Evolutionism

Evolutionism is a new religious movement founded in the early 21st century. It is linked to transhumanism

Beliefs


The religion of Evolutionism believes in a cosmic struggle between order and chaos. Order being represented by living systems in homeostasis, while chaos represents the negation of homeostasis or death. Victory in this struggle would take the form of overcoming the great filter and eventually the heat death of the universe. This tenet is known as the cosmic puzzle

Individual lives are believed to be a microcosm of this cosmic struggle. An individuals struggle to find meaning in their life, pass on their genes, create what they desire, or be happy are all considered elements of the cosmic puzzle. Any coping mechanism they discover or institution they create can be built upon over generations into a component of the solution to the cosmic puzzle. Included in an individual's puzzle is the search for eternal life, which Evolutionists believe will eventually be granted to everyone through technological Universal resurrection. This is known as the individual puzzle. Individuals are described as undergoing sequential "evolutions" as they solve their individual puzzles. Evolutions are seen as analogous to the Buddhist concept of enlightenment but there is no well defined end goal, they continue infinitely towards a limit

Finally, an individual is ultimately unable to solve their puzzle and reach Evolutions on their own. Humans are social animals and require group norms as a middle term between reason and their base desires, we also require the perspectives of others to truly understand ourselves. As such the Church of Evolution exists to help facilitate individuals reaching subsequent evolutions. By surrounding oneself with people seeking the same goal strategies can be shared and refined to help solve the Cosmic and Individual puzzles. The puzzle of how to organize such a community for success is the Sangha puzzle.

The three puzzles of Evolutionism are considered the foundation of its beliefs. The number three frequently comes up in Evolutionism as a mnemonic motif to remind evolutionists of the way to salvation. It comes up in the Tribunal a set of deities personifying the solutions to the puzzles, and in the antitribunal a set of demons symbolizing the puzzles themselves.



The Sierpiński triangle is the symbol of Evolutionism, as it represents applying the three principles on every layer recursively across the whole cosmos

Evolutionism rejects concepts traditionally associated with the supernatural, and follows what science describes the world as. But at the same time it offers a radical departure from the conventional secular humanist worldview. This departure is described as the metanatural (sometimes ultranatural) or beyond natural, as it draws connections well beyond simple experiences.

Evolutionism values the myths and practices of traditional religions, as they contain cultural adaptations that may be used to solve the three puzzles. As such Evolutionism promotes syncretism and opposes antitheism as an attempt to create a spiritual monoculture.

Apollonian and Dionysian
The religion of Evolutionism has its beliefs and practices organized into two distinct parts: Apollonian and Dionysian. The Apollonian is based primarily on philosophy and empirical research, while the Dionysian is a more emotional part based on myths.

This is influenced both by Nietzsche's concept of the two aesthetics, and John Vervaeke's concept of the three orders

Dionysian
It's a misconception to understand the Dionysian as strictly irrational in its nature, rather the Dionysian is conceptualized as lying outside of the scope of conventional science.

Early usage and etymology
Evolutionism was described as one of the two opposing (the second is creationism) paradigms about the origin of the world, which is based on the idea of natural (vs. divine) development of being. Although the earliest roots of evolutionary thinking appeared already among ancient thinkers, later among the workers of the 17th and 18th centuries, and particularly during the Enlightment, it was Lamark who proposed in 19th century the first comprehensive theory of evolution. The modern views, accepted by majority of scholars, are based on the works of Charles Darwin, particularly on his Origin of Species, first published in 1859, were he proposed the theory of natural selection and common descent. Evolutionism, as opposed to religious creationism, is based on scientific evidence.

The term is sometimes used (often derogatorily) to denote the theory of evolution. Its exact meaning has changed over time as the study of evolution has progressed. In the 19th century, it was used to describe the belief that organisms deliberately improved themselves through progressive inherited change (orthogenesis). The teleological belief went on to include cultural evolution and social evolution. In the 1970s the term Neo-Evolutionism was used to describe the idea "that human beings sought to preserve a familiar style of life unless change was forced on them by factors that were beyond their control".

The term is most often used by creationists to describe adherence to the scientific consensus on evolution as equivalent to a secular religion. The term is very seldom used within the scientific community, since the scientific position on evolution is accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Because evolutionary biology is the default scientific position, it is assumed that "scientists" or "biologists" are "evolutionists" unless specifically noted otherwise. In the creation–evolution controversy, creationists often call those who accept the validity of the modern evolutionary synthesis "evolutionists" and the theory itself "evolutionism".

