A Syntheist festival

[DrZoidberg]

I've told you about a religion me and a couple of friends started in 2012. A religion for atheists. It's fine if you don't like it. It's fine if you think it's absurd or self-contradictory. Really, it's fine. We did it anyway. I thought I might give you an update.

For whatever reason, I can't explain, this has taken off like a house on fire. We have members who have used Syntheism as a platform to have religious festivals. Now there's a couple of these a year. All the time growing. So it's a thing I guess. Which is even more baffling considering that we're doing zero preaching about it. We're just doing this for our own sakes. We really don't care if we get more converts. It's reached a point where our biggest religious festival has a cap on visitors at 3000. The only reason is to make it more intimate. All tickets sold out in hours.

I should explain the thing with it. It's basically a massive art installation. Everybody have to organised in camps. And each camp have to create some sort of art installation, or something of value to give to others. Yes, it's exactly like Burning Man. We've just ripped off their rules straight up. But we do give credit. A lot of artists and middle-class academics. For some reason we tend to attract smart and/or creative people. I don't know the significance of that. We also have a large group of ex-new age hippies. They haven't really grasped how scepticism informed by science works. But bless them for trying. New Age roots go deep.

It's not so many pictures because the theme of this year was to not take pictures. Try to enjoy being in the moment. When I say theme... nobody decided that was the theme. But it was anyway. If you took picture you got "looks".

We've been doing this now for four years and a recurring topic to our discussions is; what is Syntheism for? I personally have no idea. But it feels great doing it. We have a huge temple in Stockholm now. One in Gothemburg. One in Copenhagen. I think there's one in Malmø. Haven't been there yet though.

That's pretty much it.

- - - Updated - - -



This is the view from the entrance at night. The little yellow thing at the top is the Syntheist temple. Created by a camp of architects. So gorgeous and pretty, I think it made everybody else's camp feel crappy. The big pyramid is a permanent structure. It was used as a art gallery. Some artists were given money and space to do whatever. Turned out really well. Through the valley on the left side was a super nice beach and the free bar. Who doesn't like a religion with a free bar?

My camp was the blue and red dot to the right.

 

[Thomas II]

Interesting...So what do you guys do in the festival? Why a "temple" and not just a meeting hall?

"What Syntheism adds to this spectrum is the concept that rather than discussing whether gods exist independently of us or not (as if this for some strange reason would be a necessary condition for divinity), we have to admit that all gods have been created by humanity and nobody else, and we are consequently free to keep creating gods (even physically) as long as we admit that this is precisely what we do when we conduct religion."
(from The Syntheist Movement web site) http://syntheism.org/index.php/author/alexander-bard/page/2/

Why would we want to "keep creating gods"?

 

[DrZoidberg]

Interesting...So what do you guys do in the festival? Why a "temple" and not just a meeting hall?

"What Syntheism adds to this spectrum is the concept that rather than discussing whether gods exist independently of us or not (as if this for some strange reason would be a necessary condition for divinity), we have to admit that all gods have been created by humanity and nobody else, and we are consequently free to keep creating gods (even physically) as long as we admit that this is precisely what we do when we conduct religion."
(from The Syntheist Movement web site) http://syntheism.org/index.php/author/alexander-bard/page/2/

Why would we want to "keep creating gods"?

A common critique against religion is that God is so devoid of substance. Lacan defined God as an empty container the devotee can project whatever they want into. An empty symbol. I remember having had many discussions with Christians wanting them to "define God". If they can't define God then what do they believe in. They never understood the question.

Then I had a revelation of sorts. Maybe that wasn't a weakness of religion. Maybe that's the point? God has always in every religion been an empty symbol. Alexander Bard (philosopher) has a good line, "God is the name we put on our collective hopes and dreams". And of course God has always been invented and make-belief in every religion. Obviously, since God doesn't exist. Some might be religious out of stupidity. But religion is too wide-spread for that to convince me. Many smart people have been religious. Maybe it was me who wasn't "getting it".

At the start of Syntheism I was very opposed to using "God" as a term at all. Most of us were like that. But over time we've been won over one-by-one. Now I think God is a useful term IMHO. But God is created. All gods are. It's when we confuse God with something real that religion turns farcical.

A "meeting hall" has the connotation of people meeting for a reason. Some shared objective to reach. We don't have that. We just meet to meet. I love that aspect. There's no agenda other than to meet and talk to people. Share experiences from life. There's no pressure to perform. It's a bit like cheap therapy, I guess.

