More followers than posts? I think I’ll up the post count so the followers count will rise to exceed it! 😉

I just finished watching “Transformation: the Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard.” at 77 minutes, there’s a lot less to it than I thought there would be, but it did answer basically all my questions. An interesting snippet towards the beginning talks about a shift in the spiritual / religious world away from what we might call “subscription-based” organizations, where you put, say, $10 into an envelope every week, and toward “fee-based” models, where you pay $250 one time and get some defined product from it.

I think both models are flawed; moreover, I think all the models out there are flawed. All organizations have a process by which you “get in,” and more often than not it seems to involve money: paying tithing, dues, fees, bills, bribes, purchasing something… I’m not committed to that. I’m also not committed to signing something or saying something or going through some ritual… these are meaningless. (As is the money bit.)

My church doesn’t exist yet. (Actually, I don’t know if it’s appropriate to call it a church, but “David’s church” seems like the best placeholder for the present.) This is a question I have about my church: what will the initiation process look like? How will a person “get in”? Will the process accomplish anything, and if so, what?

As a bonus, I’m thinking about how one might create an organization of which you become a member simply by existing. As far as I can tell, there’s only one such organization in existence right now: the Matrix. And I am not committed to the Matrix or anything about it. (What “it” is, is a subject for another post.)

Why is integrity necessary for things to work?
What is the Matrix, and how do I get out of it?
Can there be a complete list of useful ways for a human being to be?
When a church is completely transformed, what will arise in its place?
What’s worth living for?
What problems remain unsolved in the realm of Christian theology?
What stands between us and Zion?
How do we really know anything, anyway?
Is money necessary for the world to work?
What was the original sin? Was there one?
How am I to judge righteously but not judge unrighteously?
What’s the nature of authority?
How do you determine what you can do to truly serve someone?
What’s the difference between legitimate needs and addictions?
How does a person escape addiction?
How did I get to be the way I am?
Is there something wrong with me, and if so, how do I fix it?
Why are people so unwilling to accept things which are basically proven, like biological origins for sexual orientation and global climate change?
How can I affect this phenomenon?
What is worth knowing, and what is worth doing?
Why am I living my life? What for? To what end?

The next time you say something sad and the person you’re talking to says “I’m sorry to hear that,” forgive them.