Let’s Play a New Game: Spot the Contradictions!

Posted by Byron October 13, 2005 at 7:41 pm
Filed Under In a Handbasket | 4 Comments |

This is really rich. I just learned of a new religion; have you heard about it? It’s called “Universism”, and here’s the website which explains their beliefs:

Introduction to Universism

Let’s have some fun and spot the self-contradictions that this one tiny page contains about this new “religion”. It would be hilarious—if it weren’t, sadly, true.

I’ll start with the first paragraph, have a go at it, and then you can join in the fun!!! Here’s the first paragraph:

Universism is a religious philosophy that celebrates the mystery surrounding us. Universists don’t pretend we have the answers, and we celebrate that fact! As Universists we do our best to seek answers, and the first step in our process of discovery is recognizing what we do not know. Our philosophy unites individuals who have held a wide variety of freethought perspectives along with those who consider themselves spiritual. Universists enjoy a vibrant, open-minded community that improves the world we live in.

  • Universists “celebrate the fact” that they don’t have the answers. Is that a fact? Then, don’t they have at least that answer? But then, if they have that answer, they’d have to celebrate just a little less, wouldn’t they?
  • “The first step in our process of discovery is recognizing what we do not know.” How do they know that that’s the first step? How do they know what they don’t know, if they don’t know it?
  • What if an “open-minded community” doesn’t “improve the world we live in”? Since they celebrate the fact that they don’t know stuff, on what basis do they have confidence that their “vibrant community” will “improve” the world? Do they know that for a fact?

    • See how much fun this can be? And that’s only the first paragraph.

    And the irony is that somebody, somewhere, who invented this nonsense, is fancying himself a pretty clever, enlightened individual. Now we’ve come to the place that we revel in the fact that we are ignorant. Unbelievable.

     

    1. 4 Responses to “Let’s Play a New Game: Spot the Contradictions!”

    2. Let me get this straight: We don’t know the answers, but we don’t care. However we try to seek the answers but first realizing that we don’t know the answers.

      Check me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t everyone who seeks answers already know he/she doesn’t know the answers?

      rev-ed ~ Oct 13, 2005 at 9:35 pm

    3. Sounds like a famous postmodern quote: “The only truth is that there is no truth.” And the person who uttered it probably did so with little understanding of the ridiculous nature of saying it…

      Byron ~ Oct 14, 2005 at 12:12 am

    4. Check me if I’m wrong here, but doesn’t everyone who seeks answers already know he/she doesn’t know the answers?

      Eh. We can separate out first-order, empirical knowledge, from second-order discursive knowledge. I can be a full epistemological skeptic re: the world around me, and know that I am a skeptic (I can also know lots of other things that relate either to my thoughts or to language in general: I can know dogs are mammals, for instance).

      So is universism stupid and cheesy? Yep. Does that make it incoherent? Nah.

      jpe ~ Oct 14, 2005 at 9:44 am

    5. You may be interested in my similar analysis of this movement, which eventually got a rise out of some members of their community (see comments). It also led to a related followup.
      The Universist Movement: Lost in the Fog and Lovin’ It
      Reasonab le Christianity

      Scott Pruett ~ Nov 11, 2005 at 10:32 am

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