I also used to laugh at religious ritual. Calling it stupid. Religious rituals are actually awesome. There's a sociological theory that religious ritual is about creating a sense of stability in an otherwise unstable world. Ie, is an emotional life-hack. Works for me. Also... we all have all manner of rituals in our lives. We can't not create rituals for ourselves. It's a human thing. Might as well do them together with others.

What I have never laughed at is churches and temples. Have always loved them. Just a safe space in an urban bustle where I can sit and breathe for a moment. Now we have a vehicle for building them.

Note: I've always been an atheist my entire life. I've had very little contact with religion. So I don't really know much about the old-fashioned theistic religion. And that seems to be a theme with all our members. It's very rare that any Syntheist has grown up in a religious home. If they have it's the most liberal version imaginable. Our members have never had any kind of theistic struggle or wondered if God ever existed. I haven't. To me (and us) God's non-existence was always obvious. Just something I've noticed by talking to other Syntheists. If anything, that's what makes Syntheists special.

I suspect Syntheist religion can only take hold in a culture where religion has been well and truly dead for a couple of generations. I don't think theists or ex-theists can "get it" or will ever be attracted to it. I'm not saying we've figured out some sort of secret to life. I'm just saying that based on who our members are. We don't seem to attract those kinds of people.

Also, Syntheism is a smorgasbord religion. Alexander Bard doesn't define Syntheistic philosophy. He sure as hell doesn't with his book. His book is just a suggestion. Take it or leave it. Any Syntheist is free to define the philosophy behind their membership freely. We don't have any shared beliefs. We most just hang out and do the rituals. Now friendships have emerged. Great people I otherwise would never have met. It's all good.

 

[DrZoidberg]

BTW, the way new things usually start in the world, is that people just do it. And after the fact they figure out the theory behind it. The initial idea behind it is usually wrong, or a much too shallow explanation. So I suspect it's way too early to try to figure this out. Right now I'm enjoying our Syntheist activities. One day I might figure out why I do.

 

[Thomas II]

Interesting...So what do you guys do in the festival? Why a "temple" and not just a meeting hall?

"What Syntheism adds to this spectrum is the concept that rather than discussing whether gods exist independently of us or not (as if this for some strange reason would be a necessary condition for divinity), we have to admit that all gods have been created by humanity and nobody else, and we are consequently free to keep creating gods (even physically) as long as we admit that this is precisely what we do when we conduct religion."
(from The Syntheist Movement web site) http://syntheism.org/index.php/author/alexander-bard/page/2/

Why would we want to "keep creating gods"?

A common critique against religion is that God is so devoid of substance. Lacan defined God as an empty container the devotee can project whatever they want into. An empty symbol. I remember having had many discussions with Christians wanting them to "define God". If they can't define God then what do they believe in. They never understood the question.

Then I had a revelation of sorts. Maybe that wasn't a weakness of religion. Maybe that's the point? God has always in every religion been an empty symbol. Alexander Bard (philosopher) has a good line, "God is the name we put on our collective hopes and dreams". And of course God has always been invented and make-belief in every religion. Obviously, since God doesn't exist. Some might be religious out of stupidity. But religion is too wide-spread for that to convince me. Many smart people have been religious. Maybe it was me who wasn't "getting it".

At the start of Syntheism I was very opposed to using "God" as a term at all. Most of us were like that. But over time we've been won over one-by-one. Now I think God is a useful term IMHO. But God is created. All gods are. It's when we confuse God with something real that religion turns farcical.

A "meeting hall" has the connotation of people meeting for a reason. Some shared objective to reach. We don't have that. We just meet to meet. I love that aspect. There's no agenda other than to meet and talk to people. Share experiences from life. There's no pressure to perform. It's a bit like cheap therapy, I guess.

I also used to laugh at religious ritual. Calling it stupid. Religious rituals are actually awesome. There's a sociological theory that religious ritual is about creating a sense of stability in an otherwise unstable world. Ie, is an emotional life-hack. Works for me. Also... we all have all manner of rituals in our lives. We can't not create rituals for ourselves. It's a human thing. Might as well do them together with others.

What I have never laughed at is churches and temples. Have always loved them. Just a safe space in an urban bustle where I can sit and breathe for a moment. Now we have a vehicle for building them.

Note: I've always been an atheist my entire life. I've had very little contact with religion. So I don't really know much about the old-fashioned theistic religion. And that seems to be a theme with all our members. It's very rare that any Syntheist has grown up in a religious home. If they have it's the most liberal version imaginable. Our members have never had any kind of theistic struggle or wondered if God ever existed. I haven't. To me (and us) God's non-existence was always obvious. Just something I've noticed by talking to other Syntheists. If anything, that's what makes Syntheists special.

