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 religious 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 services 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 combines 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, and 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 trying to create a secular belief system these days.

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.

Believe in the Power of Video

Unfortunately the loudest voice 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.