19th-century teleological use
Before its use to describe biological evolution, the term "evolution" was originally used to refer to any orderly sequence of events with the outcome somehow contained at the start. The first five editions of Darwin's in Origin of Species used the word "evolved", but the word "evolution" was only used in its sixth edition in 1872. By then, Herbert Spencer had developed the concept theory that organisms strive to evolve due to an internal "driving force" (orthogenesis) in 1862. Edward B. Tylor and Lewis H Morgan brought the term "evolution" to anthropology though they tended toward the older pre-Spencerian definition helping to form the concept of unilineal (social) evolution used during the later part of what Trigger calls the Antiquarianism-Imperial Synthesis period (c1770-c1900). The term evolutionism subsequently came to be used for the now discredited theory that evolution contained a deliberate component, rather than the selection of beneficial traits from random variation by differential survival.

Early 21st century use by creationists
The term evolution is widely used, but the term evolutionism is not used in the scientific community to refer to evolutionary biology as it is redundant and anachronistic.

However, the term has been used by creationists in discussing the creation–evolution controversy. For example, the Institute for Creation Research, in order to imply placement of evolution in the category of 'religions', including atheism, fascism, humanism and occultism, commonly uses the words evolutionism and evolutionist to describe the consensus of mainstream science and the scientists subscribing to it, thus implying through language that the issue is a matter of religious belief. The BioLogos Foundation, an organization that promotes the idea of theistic evolution, uses the term "evolutionism" to describe "the atheistic worldview that so often accompanies the acceptance of biological evolution in public discourse." It views this as a subset of scientism.

Symbol
Evolutionism uses the Sierpiński triangle as its symbol representing a recursive application of its three principles at all levels. The three principles also correspond to the Tribunal and the three virtues and the three sins

Motto
The phrase as above so below is often used as a motto of Evolutionism to express the idea of a recursive spiritual philosophical system

Influences and origins
Evolutionism was originally founded by Immanuel on the internet in 2011, and it had a substantial influence from internet culture of its first decade, but it did not see substantial growth during its first decade. During the 2020s with the COVID-19 pandemic it began to grow into a cultural force.

The Gaiad was originally written as a direct response to the pandemic, as an elaboration on an essay "Virology of the Spirit" written in February 2020

The Unbrother
"Beginning life of noble birth, but in a poor dependent position, through an unexpected marriage he came into a small fortune. A petty knave, a toady and buffoon, of fairly good, though undeveloped, intelligence, he was, above all, a moneylender, who grew bolder with growing prosperity. His abject and servile characteristics disappeared, his malicious and sarcastic cynicism was all that remained. On the spiritual side he was undeveloped, while his vitality was excessive. He saw nothing in life but sensual pleasure, and he brought his children up to be the same. He had no feelings for his duties as a father. He ridiculed those duties. He left his little children to the servants, and was glad to be rid of them, forgot about them completely. The old man's maxim was Après moi le déluge. He was an example of everything that is opposed to civic duty, of the most complete and malignant individualism. 'The world may burn for aught I care, so long as I am all right,' and he was all right; he was content, he was eager to go on living in the same way for another twenty or thirty years."

The Unson
"'Ah, you want us to be traders only -- all right, as traders we will dominate you!' say the Jews. 'Ah, you want us to be merely objects of sensuality -- all right, as objects of sensuality we will enslave you,' say the women. Woman's lack of rights arises not from the fact that she must not vote or be a judge -- to be occupied with such affairs is no privilege -- bur from the fact that she is not man's equal in sexual intercourse and has not the right to use a man or abstain from him as she likes -- is not allowed to choose a man at her pleasure instead of being chosen by him. You say that is monstrous. Very well! Then a man must not have those rights either. As it is at present, a woman is deprived of that right while a man has it. and to make up for that right she acts on man's sensuality, and through his sensuality subdues him so that he only chooses formally, while in reality it is she who chooses. And once she has obtained these means she abuses them and acquires a terrible power over people.' 'But where is this special power?' I inquired. 'Where is it? Why everywhere, in everything! Go round the shops in any big town. There are goods worth millions and you cannot estimate the human labor expended on them, and look whether in nine-tenths of these shops there is anything for the use of men."

