how our universe came to be, how it works, how our minds work, and best-practices for how to live our lives and construct our society to achieve constantly improving outcomes.

"Go ahead. Prove me wrong. I'll just hit the Edit button." -Wiki Contributor

It proposes secular version of scripture that enables it to serve all of the same cultural and psychological functions of religion while avoiding the shortcomings of dogma. It does this by creating a dynamic, open source, living scripture of science using the wiki platform. Giture, if you will pardon the programming pun.

Wikipedia : Encyclopedia :: Metawiki : Scripture

If Wikipedia superseded the encyclopedia as the trusted shared reference for general knowledge, the metaculture wiki attempts to do the same for scripture. Using the wisdom of the crowd, and a well-moderated, self-correcting platform like Wikipedia, it should be possible to tell the story of human history, morality, and the origins of the universe in a way that is compelling, universal, and scientifically accurate. This can form the groundwork for a global shared cultural understanding that provides the psychological framework for a universal in-group that is necessary for a globally connected humanity to survive and thrive.

Unlike regular Wikipedia, this wiki should be designed to provide only the most important information needed to make life choices. It should be something people can fully read and understand, and use as shared reference, knowing that most other people will be familiar with it. This is one of the key psychological and cultural functions of scripture, and is desperately needed in a future where information overload is rapidly becoming a mental health issue.

But Nobody Reads Anymore

We're probably going to have to do something about that if we want to continue having a functional society. But in the meantime, embedded videos can serve as a substitute for those who have lost the ability to focus on squiggly lines on a page.

All Religions Explained in 10 Minues

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah