From: jimruttshow8596
The concept of The Religion That Is Not a Religion (RTI NAR) is a proposal to address modern existential challenges by creating a coherent and collective approach to meaning and wisdom, distinct from traditional religious structures [01:05:57]. This framework emphasizes practical effectiveness and self-correction, rather than dogmatic adherence or metaphysical claims [01:05:57].
Core Proposal
The Religion That Is Not a Religion proposes the theoretical integration of advanced cognitive science and reverse engineering of enlightenment with historical ecologies of practices [01:06:07]. The goal is to ameliorate foolishness and afford human flourishing, grounded in a worldview that is consistent with scientific understanding [01:06:50]. It seeks to extract valuable elements from existing philosophical and religious traditions while leaving behind “decadent two-worlds mythologies” and metaphysics [01:07:06].
Traditional religions are seen as increasingly irrelevant and non-viable for many people today, not because they are primarily false, but because their mythos no longer resonates [01:09:01]. The RTI NAR aims to offer a real alternative to fragmented, self-didactic attempts at cultivating wisdom and self-transcendence [01:08:30]. It is designed to be coherent and collective, analogous to science, but without being bound by two-worlds mythology or any single existing religion [01:08:44].
Key Components
The Religion That Is Not a Religion is understood through the dynamic interplay of three core components: Religio, Credo, and Mythos [01:10:41].
Religio
Religio is defined as the realization – both in terms of awareness and actualization – of the fundamental connectedness that lies at the core of human cognitive agency [02:00:50]. This connectedness extends to oneself as an autopoietic being, to others as sociocultural beings, and to the world as a dynamically evolving cognitive system [02:21:56]. Religio is inherently self-correcting, as relevance realization frequently finds itself relevant, leading to continuous improvement and enhancement of connectedness [02:19:07]. Experiences of sacredness are seen as profound enhancements of this relevance realization and connectedness [01:10:50].
Religio is positioned as a significant part of the answer to “perennial problems,” which are the inherent vulnerabilities to self-deceptive and self-destructive behavior arising from the very processes that make humans adaptively fitted to their environment [02:32:34]. These problems include modal confusion (confusing being and having modes), absurdity (perspectival clash), alienation, and parasitic processing [02:37:05]. Religio helps guide and constrain relevance realization, leading to a better life [02:52:28].
Credo
Credo refers to the use of propositions and pictures to set criteria for distinguishing signal from noise, such as differentiating genuine transformation from madness [01:11:01]. It functions like a signal detection system, helping to identify who is on a productive path [01:12:15]. While cognitively indispensable for this function, no particular credo is considered metaphysically necessary [01:17:15].
Ideally, Credo should always be in service of Religio, constantly evolving and self-correcting itself to better cultivate connectedness [01:13:06]. Historically, there has been an inversion where “I believe” became central, leading to “creedal tyranny” where beliefs are static and prioritized over the lived experience of connectedness [01:13:25]. The RTI NAR would continuously engineer credo as a dynamic system that results in emergent Religio [01:15:10].
Mythos
Mythos involves the use of symbols, stories, souvenirs, and celebrations to imaginally augment and make people aware of Religio, thereby enhancing its realization [01:16:18]. Symbols in this context are rich and nuanced, like the Christian cross or the American flag, carrying deep cultural and personal meaning [01:14:44]. Mythos is culturally and cognitively indispensable, providing a means to align different kinds of knowing and enhance Religio [01:17:41].
However, Mythos should be wary of merging with Credo, as this can lead to unquestionable metaphysics [01:18:43]. The concept of “sacredness” has unfortunately become synonymous with being unquestionable, which is seen as a “bad meaning” [01:18:13]. An exemplary mythos for the RTI NAR could be the Socratic story, focusing on how individuals and communities can collectively become “Socrates to each other” through dynamic, fluid dialectic and collective sense-making [01:20:06]. This involves accessing and activating the intelligence of distributed cognition to reliably aspire to collective wisdom [01:21:43].
Cultivating Wisdom and Addressing Problems
The RTI NAR emphasizes cultivating an ecology of psychotechnologies – practices that leverage human psychology for transformation [01:29:38]. This ecology is a dynamic system with relationships of mutual affordance and constraint, allowing for massive recursive self-correction [01:29:50]. Different psychotechnologies (e.g., meditation, contemplative practices, yoga, tai chi, psychotherapy, psychedelic drugs, neurofeedback, group singing, ecstatic dancing) have complementary strengths and weaknesses, which can be leveraged through “opponent processing” relationships to promote self-correction [01:30:07].
The development and deployment of these psychotechnologies, and their coordination with cyber technologies, presents a moral obligation to ensure they foster wisdom and flourishing, rather than being used for malevolent purposes (e.g., creating psychopath soldiers) [01:33:56].
Wisdom and meta-virtues are crucial for guiding these “metapsychotechnologies” [01:35:37]. While intelligence (g) may be relatively fixed, rationality is highly malleable and can be significantly improved [01:42:42]. Rationality is distinguished from logicality and intelligence, focusing on the systemic, reliable overcoming of self-deception and enhancement of connectedness [01:43:50].
A key practice to cultivate wisdom and rationality is Active Open-Mindedness (AOM) [01:44:54]. AOM involves deliberately seeking out evidence that could falsify one’s propositions and actively counteracting cognitive biases [01:46:05]. Practices such as “steel manning” an opponent’s argument (summarizing it back to them in its strongest form) and “dialogical movement” (honestly moving one’s own position towards another’s) are core to AOM [01:47:51]. This fosters a “dance of dialectic,” where participants collectively achieve insights they couldn’t have reached alone, valuing the process of thinking over just the product [01:52:02]. This approach helps differentiate genuine, collaborative thinking from sophistry or manipulation [01:54:11].
The goal of The Religion That Is Not a Religion is to make “enlightenment” – understood as the reliable amelioration of perennial problems and enhancement of flourishing – ultimately realizable for human beings individually and collectively in a lifetime [01:52:57]. This project seeks to render existing rigid religious frameworks obsolete by offering superior tools for wise enlightenment [01:37:58].