Religion vs. Reality? I Vote Reality
May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Beta Culture: Never Doubt the Power of Religion
May 9, 2013 By 1 Comment
The basic rationale for establishing Beta Culture is to provide a balancing force against three "social entities" that are the only current avenues into any sort of future. As I say it: "There's the future we might WANT, and the future we're going to GET." The future we're going to get is the one government, business and religion will get us to. You and I might want a cure for Alzheimer's in ten years, but if government won't help fund the research, if universities, hospitals, pharma … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Big Funny Hats
May 8, 2013 By 5 Comments
If we're going to be a real culture with a readily-identifiable visual identity (and a culturally innate sense of humor), we simply have to have our own Big Funny Hat. My east Texas cowboy culture has them. The Catholics have them (for their leaders, anyway). The Amish have them, and so do Hasidic Jews. Even Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble have them. I've been thinking there should be meetings every two months, where we gather in our respective home cities and display our efforts at … [Read more...]
I’m Ready for My Inheritance, Granny — Would You Kindly DIE??
May 7, 2013 By 12 Comments
I was talking to my friend Dirt Boy (he owns a plant nursery, and I never shake his hand that he doesn't have to wipe it off first) last night about Beta Culture, and we got onto the subject of death. If you're an existing reader here, you probably know about my Cowboy Dad. For you others: I grew up in Houston, Texas, moved to a little mountain town in California when I was 22. I met this guy there who became my mentor, teacher and eventually, "Dad." We were both mule packers and wilderness … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Replies to Comments 1
May 6, 2013 By 1 Comment
Nolan, frequent and intelligent commenter here at Patheos (I've just discovered you can click on the name of the person leaving a comment, and see their many contributions here and elsewhere on the network), replied to my "13 Early Questions" post: My initial reaction, even after reading your response in point 9, is that Beta Culture is more or less the same thing as humanism. Given the rarity of people who think like humanists, and the difficulty of starting new movements from scratch, I … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: 13 Early Questions
May 4, 2013 By 15 Comments
1. What is it? Beta Culture is intended to be a novel cultural surround, crowd-sourced and deliberately-created, aimed at providing the broad social benefits and protections that other cultures – including religious cultures – enjoy, but without the disturbing shortcomings of religious belief. Given that most atheists come from fairly close-knit religious cultures and families, and that a common result of the rejection of religion is the loss of much of the cultural surround that goes … [Read more...]
Fanboy Says ‘Oh, Hell Yeah!’ to Iron Man 3
May 3, 2013 By 1 Comment
Got back from the Iron Man 3 premiere last night (as usual, I was the oldest person there) and my roomie asked me "Which was the best of the three Iron Man movies?" I had to mull that for a moment, but I finally said "I think it might be this one." Action. Oh, yes, a lot of it. Quite a bit of this movie is Tony Stark in action as himself, either without his armor or without all of it. There's one great sequence where he has nothing more than one glove and one boot, and yet still manages to … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 8 of 8
April 30, 2013 By 6 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] The Final Doorway The payoff of going through the transition from the House of the Tribe to the House of Humanity is very large. If we can make it across the painful threshold from our small but formerly comfortable dwelling space into this new and grander place, we gain an entire fascinating WORLD of people. People to learn from, to visit, to photograph, to love, to sing to, to listen to, to argue with, to trade with, even to combine … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 7 of 8
April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] The Houses of Man (cont.) As you’ve probably already figured out, there are other steps in this bigger-house progression. At some point we discover the door to yet another Outside, and find that our original family home is only a small part of a bigger place – our neighborhood or culture. For want of a better name, call this dwelling place the House of the Tribe. Again, there’s an uncomfortable period of adaptation in settling-in to … [Read more...]
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