From: jimruttshow8596
The concept of a “religion that’s not a religion” (RNR), or the religion of no religion, is presented as a vital exacting proposal for the current era [01:06:00]. It aims to provide a coherent and collective alternative to fragmented, auto-didactic approaches to addressing human foolishness and cultivating wisdom [01:08:30]. This approach seeks to enable enlightenment for individuals and groups in a way that profoundly awakens them from the meaning crisis [01:10:17].
Core Principles and Function
The RNR proposes a proper theoretical integration between the best cognitive science and a reverse engineering of enlightenment [01:06:07]. This integration seeks to utilize the rich resources of past ecologies and practices, extracting what is useful while leaving behind “decadent two-worlds mythologies” and metaphysics [01:07:00]. The goal is to ameliorate foolishness and afford flourishing within a worldview consistent with scientific understanding [01:06:50].
Relevance Realization
Central to the RNR is the concept of relevance realization, which is understood as a process rather than having an essence [00:02:20]. Like Darwinian fitness, there is no fixed definition or finality to relevance; it is constantly being redefined and redesigned through an evolutionary process [00:08:11]. This continuous evolution of relevance is a key tool in cognition for navigating a combinatorially explosive and constantly changing world [00:09:37].
Sacredness
Sacredness, in the context of RNR, is defined not by a priori metaphysical definitions, but as the inexhaustibility of reality [00:10:03]. It refers to the profound enhancement of one’s relevance realization and connectedness within spiritual experiences [01:0:48]. This experience is characterized by an ongoing sense of discovery and deepening connectedness, much like the flow experience, rather than a coming to a final rest [01:12:00]. Something is experienced as sacred when it affords an ongoing fount of new intelligibility, leading to increased meaning, transformation, and spiritual depth [01:13:11].
Symbols
Symbols within the RNR are understood in a rich, literary sense, not merely as arbitrary signs [01:14:42]. These “heavy symbols,” like the Christian cross or the American flag, are culturally and cognitively indispensable [01:15:05]. They are crucial for cognitive agency and social cohesion [01:16:00]. However, while indispensable, they do not possess metaphysical necessity [01:15:10]. The RNR challenges the tendency to conflate cultural indispensability with metaphysical truth, advocating for an understanding where symbols evolve to serve the community rather than imposing fixed beliefs [01:17:19].
The Triple Relationship: Religio, Credo, and Mythos
The RNR centers on the dynamic relationship between religio, credo, and mythos [01:10:41].
- Religio: Defined as the realization (both awareness and actualization) of the fundamental connectedness and fittedness at the core of human cognitive agency [02:10:00]. It involves being connected to oneself, others, and the evolving world [02:20:50]. Religio is seen as a significant part of the answer to the perennial problems humans face [02:22:20].
- Credo: Represents the use of propositions and concepts to set criteria for distinguishing transformation from madness or sense from noise [01:11:00]. It serves the function of signal detection, helping to identify what is on the right path [01:12:09]. Crucially, credo should always be in service of religio, constantly evolving and self-correcting, rather than becoming a fixed, tyrannical set of beliefs [01:13:06]. The RNR embraces a continuous engineering of credo as a dynamical system that results in emergent religio [01:15:10].
- Mythos: Involves the use of symbols, stories, souvenirs, and celebrations to imaginally augment the realization of religio [01:16:18]. Mythos aims to make individuals aware of religio and enhance its realization, leading to experiences of sacredness and sapiential wisdom [01:17:00]. Mythos should also be in service of religio and be wary of merging with a fixed credo [01:18:38].
Addressing Perennial Problems
The RNR positions itself as a solution to “perennial problems”—issues that arise across cultures and time, such as modal confusion, absurdity, alienation, and parasitic processing [02:22:20]. These problems stem from the same processes that make humans adaptively fitted to their environment, also making them vulnerable to self-deceptive and self-destructive behavior [02:46:00]. The RNR seeks to cultivate ecologies of practices that address these problems and enhance the connectedness that defines meaning in life [02:50:00].
Reverse Engineering Enlightenment
Instead of traditional, often perplexing and mystical, notions of enlightenment, the RNR proposes “reverse engineering enlightenment” [00:48:22]. This involves setting the goal as overcoming perennial problems and enhancing religio in a wise and transformatively effective way [00:50:46]. The approach then uses the best cognitive science to reliably and systematically ameliorate these problems and afford flourishing [00:51:01].
Psychotechnologies and Metapsychotechnologies
The RNR emphasizes cultivating an ecology of psychotechnologies—practices and techniques that influence cognitive and psychological states [01:29:38]. These can include meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, psychedelic drugs, neurofeedback, group singing, and ecstatic dancing [01:31:42]. Different psychotechnologies often have complementary strengths and weaknesses, allowing for a powerful mechanism of self-correction through “opponent processing” relationships [01:30:10].
The coordination and responsible use of psychotechnologies (metapsychotechnologies) are critical [01:33:40]. There’s a moral obligation to ensure these tools are used for the reduction of foolishness and enhancement of flourishing, particularly as “bad faith actors” may attempt to use them for destructive purposes [01:34:00].
Wisdom, Rationality, Insight, and Virtue
To ensure that metapsychotechnologies lead to good outcomes, the RNR stresses the development of wisdom and meta-virtue [01:35:37]. Wisdom is deeply intertwined with rationality, insight, and virtue [01:35:48].
- Rationality is highly malleable, unlike intelligence (g), and can be significantly improved through practice [01:42:42].
- Insight is defined as the systematic seeing through illusion and into reality [01:52:00].
- Practices like active open-mindedness can enhance inferential rationality, while mindfulness practices can enhance insight and intentional rationality [01:44:54].
- Virtue, such as balancing humility and courage, is essential for scientific pursuit and societal well-being [01:39:11]. Scientists and philosophers, through the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, can collectively guide the understanding of reality and wise practices [01:41:11].
A key practice for RNR adherents is active open-mindedness (AOM) [01:44:54]. AOM involves actively looking for and counteracting one’s own cognitive biases, steel-manning opposing arguments, and being willing to genuinely shift one’s position [01:45:50]. This practice fosters intellectual humility and dynamic, self-correcting dialogue, helping individuals navigate a world saturated with misinformation and sophistry [01:46:51].
Conclusion
The religion that is not a religion is a continuously evolving, self-correcting framework [01:14:44]. It is a call to collectively embody the spirit of Socratic inquiry, fostering distributed cognition and translating it into collective wisdom [01:21:00]. This movement is already emerging, with communities of practice pursuing similar goals and recognizing the viability of a path towards wisdom and meaning that is philosophically and scientifically respectable, yet deeply existentially transformative [01:09:44].