Practices
Evolutionism follows a system of practices built around science and philosophy

Genealogy
Genealogy is a critical element of Evolutionism with every member's genealogy being linked by descent from antiquity and haplogroups to ancient mythical times of evolution

Genetic Testing
Each member is given their own personal scripture based on their genealogy and genetic test results. This enables individualized religious rules and narratives to help make the religion work for everyone

Nature Services
Services are often carried out in nature in a way that resembles Scouting. This is an intentional parallell linked to the LDS. Such services often also resemble university courses with high levels of expected learning by members

Shrines
The Church of evolution has released an initiative to build shrines in nature like Shinto Shrines. These shrines will use augmented reality and be franchised

Videogames
Videogames are often used in Evolutionism as a way to provide an immersive religious experience.

Marriage levels
Marriages are at three levels: Telestial Terrestrial and Celestial corresponding to someone's level of initiation. Coronation being Celestial initiation or Patriarchal Priesthood initiaion allows for celestial marriage

Coronation
Coronation is a central rite of Evolutionism. It is a rite where after heavy vetting to determine whether someone has made a Protean transformation in adulthood (taken Kairos) and if they have they may be crowned. The ceremony itself has influences from coronation rites all across the world, particularly the Enthronement of the Japanese emperor, the Coronation of the British monarch, and the Coronation of the pharaoh. It can be performed multiple times in someone's life if they have made major accomplishments.

Coronation is awarded to someone who has achieved their second evolution (sometimes other numbers depending on how its counted), it is awarded almost exclusively to people 25+ because the coronation evolution represents a shift in mode of adulthood, while other evolutions such as the puberty evolution represent different transitions. Resolving a quarter-life crisis is seen as the archetypal coronation evolution.

People progress through four stages of development: childhood (or the outer darkness), Telestial the stage of love, Terrestrial the stage of transformation, and finally Celestial the stage of creativity. Coronation represents reaching the Celestial stage and being able to act on divine creativity for the first time.

The rite actively juxtaposes symbols of royalty in several cultures such as the Benkan and the Seven-Branched Sword and the European anointment with oil and European chivalric robes. Crowned members are considered knights of the Order of Life and given such chivalric garb for white tie events. Most members are unfamiliar with white tie before learning about it in this context

All crowned individuals are given coats of arms based on Evolutionist heraldry, and will have their genealogies linked to descent from antiquity and the Gaiad, alongside a high level of genetic testing to establish their strengths and weaknesses

Coronation gives one the right to participate in Celestial marriage, and the right to vote in Church proceedings and serve on an ecclesiastical jury, and the right to become a priest. As such it is necessary to teach at an Evolutionist school because teachers are priests.

Redressing
Redressing is an institution similar to confession performed by priests. It differs primarily in that it is actively initiated by priests to a wrongdoing believer. see

Scientocracy
The Church has released a plan to periodically review all practices. Each practice having a hypothesis it is based on and experiments being done to test such hypotheses

Social issues
Evolutionism has positioned itself as offering a progressive and equitable alternative to 21st-century society during the 2020s, and to other organized religions which it describes as archaic and outdated

The Church of Evolution has heavily criticized cancel culture, Identity politics, and Trumpism as products of a nihilistic 21st-century society.

A common trend among positions on all issues is the idea that all people are in pain, and that 21st-century society tends towards promoting conflict over addressing the neuroses of people who cause suffering.

Economic issues
The Church implements policies designed to increase empathy between entrepreneurs and workers. The church supports a form of Class collaboration with the idea that both workers and business owners are essential to modern economies.

Immanuel has argued that entrepreneurs see the world in a fundamentally different way than workers and are often willing to make larger personal sacrifices for their visions. He argues that entrepreneurs tend to treat their workers as though they share this worldview, and don't realize their workers lack their passion for their vision, and don't realize their workers will take expectations of sacrifices a lot worse than they did.

He argues that entrepreneurs tend to think of stock ownership in terms of controlling interest, while workers tend to think of stock ownership in terms of wealth, and is an advocate of special stock as a way to resolve this and give more control to entrepreneurs and more wealth to workers.

He argues entrepreneurs play little role in income inequality compared to executives and hedge funds, which he argues often act in an extractive manner towards their companies. He argues that executives often use their power in companies to give themselves higher salaries and bonuses at the expense of stockholders. He is an advocate of regulating executive pay, activist shareholders, and zero dollar salaries.

He has argued common ownership by companies such as BlackRock undermines economic competition, and has proposed stock ownership be public knowledge to prevent conflicts of interest

He supports unionization and free education, and has argued that companies should get subsidies for training their employees, as such employees often leave and work for other companies, which benefits the economy but not the training companies

Political systems
Immanuel is an advocate for e-democracy, and Liquid democracy in particular, and believes that first past the post is the source of most American political issues.

