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FIRST DRAFT

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METAPHYSICS

1. The self is eternal, and the only true god.

2. The highest possible powers—god—exist within the self. There are no higher powers than our own, though some of us gods have evolved more than others and therefore have greater powers. There is no almighty god over and above all of us gods. Not even collectively are we almighty.

3. The universe was not created, it never began.

4. The existence of an almighty god has an extremely low logical probability.

5. The afterlife is the next stage of existence for everyone. In that next existence our consciousness and identity continue to exist and evolve.

6. We are not just our bodies. We have bodies during this life. At the same time our ancestors exist in the next stage without bodies. All of us will exist in that way too.

7. We are our knowledge. We take the sum total of our knowledge with us to the afterlife.

8. We will all enter the afterlife as the sum total of our personal evolution, the sum total of our past.

9. Many events are random and so happen for no reason. Reasons are not causes.

10. The mind exists without the brain in the afterlife.

1. The universe is eternal, as many great thinkers have argued.

2. There is both random and order in the universe, the order being randomly distributed. Randomness is the fundamental property of the universe.

3. The basic randomness of the universe is found even in the so-called exact sciences such as physics. If we make a hundred measurements of some physical quantity or event, we will obtain a hundred different results. The objection that the variation of results is due to imperfections of our measuring devices only shows that our measurements and devices are themselves random phenomena.

4. In the case of the phenomena of mind, random variations tend toward even greater difference than physical processes do. Mental random is not bounded like dice throws. We can simply imagine dice with a thousand sides. We can draw numbers out of an imaginary bag of a thousand numbers and then randomly add color or size to the numbers. "Not purpose, but chance is at the heart of mental life."—Boris Sidis

5. Individual variation is the ultimate result of evolution. Every snowflake, every thought, and every one of us gods is an individuality different from every other.

6. The higher the mental system, the more flexible and adaptable it is. Flexible minds survive best. "Survival of the most adaptable" is how Darwin might be best understood.

7. Evolution does not "push from behind" but rather "pulls from the front." This may be because living causality occurs from the future toward the past.

8. There are two types of energy: inanimate physical energy (e.g., heat), and animate living energy (e.g., consciousness.) Physical energy tends to decrease, living energy to increase. Inanimate energy never began and will never cease to exist, and so too animate energy never began or will ever cease to exist.

1. "The principle of recognition of evil under all its guises is at the basis of the true education of man."—Boris Sidis

2. Our knowledge determines our level of evolution.

3. We must learn to recognize that which is random, that which is orderly, and how much there is of each.

4. We should sample many paths, teachers, and systems, in order to gain knowledge and advancement along the path of cosmic evolution. One can enroll, temporarily, in an educational corporation, e.g., college, university, or a continuing-education program, but we should: "Take the knowledge and run." "It's not the college, it's the knowledge."

5. We should be a disciple of no one. We should not confuse a teacher's power with the power of knowledge itself. If one strays from one's own to a teacher’s path, one will lose one's way. The best teacher avoids creating followers and tries to create new teachers who will complete their instruction with more knowledge than when they started.

6. Individual creativity can be stifled in power hierarchies such as religion corporations and university corporations.

7. In this new era learning through pain is being replaced by learning through joy. "One ought, each day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words (Goethe)." One might read a great quotation each day as well. Great quotations are also a source of wisdom because they compress much knowledge into a few words.

ETHICS

1. We should revere each other as gods.

2. There is no reason for the universe or the self to exist. We do not need a reason to behave ethically. We must just do it.

POLITICS

ECONOMICS