- Dave Littler, Arbiter-General, July 28th, 2001

 

Consider this my official answer to anyone and everyone who wonders how and why a bunch of individualists would be organised into a group, and what reason anyone might have to join.

For various reasons, society has developed in such a way that most of it's institutions have gotten to the point where they're willing to give people certain concessions on the basis of their religion; they're willing to allow certain exceptions to behavioural norms, they're willing to suspend judgements on certain issues. This is all well and good in principle, but to me, it's always seemed to sort of miss the point.

The point, as far as I'm concerned, is that a religion is, at it's core, just a set of beliefs and ethics which a person holds to and doesn't waver from. The fact that any organised religion by definition has more than that one member is secondary; christianity, buddhism, shintoism... these religions would be just as valid (or invalid, depending on your point of view) if each of them had just one member a'piece. The ethics wouldn't change as a result of their being just one member. The beliefs wouldn't change as a result of their being just one member. All that would change is that the position that these religions hold in society - they would go from being respected social institutions to being a collection of lone nuts.

To me, this isn't particularly fair to those people who hold unusual beliefs. It means that if you hold beliefs which are derived from somebody else's (the founder of your religion's), then you get certain rights. If you hold beliefs which are uniquely your own, then you're fucked. In other words, society rewards you for blindly following somebody else's lead, and punishes you for making your own way.

I decided, some years ago, to do something about this.

If a person needs to be a part of a group in order for their moral and ethical beliefs to matter in these bureaucrats' eyes, then I decided I'd create a group which you could only be a part of if you retained your own free will and reserved your right to question anything and everything. This is a religion which DEMANDS that you be yourself and stick by your guns. That way, when you do so and are questioned or challenged on the issue, you can say "my religion demands it of me", and most people/teachers/bosses/government representatives will let the issue drop right there.

That's what their systems tell them to do. It's basically a means to use society's illogical rules and stipulations against it's self.

More than that, though, it has occurred to me that if we're to call ourselves a religion, then we might as well have ALL of the rights and privileges which representatives of other religions enjoy. Why should they get tax exemptions and the ability to perform weddings for doing the same things as we do when we don't? Why should they get to have cool-sounding titles when we don't? I couldn't think of a single valid reason.

Now, with the Church of Stuff steadily growing and on it's way to getting all of these powers from the powers-that-be, we're now in a position to offer any new member to join several things: The umbrella protection of the Church as a group against anyone who might impinge upon their sacred duty to question authority and be themselves. The fellowship of a group of like-minded individuals. The strength of numbers. And soon, the prestige and privilege of being a priest in perhaps the most progressive-minded religion on earth.