He is an advocate of scientocracy, or rule by the scientific method, but an opponent of technocracy, or rule by the engineers and scientists. In 2022 he said that the theory of scientocracy is too undeveloped for use in government, as such it should be used and developed in the Church first, while governments should move first to proportional representation and then e-democracy.

As of 2022 the church has not implemented scientocratic rule due to a lack of research funding.

Transhumanism
Immanuel is a strong advocate for transhumanism and argues it ought to be made equitably available to everyone to avoid exacerbating income inequality. He argues that transhumanism when equitably distributed will cause an increase in equality as people with particular disadvantages will benefit the most from it

Open source intelligence/Sousveillance
Immanuel argues that information asymmettry is often the cause of social injustice, and that concerns over surveillance are best explained by information asymmettry rather than privacy. He argues that the key to making just societies is increasing transparency so that everyone can make equally informed decisions on issues like which jobs to take and which politicians to vote for.

Racial Issues
The Church strives for racial equality by telling the histories of all races within its holy texts.

Heritage is seen as highly important in Evolutionism and such narratives are considered core to an individual's experience of the religion. Telling all sides of history and historical discussions of racial issues are the norm in the church. A 2021 list of tenets (presumed lost) described repentence for ancestral sins such as systemic racism as one of the core tenets.

Immanuel has argued that racism in the United States is intrinsically linked to Income inequality in the United States and that one cannot be addressed without addressing the other. He has also argued that racial issues in other parts of the world are dissimilar to American racial issues, and looking at them from an American lens is a poor way to address them.

LGBT Issues
LGBT issues have been very prominent throughout the history of Evolutionism from the beginning. Numerous figures in its founding including Immanuel himself were bisexual in particular, with estimates placing 90% of early adherents and associates as being bisexual. Internal debates about the LGBT movement dominated Evolutionism early on, but became less prominent as the focus shifted towards wider society. Evolutionism notably advocated for LGBT reproduction early on, and has set up a funding system so its LGBT members can afford to have children when it is possible.

Gender Issues
Immanuel has argued that anomie hits men especially hard compared to women. He argues this phenomenon is unrelated to feminism, and that feminism is merely a scapegoat used by the far right. He points to similar periods of history where societal norms broke down and argues that predecessors of the manosphere have existed long before feminism existed during periods of societal strife. He argues that organized religion and strong meta-narratives are essential for healthy masculinity, and without them it inevitably degrades into nihilistic hegemonic masculinity. He argues that male entitlement is not a major phenomenon, and that a desire for dominance is often falsely equivocated with entitlement. He has described masculinity as being most healthy when future-looking and producing a better life for future generations, and unhealthy when looking to the past.

Immanuel has criticized the men's movement for promoting a false understanding of toxic masculinity as referring to a belief that (all) masculinity is harmful to others, while promoting gender norms that psychologically harm the men that follow them

Immanuel has described female socialization as resulting in women and trans men being unable to properly voice their desires and negotiate. He argues this results passive aggressive behavior from women and is the actual cause of most frustrations men have with women. He argues that teaching women to express their desires more clearly and assertively will result in a reduction in the gender wage gap, the end of the sex recession, and a reduction in misogyny. Examples include women asking men out and women asking for higher salaries and women saying no to sexual acts they don't want over merely not saying yes. He describes such issues as toxic femininity

Deradicalization
The church has criticized many deradicalization attempts as failing to provide people the necessary community to live after extremism

Online dating
Evolutionism is strictly against online dating. One of its core tenets is the idea that sexual relationships ought to emerge from the community and remain subservient to the community. As such the Church of Evolution makes it a major priority to organize social events so people can meet their partners without using online dating. Opposition to online dating is often seen as one of the defining social rules of Evolutionism that distinguishes Evolutionists from non-Evolutionists.

Immanuel has frequently criticized online dating as leading to depression, especially among men, and leading people to treat romance as a substitute for the divine. To a lesser extent he has criticized dating as a whole for facilitating this, being a twised form of romanticism that seeks escape from meaninglessness through emotion and a single mortal person rather than through reason and the divine, he credits John Vervaeke for this analysys. This is where the concepts of Idolatry (seeking salvation through another) and egotheism (demanding another seek salvation through you) come from.