I suspect Syntheist religion can only take hold in a culture where religion has been well and truly dead for a couple of generations. I don't think theists or ex-theists can "get it" or will ever be attracted to it. I'm not saying we've figured out some sort of secret to life. I'm just saying that based on who our members are. We don't seem to attract those kinds of people.

Also, Syntheism is a smorgasbord religion. Alexander Bard doesn't define Syntheistic philosophy. He sure as hell doesn't with his book. His book is just a suggestion. Take it or leave it. Any Syntheist is free to define the philosophy behind their membership freely. We don't have any shared beliefs. We most just hang out and do the rituals. Now friendships have emerged. Great people I otherwise would never have met. It's all good.

Human interaction seems to be a good excuse to get together, and it makes you happy...It's all good...

 

[DrZoidberg]

Human interaction seems to be a good excuse to get together, and it makes you happy...It's all good...

It's not just human interaction. It's that it's literally for no purpose other than just meeting. Because of that we've got a collection of people with a huge variety backgrounds. Granted that what they have in common is mostly being well educated and middle-class. But I've never known another movement that brings different people together quite like this.

If I'm to speculate as to why only people raised as atheists are attracted to this. I think it may be that in theistic religion, the religion is often set up like a kind of game where the object is to get into heaven/get reborn something fancy, or something like it. None of us are "trained" in this way of thinking. We've all been raised nihilist and we think that's kind of empty. Nothing wrong with it. For whoever that makes you happy.... great.

What I'm trying to say is that if the two options is nihilism on one hand and something retarded on the other, smart people will go for nihilism. But formulated in a way that is as rejecting as possible of the retardation. But if all the options are varieties of nihilism.. that makes the choice a hell of a lot less obvious. Anyhoo... it's my theory.

 

[Thomas II]

Human interaction seems to be a good excuse to get together, and it makes you happy...It's all good...

It's not just human interaction. It's that it's literally for no purpose other than just meeting. Because of that we've got a collection of people with a huge variety backgrounds. Granted that what they have in common is mostly being well educated and middle-class. But I've never known another movement that brings different people together quite like this.

If I'm to speculate as to why only people raised as atheists are attracted to this. I think it may be that in theistic religion, the religion is often set up like a kind of game where the object is to get into heaven/get reborn something fancy, or something like it. None of us are "trained" in this way of thinking. We've all been raised nihilist and we think that's kind of empty. Nothing wrong with it. For whoever that makes you happy.... great.

What I'm trying to say is that if the two options is nihilism on one hand and something retarded on the other, smart people will go for nihilism. But formulated in a way that is as rejecting as possible of the retardation. But if all the options are varieties of nihilism.. that makes the choice a hell of a lot less obvious. Anyhoo... it's my theory.

I completely "get" the human aspect, which is what matters.

Regarding the ritual part, what do you do?

 

[DrZoidberg]

It's not just human interaction. It's that it's literally for no purpose other than just meeting. Because of that we've got a collection of people with a huge variety backgrounds. Granted that what they have in common is mostly being well educated and middle-class. But I've never known another movement that brings different people together quite like this.

If I'm to speculate as to why only people raised as atheists are attracted to this. I think it may be that in theistic religion, the religion is often set up like a kind of game where the object is to get into heaven/get reborn something fancy, or something like it. None of us are "trained" in this way of thinking. We've all been raised nihilist and we think that's kind of empty. Nothing wrong with it. For whoever that makes you happy.... great.

What I'm trying to say is that if the two options is nihilism on one hand and something retarded on the other, smart people will go for nihilism. But formulated in a way that is as rejecting as possible of the retardation. But if all the options are varieties of nihilism.. that makes the choice a hell of a lot less obvious. Anyhoo... it's my theory.

I completely "get" the human aspect, which is what matters.

Regarding the ritual part, what do you do?

We used to have a set of rituals we did.

http://syntheism.org/index.php/our-rituals/

The last year or so we haven't been doing those. It sort of just petered out. Instead one member (or a couple) takes it upon themselves to come up with a new one each time. That wasn't the plan. But that's what has happened. It may simply be that the old way to do it wasn't working for us... so we just.. sort of stopped.

