Reverend Reality speaks at TedX about Reality Reconciles Science and Religion. Talking about the Evidential Reformation Reverend Reality lays out a common path that both Religion and Atheism can evolve into. This is religion 3.0 – the authority of evidence rather than the authority of scripture. And this is a religious view that even Atheists can appreciate. (If you can listen long enough to get past religious terminology).

Does the religious world and Atheism have a common future? Michael Dowd says YES! How so?

• Reality is our God
• Evidence is our Scripture
• Big History is our Creation Story
• Ecology is our Theology
• Integrity is our Salvation
• A just and health future is our Mission

Religious people try to do the right thing but their map of reality is limited to old books. We now have a common creation story that is being revealed through evidence. In short – the Hubble Telescope is revealing the nature of reality. This is a creation story that the universe is telling us and scientists who are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Atheist alike are discovering the same thing. God isn’t an invisible cloud being – God is merely a personification of Reality itself. We now know more about Reality than we did thousands of years ago. Reality is the upgraded version of all other religions.

Similarly, Realism is the upgrade to Atheism. Atheism is about God and Atheists spend way too much time reading the Bible and talking about the Bible. In fact Atheists are more obnoxious about the Bible than Christians are. What Atheists don’t get is that religious people don’t care about what you don’t believe in. They are interested however in what you do believe in.

One of the problems with Atheism is that knowing everything about nothing has no value. Knowing all about what doesn’t exist doesn’t tell you anything about what does exist. Realism is actually the opposite of Atheism in that Realism is about everything and Atheism is about nothing.

So when it comes to the issue of “what is the meaning of meaning?”, Atheism has nothing. How should we live our lives? What is the purpose of humanity? What should I do when I wake up in the morning? Where does right and wrong come from? These questions are not only the important questions, but for some reason they make Atheists squirm.

Sam Harris is an example of this. Sam is so adverse to religion that just saying the word “Church” shuts him down. So scared is he of these ideas that he write a book claiming we have no free will. That we live in a deterministic universe that we are playing through like puppets in a deterministic movie that has already been filmed.

Humanism and Naturalism are examples of Atheists moving in the right direction towards an understanding of how to live in Right Relationship to Reality. Understanding the meaning of meaning.

Religious people don’t get that Reality isn’t a choice and that choosing to believe in something doesn’t make it real. Atheists don’t get that Reality is fundamental to Atheism because without Reality there would be no place for God not to be real in. Atheists also don’t get that being a smug asshole isn’t the best way to win souls for Darwin.