Immanuel has described incels as being a product of an atomized culture that strips meaning from everything but romance, and proposed resacralization of all aspects of life and community as the solution to the problem.

Cancel Culture and Harmony Maintainance
The Church of Evolution considers cancel culture to be an ineffective and inappropriate way to help marginalized groups, one which comes at the detriment to societal order and safety. Immanuel has argued that cancel culture is especially intimidating to members of marginalized groups who often lack social alternatives when ostracized vs more privileged people.

As such the church has implemented a hate speech policy known as "consistent guidance". Under the policy priests are able to give demerits and confront members for any form of hate speech or casual racism. Priests are encouraged to be extremely consistent with this and give such penalties to any member regardless of extenuating circumstances. By contrast lay members are not allowed to criticize the behavior of each other when it comes to creating an inclusive environment, in fact such behavior is punished in the same way that racism and homophobia are.

The theory behind this practice is that cancel culture and peer pressure often fail to consistently promote good social behaviors. Bigoted acts which are too small to gain group attention are often ignored, while larger acts are often given excessive attention, and fear of receiving such attention may keep people with different outlooks from expressing their views. Additionally it is often noted that when people are confronted en masse by untrained peers their views are often enforced.

By contrast priests are trained and educated in psychology, ethics, and critical theory. A priest confronting someone will know very well how to articulate the harm the person's actions have caused, and know how to approach someone without causing the blowback effect. Such confrontations resemble a police interrogation in some ways, but differ in that the goal is calming someone down and convincing them to reassess their behavior. Contents of such confrontations are considered subject to the seal of confession and priest-penitient privilege.

Dark Enlightenment
Immanuel has described the Dark Enlightenment as recognizing the need to reintroduce meaning into modern society, but failing to take into account why meaning has declined in modern society. He argues that authoritarians of the 20th century saw meaning collapse and sought to use force and deception to keep people from recognizing the obvious in the form of totalitarianism. He argues the Dark Enlightenment will merely repeat the mistakes of 20th century totalitarians rather than solve any issues.

Identity politics
Immanuel has been extremely critical of identity politics, describing them as an idolatry. He has been especially critical of LGBT politics which he has described as removing a familial role and transforming it into an identity incompatible with its purpose. He has said "Evolutionism is the negation of identity and realization that you are part of a greater whole".

Particularism is considered a sin in Evolutionism, and is contrasted with the ideal of universalism. This is to give everyone a chance to be treated fairly and avoid the establishment of extractive institutions.

Trumpism
Immanuel has described Trumpism as the greatest form of identity politics.

He has personally described Donald Trump as the first atheist president "Donald Trump epitomizes the attached mortal man and his tragic existence. His pain is palpable to anyone who hears him even for a second. He leads the legions of Hell because he himself is already in Hell. His followers see they share his pain and think they must have a common enemy, not knowing their common enemy is themselves."The Church has been highly critical of Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election and Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. It has described them as being the greatest manifestations of nihilism in modern times

The church has an anti-authoritarian ethical program based on negating the nine components of The Authoritarian Personality


 * Conventionalism: Adherence to conventional values.
 * Authoritarian Submission: Towards ingroup authority figures.
 * Authoritarian Aggression: Against people who violate conventional values.
 * Anti-Intraception: Opposition to subjectivity and imagination.
 * Superstition and Stereotypy: Belief in individual fate; thinking in rigid categories.
 * Power and Toughness: Concerned with submission and domination; assertion of strength.
 * Destructiveness and Cynicism: hostility against human nature.
 * Projectivity: Perception of the world as dangerous; tendency to project unconscious impulses.
 * Sex: Overly concerned with modern sexual practices.

LDS
Degrees of glory are in common, celestial marriage, and many other doctrines. Superficially little resemblance but high deep resemblance

Correspondance of the Tribunal of Alpha Lambda Omega with the degrees of Glory: Celestial Terrestrial Telestial

Shinto
Shrines in common

Buddhism
Many psychological concepts in common and the idea of non attachment. Differs primarily in that enlightenment is seen as a temporary and instrumental thing in Evolutionism, with the true goal being solving the cosmic puzzle

Neopaganism
Superficial resemblance, lots of conflicts with neopaganism

Hinduism
Correspondance of the Tribunal of Alpha Lambda Omega, with the Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva

Judaism
Judaism is recognized as an ancestral pact and considered compatible with Evolutionism

Zoroastrianism
Influence from the idea of a cosmic struggle. The Antitribunal is similar to Ahriman