So if I can remember last time. There was some elaborate ritual planned. But right before this a member had an accident and died suddenly. So all those plans were scrapped and some of us instantly came up with a kind of service. Turned out really nice. It was pretty long. So I won't bore you with the details. First a guy held a short talk about the guy who had died and some experiences they'd shared. Then we were asked a question (which I can't for the life of me remember what it was). We got into small groups where we discussed this. I think it was why we were there? Then we formed a line and we closed our eyes and held onto the guy in front of us and then followed the person in front of us. Well... this was a disaster of bad planing since somebody hadn't counted on that when lines turn corners that corner will rapidly get more and more rounded, ie bumping into the corner. But that was fixed by some guiding hands helping out. We ended it at the Syntheist temple at the top of the hill. It was quite a walk. And then we were instructed to take a stone from the temple, think of some unhelpful habit we have i life and throw it into the sea together with the stone. And that was the end of it.

But these have been highly varied. Once it was just taking turns giving each other massages. Once we had a Jiu Jitsu champion just come back from the world BJJ championship in Brazil giving us a BJJ lesson. Fuck me that guy was bad-ass. I was sore for a week. There's a group of Syntheists who all are hardcore MMA fanatics. Especially BJJ. Elite as fuck. Inspiring guys. We have a guy who's a pro dancer. He gave us a dancing lesson in comtemporary dance. Also elite as fuck and inspiring. We've had yoga a bunch of time. Loads of meditating classes. The Stockholm Synteist temple is, apart from huge, half made as a gym with soft mat floors. So it lends itself well for physical exercises.

I've led the rituals a couple of times. At the very beginning I was the back-up guy. If the person who was scheduled to lead it fucked up for some reason and couldn't do it, I'd have something simple prepared and do it. Which happened a few times. But now it seems to have sorted itself out. Nowadays it's always a team leading it and they put a lot of work into each service. So they make sure collectively that it's on track.

So far around these rituals there's a short talk about something interesting. A huge variety of subjects. The psychology researcher talking about his research into entheogens/psychadelics was interesting has hell. I had not expected that being as interesting. BTW, that wasn't some twichy psychonaut, this was the first proper scientist who got government funding for this sort of reseach since the 70'ies. He is attached to Karolinska which is one of the world's most prestigious university hospitals. So it's a big deal. Most of the talk was the bullshit and politics he had to navigate to get this research to get off the ground at all.

I could go on for hours. We've been going for a couple of years now. A lot has happened over the years.

 

[Atheos]

It's cool for sure DrZoidberg. Congratulations on starting something that seems to have taken off.

 

[DrZoidberg]

It's cool for sure DrZoidberg. Congratulations on starting something that seems to have taken off.

Especially since we had no clue what was going to become of this. We had the vaguest notion of stealing things from existing religions, dropping (a litteral) God and hoping it would turn into something useful.
Going in we all shared one idea, religion is such a common activity, it must surely be of some use to humanity. So we're trying to figure out what use religion fills. Turns out it has tonnes of various usages. Religion isn't one thing. It's different things to different people. And we're still looking.

 

[Thomas II]

I completely "get" the human aspect, which is what matters.

Regarding the ritual part, what do you do?

We used to have a set of rituals we did.

http://syntheism.org/index.php/our-rituals/

The last year or so we haven't been doing those. It sort of just petered out. Instead one member (or a couple) takes it upon themselves to come up with a new one each time. That wasn't the plan. But that's what has happened. It may simply be that the old way to do it wasn't working for us... so we just.. sort of stopped.

So if I can remember last time. There was some elaborate ritual planned. But right before this a member had an accident and died suddenly. So all those plans were scrapped and some of us instantly came up with a kind of service. Turned out really nice. It was pretty long. So I won't bore you with the details. First a guy held a short talk about the guy who had died and some experiences they'd shared. Then we were asked a question (which I can't for the life of me remember what it was). We got into small groups where we discussed this. I think it was why we were there? Then we formed a line and we closed our eyes and held onto the guy in front of us and then followed the person in front of us. Well... this was a disaster of bad planing since somebody hadn't counted on that when lines turn corners that corner will rapidly get more and more rounded, ie bumping into the corner. But that was fixed by some guiding hands helping out. We ended it at the Syntheist temple at the top of the hill. It was quite a walk. And then we were instructed to take a stone from the temple, think of some unhelpful habit we have i life and throw it into the sea together with the stone. And that was the end of it.

But these have been highly varied. Once it was just taking turns giving each other massages. Once we had a Jiu Jitsu champion just come back from the world BJJ championship in Brazil giving us a BJJ lesson. Fuck me that guy was bad-ass. I was sore for a week. There's a group of Syntheists who all are hardcore MMA fanatics. Especially BJJ. Elite as fuck. Inspiring guys. We have a guy who's a pro dancer. He gave us a dancing lesson in comtemporary dance. Also elite as fuck and inspiring. We've had yoga a bunch of time. Loads of meditating classes. The Stockholm Synteist temple is, apart from huge, half made as a gym with soft mat floors. So it lends itself well for physical exercises.

