An Introduction to Faikth
What is Faikth?
Faikth is a comforting family of stories that we can tell ourselves when reality is more than we can bear. Guaranteed to be less harmful than any current religion on the market, and arguably possibly even a little more helpful, Faikth gives the weary mind a place to hide, like a sheltering coral as the shark swims by. Remember coral?
Why Faikth?
Well, the two keys things to remember are these: In reality, there is no god and no afterlife. We live briefly, quite a lot of us suffer more than seems fair, and then we die, alone, afraid, and in pain, unless we’re quite lucky. These are hard things to accept. They cause feelings of fear and sorrow. As a result, many people over millennia have come up with stories that might make us feel better. There’s a loving omniscience listening to us in the dark. There’s a pattern of behavior that insures good fortune. That sweet, beloved puppy isn’t lost forever, but waiting for you just across the rainbow bridge.
One problem is that none of these stories are true. Further, we all know, deep down inside us, that they aren’t true, which is why we are in some cases willing to murder other people to prove that we have the right story. Another problem is that most of these stories aren’t even very good. Sure, I guess, if one is in ancient Rome and (kind of) believes that one can propitiate a god at a shrine and save the harvest, fair enough, that might feel better, but it does nothing to improve the harvest. And when we stand back at any critical distance from these tales meant to comfort, they are evidently both silly and, worse, not very satisfying. No one wants to spend eternity singing praise to the almighty. That would be fun for, what, a couple of days, at most.
So, Faikth is real?
No, silly. It is fake faith. It is not real, and it’s honest about it. There are no revelations, no miracles, no divine truths. But Faikth, unlike hundreds of world religions, teachings, movements, cults, spiritualisms, doctrines, and other long-cons, comes right out with a friendly smile and reminds you “We do not and cannot know what is real, but this is all stuff we made up to feel better.”
So, what are the tenets of Faikth?
There are but three:
1) There’s no god out to help, and we might as well accept that and move on.
Faikth does not pretend to omniscience. Who indeed knows what this universe is, whence it came, what its purpose is? How can Faikth pretend to know more than the wise and the holy and all those types? The only claim we make is that we don’t know less than they do, but we at least admit it. Here’s what we do know: human religion has caused an astonishing amount of violence; it has no verifiable claim to truth of any kind in reality, almost every faith tradition claims uniquely to be the correct one, which means at least that all but one is wrong, so come on. Whether it’s indigenous Americans or ancient Greeks or Norse talking to their respective storm-gods, it’s all pretty silly. The singular/plural/generous vindictive god(s) of the Old Testament? What a mess.
It’s okay, though. Again, if we don’t just accept into our very figurative hearts whatever deity our families followed, and went out to chose one? What deity would you like? The one that says we can rape and murder as long as we like, as long as we kiss the hem of his robe before we kick? No thanks. Or the one that decided before making the universe whether we would receive grace or not, but we get punished if we fail that test? How about the god that makes himself into different animals to rape mortals? Fancy worshipping that?
The only deity a remotely rational person in the modern world could really believe in is a very distant, quiet one, maybe who loves us, but it’s tough love for now. Thanks a lot.
2) We can have a much cooler afterlife if we design it ourselves.
The afterlife which totally doesn’t exist is the heart of Faikth. We’ll be looking at various beautiful forms and experiences of the afterlife at length later on. Again, not real, but, we get to be omniscient ourselves. Not omnipotent, because that is some wacky Mormon nonsense. But we get to explore every inch of this universe and the infinite neighboring ones, and it is fantastic, so much better than all the other fake afterlives. Go back and look at dinosaurs. Fly through distant nebulae. Catch Mozart live. We can solve every mystery and trace our ancestry back to the first fish out of water.
That is the slightest taste of the magnificent afterlife we can dream of through Faikth. Just as real as all the rest. Really, we’ll just be ash, or worm-food. But it won’t matter, by then; Faikth is for the living!
3) It’s probably a good idea not to be an asshole.
This is a point that many “official” belief systems seem to find surprisingly unimportant. It will be in the mix, somewhere, among some other rules. Which is where so much of the painful hypocrisy creeps in. Most belief systems seem like menus of proscribed behavior that is then indulged in. Also a lot of hang-ups about property. But guess what, we’re going to be dead in no time, and we really won’t be able to enjoy property when we’re dead. We suspect it’s actually going to seem like a pretty bad idea much of the time, from the position if a disembodied intelligence sucking space-time.
That said, and with no magic sky voice commanding anything, we still think maybe we should try not to be assholes so much.
