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December 2018

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From:
"Diop, Corinne Joan Martin - diopcj" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 6 Dec 2018 04:45:14 +0000
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I also found the Church of Belief Science really compelling-- except for the word "church" (a reaction similar to Chance's), the blatant recruitment for priests and donations on the home page, and that the canons must be upheld no matter what. The canons seem like a good code of ethics and not too difficult to agree about, except I had issue with the one on "Responsible Parenthood and Guardianship" that says, "A child is someone from conception in a maternal environment (or embryonic insertion in a maternal environment) up to, but not including, the age of 18" since it seems set up to be a bit anti-choice-- like suggesting the zygote is immediately considered someone and a child... it is also not clear why the brink of 18 is a magic cut off for childhood.

As for Bahai... I went to the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, IL out of curiosity, back when I was still more shopping around for community than I am now. The tour guide talked about the 9 entrances for the 9 major religions, a nice symbolism, but I have a good friend who is  neo-Pagan so I asked about the entrance for that or for indigenous religions. The guide said they value all religions for the stage they are at, and neo-Paganism would be like kindergarten. Bahai is the final stage, of course. That hierarchical thinking squelched any further interest.

Anyway, back to the anti-choice thing... does anyone know Brian Henning or read his work? I remember reading his ideas about the Kalogenic Universe, about evolution generating beauty, and also about making choices that have the most overall beautiful results. Like when there are less unwanted births the murder rate goes down, so even though curbing births might not be an obviously beautiful choice at first, it might be overall. (I can't find the source for that anymore-- it's from the days of hard copies rather than scans and links... and I am thinking he may have rewritten that.)

I caught up on reading these posts and links instead of what I was supposed to be doing, but I am fairly certain that was the most kalogenic choice...

Thank you!
Corinne



Corinne Diop
Professor of Art
JMU

________________________________________
From: tree of knowledge system discussion [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Chance McDermott [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2018 9:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Church of Belief Science?

Thank you for sharing, Gregg.  I like what Martin had to say about people needing to "flock" together towards an image, even if that image were to lead to a dead end.

I would be curious to know more about the success religions like Belief Science these days, as, right or wrong, I am hit with negative emotional reactions from three directions.  The first is organized religion itself, which I have an aversive reaction towards due to being raised in a conservative Christian environment (this aversive reaction has matured into a healthy defensiveness rather than the hot antagonism I felt as a younger person, but nonetheless the gut response remains).  Secondly, Scientology is the prominent example of how manufactured religions can go awry, and so "Belief Science" triggers that association.  Thirdly, there is the ingrained concern about being drawn into small cults, and Belief Science gives me that feeling as well.

Again, these are emotional reactions from my own personal web of experiences and associations.  On a descriptive level, the religion looks reasonable on paper.  The organization seems self aware and transparent that Belief Science is there to meet a basic human need for belonging and community, and that Belief Science has been mindful about constructing itself in such a way that an in-group is achieved without creating a hostile relationship with the resulting out-group, and does so with a meta-awareness that beliefs are culturally contextual.  It reminded me of a more secular Bahai.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD_Faith<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Bah-25C3-25A1-2527-25C3-25AD-5FFaith&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=WHzD-_dBTq077iXFuqtPUd-4ARONlIkWP5zbFKpjfsc&s=p5QOi66CCDWHRRXnrivHeFTbM6biBt0rPbwdtPuzsyU&e=>




On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 7:32 AM martin johnson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

I would say "it is meaningful to have a  belief in what is 'true'," in he comtext of saying that animals also function by images, imagives appear as imagination, animals traveling as a group to a destination where there is food, water, have an an image of where they are going, and a belief they will get they. It is crucial to survival. Having images and beliefs is crucial to human survival -- even though sometimes a group belief leads to a dead end. It is in nature and an essential to human functioning to have beliefs, and meaningfull. When a new truth arrises and displaces the old truth, that is part of the process of culture. This view depends on the assertion that reality only exists in contexts, that there is no objective truth, object in the sense of existing without context. It is hubris to say one has the TRUTH, which scientist sometimes say (as in physical scientist claiming a corner on how science has to be performed.) Martin Johnson

On Dec 4, 2018 10:21 AM, "Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Hi List,
>
>   I stumbled across this site, the Church of Belief Science and found it interesting. It adopts a postmodern, social constructivist view of religion and belief in general, meaning that the focus and meaning of truth is found in what people consensually agree to be true. The founder is a psychologist/counselor whom I had heard of, but I was not aware that he started this group.
>
>
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
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