I've led the rituals a couple of times. At the very beginning I was the back-up guy. If the person who was scheduled to lead it fucked up for some reason and couldn't do it, I'd have something simple prepared and do it. Which happened a few times. But now it seems to have sorted itself out. Nowadays it's always a team leading it and they put a lot of work into each service. So they make sure collectively that it's on track.

So far around these rituals there's a short talk about something interesting. A huge variety of subjects. The psychology researcher talking about his research into entheogens/psychadelics was interesting has hell. I had not expected that being as interesting. BTW, that wasn't some twichy psychonaut, this was the first proper scientist who got government funding for this sort of reseach since the 70'ies. He is attached to Karolinska which is one of the world's most prestigious university hospitals. So it's a big deal. Most of the talk was the bullshit and politics he had to navigate to get this research to get off the ground at all.

I could go on for hours. We've been going for a couple of years now. A lot has happened over the years.

I like your spirit.

 

[Thomas II]

It's cool for sure DrZoidberg. Congratulations on starting something that seems to have taken off.

Especially since we had no clue what was going to become of this. We had the vaguest notion of stealing things from existing religions, dropping (a litteral) God and hoping it would turn into something useful.
Going in we all shared one idea, religion is such a common activity, it must surely be of some use to humanity. So we're trying to figure out what use religion fills. Turns out it has tonnes of various usages. Religion isn't one thing. It's different things to different people. And we're still looking.

Personally, I think that religion tried to fill the gap between conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind, but all it did was confuse everything. The need for that integration is still there, and it will continue to be there until that "religare" takes place...And you seem to be open to it...

 

[KeepTalking]

Very cool DrZ. That festival looks and sounds amazing. I've seen you post about Syntheism before, and was intrigued by it, but didn't think it was right for me. I'm still not sure, but would love to check out that kind of festival in person some time. I don't see myself travelling to Sweden any time soon, though. Best of luck to you and your fellow participants in religious atheism.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Very cool DrZ. That festival looks and sounds amazing. I've seen you post about Syntheism before, and was intrigued by it, but didn't think it was right for me. I'm still not sure, but would love to check out that kind of festival in person some time. I don't see myself travelling to Sweden any time soon, though. Best of luck to you and your fellow participants in religious atheism.

There's a very large Nordic Syntheist contingent going to Burning Man. I think they're building a temple there this year. There's quite an overlap between Syntheists and "Burners". Me personally am not a Burner. I just go to hang out with Syntheists. You could say it's out of my comfort zone.

- - - Updated - - -

Especially since we had no clue what was going to become of this. We had the vaguest notion of stealing things from existing religions, dropping (a litteral) God and hoping it would turn into something useful.
Going in we all shared one idea, religion is such a common activity, it must surely be of some use to humanity. So we're trying to figure out what use religion fills. Turns out it has tonnes of various usages. Religion isn't one thing. It's different things to different people. And we're still looking.

Personally, I think that religion tried to fill the gap between conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind, but all it did was confuse everything. The need for that integration is still there, and it will continue to be there until that "religare" takes place...And you seem to be open to it...

I'm not sure what you mean. But if you mean, it deals with our emotions, rather than our rational faculties, I agree.

 

[Thomas II]

There's a very large Nordic Syntheist contingent going to Burning Man. I think they're building a temple there this year. There's quite an overlap between Syntheists and "Burners". Me personally am not a Burner. I just go to hang out with Syntheists. You could say it's out of my comfort zone.

- - - Updated - - -

Especially since we had no clue what was going to become of this. We had the vaguest notion of stealing things from existing religions, dropping (a litteral) God and hoping it would turn into something useful.
Going in we all shared one idea, religion is such a common activity, it must surely be of some use to humanity. So we're trying to figure out what use religion fills. Turns out it has tonnes of various usages. Religion isn't one thing. It's different things to different people. And we're still looking.

Personally, I think that religion tried to fill the gap between conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind, but all it did was confuse everything. The need for that integration is still there, and it will continue to be there until that "religare" takes place...And you seem to be open to it...

I'm not sure what you mean. But if you mean, it deals with our emotions, rather than our rational faculties, I agree.

Yes, something like that. One processes data using the rational mind and the other processes sensory data outside of awareness, causing the spontaneous and primal impulses that drive our behavior.