What is Faikth?
Faikth is a comforting family of stories that we can tell ourselves when reality is more than we can bear. Guaranteed to be less harmful than any current religion on the market, and arguably possibly even a little more helpful, Faikth gives the weary mind a place to hide, like a sheltering coral as the shark swims by. Remember coral?
Why Faikth?
Well, the two keys things to remember are these: In reality, there is no god and no afterlife. We live briefly, quite a lot of us suffer more than seems fair, and then we die, alone, afraid, and in pain, unless we’re quite lucky. These are hard things to accept. They cause feelings of fear and sorrow. As a result, many people over millennia have come up with stories that might make us feel better. There’s a loving omniscience listening to us in the dark. There’s a pattern of behavior that insures good fortune. That sweet, beloved puppy isn’t lost forever, but waiting for you just across the rainbow bridge.
One problem is that none of these stories are true. Further, we all know, deep down inside us, that they aren’t true, which is why we are in some cases willing to murder other people to prove that we have the right story. Another problem is that most of these stories aren’t even very good. Sure, I guess, if one is in ancient Rome and (kind of) believes that one can propitiate a god at a shrine and save the harvest, fair enough, that might feel better, but it does nothing to improve the harvest. And when we stand back at any critical distance from these tales meant to comfort, they are evidently both silly and, worse, not very satisfying. No one wants to spend eternity singing praise to the almighty. That would be fun for, what, a couple of days, at most.
So, Faikth is real?
No, silly. It is fake faith. It is not real, and it’s honest about it. There are no revelations, no miracles, no divine truths. But Faikth, unlike hundreds of world religions, teachings, movements, cults, spiritualisms, doctrines, and other long-cons, comes right out with a friendly smile and reminds you “We do not and cannot know what is real, but this is all stuff we made up to feel better.”
So, what are the tenets of Faikth?
There are but three:
1) There’s no god out to help, and we might as well accept that and move on.
Faikth does not pretend to omniscience. Who indeed knows what this universe is, whence it came, what its purpose is? How can Faikth pretend to know more than the wise and the holy and all those types? The only claim we make is that we don’t know less than they do, but we at least admit it. Here’s what we do know: human religion has caused an astonishing amount of violence; it has no verifiable claim to truth of any kind in reality, almost every faith tradition claims uniquely to be the correct one, which means at least that all but one is wrong, so come on. Whether it’s indigenous Americans or ancient Greeks or Norse talking to their respective storm-gods, it’s all pretty silly. The singular/plural/generous vindictive god(s) of the Old Testament? What a mess.
It’s okay, though. Again, if we don’t just accept into our very figurative hearts whatever deity our families followed, and went out to chose one? What deity would you like? The one that says we can rape and murder as long as we like, as long as we kiss the hem of his robe before we kick? No thanks. Or the one that decided before making the universe whether we would receive grace or not, but we get punished if we fail that test? How about the god that makes himself into different animals to rape mortals? Fancy worshipping that?
The only deity a remotely rational person in the modern world could really believe in is a very distant, quiet one, maybe who loves us, but it’s tough love for now. Thanks a lot.
2) We can have a much cooler afterlife if we design it ourselves.
The afterlife which totally doesn’t exist is the heart of Faikth. We’ll be looking at various beautiful forms and experiences of the afterlife at length later on. Again, not real, but, we get to be omniscient ourselves. Not omnipotent, because that is some wacky Mormon nonsense. But we get to explore every inch of this universe and the infinite neighboring ones, and it is fantastic, so much better than all the other fake afterlives. Go back and look at dinosaurs. Fly through distant nebulae. Catch Mozart live. We can solve every mystery and trace our ancestry back to the first fish out of water.
That is the slightest taste of the magnificent afterlife we can dream of through Faikth. Just as real as all the rest. Really, we’ll just be ash, or worm-food. But it won’t matter, by then; Faikth is for the living!
3) It’s probably a good idea not to be an asshole.
This is a point that many “official” belief systems seem to find surprisingly unimportant. It will be in the mix, somewhere, among some other rules. Which is where so much of the painful hypocrisy creeps in. Most belief systems seem like menus of proscribed behavior that is then indulged in. Also a lot of hang-ups about property. But guess what, we’re going to be dead in no time, and we really won’t be able to enjoy property when we’re dead. We suspect it’s actually going to seem like a pretty bad idea much of the time, from the position if a disembodied intelligence sucking space-time.
That said, and with no magic sky voice commanding anything, we still think maybe we should try not to be assholes so much.