By John Maguire
For this essay I will explore the rationale for an offshoot
of the Open-Source paradigm known as Open-Source Religion. I will also refer to
it loosely and interchangeably as Open-Source Philosophy.
Open-Source Religion can be summed up as the individualized practice
of mixing various religious teachings with a diversity of non-religious ideas
and beliefs to form a coherent spiritual framework for oneself. A person is
free to be as creative as they so choose in this process, as long as their beliefs
do not violate the golden rule: do no harm. For example, if you believe that a three-eyed
race of telepaths from the Sirius star-system seeded the earth with
intelligence, and at the same time believe in the philosophical teachings of
both Jesus and Buddha, then more power to you. Theoretically your conclusions
can be grounded in nothing more than pure intuition, but I believe decisions
are best arrived at through critically-minded research and employing the scientific
method. The danger in relying strictly on intuition is that you may end up
adopting some type of intellectually-bankrupt and exploitative alternative such
as Scientology. The choice however is yours.
In contrast to Open-Source, traditional, proprietary religious
practice insists on rigidity, standardization, and the collective deferment of
authority to an elite priesthood. Open-Source Religion integrates horizontally
and promotes integrity by stressing thoughtful analysis; Closed-System Religion
integrates vertically and promotes a lack of integrity by propagating dogmatic
adherence.
The bureaucratized and hierarchical Religions of the present
day eat away at the social fabric and sunder the inherent interconnectedness of
humanity. I’m not saying there are no good people trapped within these systems,
or that localized religious institutions cannot serve as community-touchstones;
there are, and they can. But the reality is that mainstream religious ideology operates
by and large as a rationale for war, genocide, poverty, and general
divisiveness in the world. For all practical purposes, MSR single-handedly embedded
the imagined threat of an external other into popular consciousness; a satanic boogey-man
that we must unite against no matter the cost. We have seen this mentality play
out in the twentieth-century during WWII and Vietnam respectively during which
the American public was easily frightened into blind acquiescence, and
brainwashed American soldiers proudly mailed back the bones of dehumanized
enemies to their families and wore their victims’ body parts as trophies. We
see this continuing today in the contrived War on Terror, as we condone and commit
war-crime after war-crime, all in the name of chasing our own shadow. On top of
this, MSR(main stream religion) also perpetuates the cultural epidemic of sadomasochistic
addiction to self-hatred. The self-loathing person can never self-actualize,
and the writhing emptiness within can only be satiated by self-destructive
behavior such as mindless consumerism, or the demented urge to exert power and
control over others.
Moving beyond these stark issues, I see value in discussing OSR
because I feel that all human beings, on a very deep level, require a self-inspired,
logical, and optimistic philosophical framework for life that helps them
transcend their familiar five-sense reality. To quote Logicist author David
Jack, “I believe that everybody, in a sense, has a God. We [all] have something
that we believe in as supreme.” I agree wholeheartedly, and believe this concept
extends to all people, even agnostics and atheists. Guiding principles are in
essence a Religion; just as Religion in essence is a set of guiding principles.
Therefore, whether we admit it or not, we are all religious creatures at heart.
In that respect, we all have a stake in the development of the OSR paradigm.
I myself was baptized, raised, and confirmed as a Roman-Catholic.
In time I got over the trauma of it. I studied hard, I meditated, and in the
process discovered a holistic philosophy that helps me stay balanced, focused,
and answer that all important question: What is life all about? You can do the
same if you are courageous enough to ditch your psychological baggage, leave
your ego at the door, and move forward with integrity and an open-heart. I will
likely take time in a future video to outline my own personal belief system for
those who are interested.
I ask that you take a brief moment to reflect, and to not misinterpret
what I’m saying. Just because I insist on the need for a religious philosophy
grounded in Open-Source, does not mean that we should ignore reality and engage
in magical thinking; nor should we pretend all is well and wear disingenuous
Prozac smiles on our faces. In the words of philosophical giant Ervin Laszlo,
“We should apprehend this remarkable world with our heart as well as with our
intellect… [we must adopt] a vision that
is imaginative but not imaginary.”
Obviously the world, and the human race, is in turmoil. That
is not a valid excuse to indulge in narrow-minded cynicism. If you find
yourself unable to muster up a sense of optimism and elevate your thinking
beyond your own ego-driven existence, it is my opinion that you are ignorant of
certain fundamental truths. Something is logically amiss in your approach to
problem-solving. Put plainly, you are lacking in awareness, and that is a
byproduct of both conditioning and intellectual laziness. To change this, you must
make the choice to engage in honest interdisciplinary research. By integrating up-to-date
findings from a broad spectrum of scientific and metaphysical fields of study, you
would arrive at some very liberating and encouraging conclusions. For example, systems
theory, non-linear thermodynamics, shamanism, quantum physics, astral-theology,
entheogenic pharmacology, and naturalistic philosophy are all critically
important subjects. Yet how many of us know even the slightest bit about them,
let alone how to organize them into a coherent framework? This epitomizes the
challenge at hand; a challenge that nobody can undertake for you.
Almost all classical belief systems are irreconcilably flawed,
as has been historically demonstrated by the countless contradictions and inaccuracies
they have given rise to. Consequently, none of them deserve our full
allegiance. To borrow a quote from Ayn Rand, “Contradictions do not exist.
Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You
will find that one of them is wrong.” In my opinion these belief systems had
their chance, and failed to deliver. Open-Source sense making is the future
starting now.
We already exist in an era of Open-Source Religion. All we
have to do is come to terms with it. The truth is that everyone, even those who
consider themselves strict orthodox, selectively constructs their own constellation
of beliefs. If this was not true, supposedly strict adherents of the Christian
Bible for example would all be stoning their disobedient children to death, and
condemning themselves and others to hell for wearing clothing made of two
different fabrics. So obviously people everywhere are already engaged in
Open-Source spiritual sense-making. But they are too proud, too ignorant, or
too afraid to take off their masks and jump ship from their sinking institutions.
I sincerely believe the materialistic, Newtonian paradigms
of the past centuries are coming to an end. Compartmentalization is going out
of fashion. We need to regain our sanity by reclaiming the lost wisdom of our
indigenous forerunners. I think the incomparable Joe Bageant put it best when
he said, “There is a spiritual side of man…a moral side. I’m not a Christian,
but it’s there, and it’s there for us to share as a people, together.”
Editor's note:
John Maguire was
born in 1985 and raised in Upstate New York. He attained his undergraduate
degree in History Education from the State University of Brockport in 2007.
Disillusioned, he successfully dropped out of graduate school in 2009 to pursue
a happier and more authentic life. Slowly at first, he initiated a program of
autodidactic learning and self-exploration that has been ongoing since.
Believing truth and authenticity are the only things worth pursuing, most of
his days revolve around such aims. When necessary, he pays for the ego-driven
demands of life by way of substitute teaching and coaching poker. He currently
lives in North Carolina with his ever-patient girlfriend Nikohl."
John can be reached at foks0904@gmail.com
I met John and Niki when they both worked as book sellers at Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY
Why people still use to read news papers when in this technological world
ReplyDeleteall is accessible on net?