Core Tenets

The Unholy Church of the Savior Self encourages adherence to six Core Tenets. These tenets are not divine, and they are not the objective truths of the universe; instead, they are the foundational assertions of the ideology of the Savior Self, and members of the Church are expected to embrace these assertions as their own personal truths, but only after they have rationally considered the validity of each tenet to their personal satisfaction.

The tenets are discussed in detail in the On Utopias series.

Humans should not be forced, pressured, or otherwise unwillingly subjected to customs, laws, practices, and habits to which they do not explicitly consent. This includes indoctrination into religions, social norms, sociopolitical ideologies, or governing systems. Humans should be equipped with the intellectual tools to analyze each such modality on its merits and to decide whether they wish to participate.

This is discussed in greater detail in On Utopias – Part II – Coercion.

Cooperation is the cornerstone upon which human civilization is built. We are capable of far greater things when we help one another and act as a single, cohesive unit. Thomas Hobbes called man’s natural state a “war of all against all,” cured only by civilization; however, one could argue that capitalist civilizations very much continue to be a war of all against all.

Cooperation advances society and technology, protects and provides for everyone, and fosters comeraderie and unity. Competition– outside of sport or friendly rivalry– fractures society, creates few winners and many losers, and artifically frames existence as a war.

This is dicussed in greater detail in On Utopias, Part III – Cooperation.

Humans should act in good faith to prevent objective and subjective harm to others through their own actions. “Harm” is broadly defined as negative physical or emotional impact based on a rational, consensus-driven evaluation of the intent of the action, its intended consequences, and its actual consequences. This is ultimately to say: humans should not do things that knowingly (or presumably) will directly cause physical harm or emotional distress to another person or group.

This is discussed in greater detail in On Utopias, Part IV – Harm Reduction.

Beyond preventing direct harm to another person or people, humans should also make a concerted effort to avoid indirect harm to people, animals, resources, and the planet as a whole. Each person should deliberateor meditate on, if you wish their own ethical threshold for acceptable harm in pursuit of their goals or actions. The Church does not explicitly define harm because it is ultimately subjective and non-universal; however, the Church maintains that most rational people will reach similar conclusions about what constitutes a harmful effect.

This is discussed in greater detail in On Utopias, Part IV – Harm Reduction.

Conscious living refers to the practice of examining oneself and one’s actions and their consequences. Fundamentally, humans are habitual creatures whose actions are driven by a confluence of subconscious thoughts and motivations. Unless there is something exceedingly destructive– such as a substance abuse problem– most of us are content to simply act on (or react to) both internal and external stimuli with minimal conscious reflection on what we do, why we do it, and what the consequences will be.

Humans should regularly practice conscious living through meditation, deliberate action, and self-reflection. These behaviors create a fully-realized person that is an active participant in their own life, rather than a passive observer.

This is discussed in greater detail in On Utopias, Part V – Conscious Living.

Abstractly, human life has great worth within the context of the human species and our biological imperitive to procreate and propagate our genetics. More specifically, a human life has great worth to the family and community of which it is a part. These are indisputable, and both convey a substantial subjective value to preserving and promoting human life.

However, neither context provides an objective value to human life. All evidence collected through human history indicates that humans are one part of the universe, the same as are dolphins, dust mites, meteors, and dirt. That we have evolved to be self-aware allows us to ascribe arbitrary value to things, and naturally results in us valuing ourselves above all else.

This is an atomistic interpretation of the universe, which is understandable given our subjective sensory experience. Driven by our fear of mortality, we have extended this value beyond the corporeal realm and imbued ourselves with cosmic exceptionalism and heavenly divinity; we humans are unique across all of existence because we have souls, which have infinite value and are sacred above all else.

There is, of course, no evidence to support this interpretation, and operating under these premises wildly skews our value judgement system in our own favor. The Church maintains that a recalibration of this system is necessary for a functional, sustainable, and morally just society.

This is discussed in greater detail in On Utopias, Part VI – Sanctity and Sacredness.