Introduction to Modern Universalism by Maxi Hunter Bay

Modern Universalism-- Introduction

The universe is so specifically designed that things that seem completely random always follow a pattern.  Years and years of statisticians rolling dice in the laboratory to see if events can be concluded as random statistically have left us with modern statistics, assuming that events are separate, but that in some situations, one can have an effect on the other. The event of rolling dice is seen statistically as a random separate event at each roll, that is, each die when rolled again has an equal probability of landing on each face. However, roll a die twenty times and a pattern emerges because the universe is comprised of patterns, and we all fall victim or in favor of the bell shaped curve every day of our lives.

The Bell Shaped Curve

The normal distribution or Gaussian Function is represented as a bell shaped curve. If you pattern your life out as a distribution it would probably be approximately normal for specific events. That is because, like the normal bell shaped curve places a pattern to the randomness of the universe, we can see this pattern emerge in events and even in the placement of yourself inside your environment. For this reason, the bell shaped curve is the most prominent probability distribution in statistics.

This concept can be easy to understand. This text is not intended to be very mathematical, so I will leave the formulas out. The bell shaped curve is a simple model to help one understand complex phenomena. In statistics, you are taught that when enough data is collected, the distribution becomes more normal. That’s why we ignore differences seen in very large data sets, such as those with 5000 participants or more. Statistically, with a data set this large, differences are likely, and anything can be proven significant.

“Significance” simply means that a difference among groups has been found, and in some statistical procedures it also means that one variable had an effect on another. Statistics becomes clouded with things like main effects and interaction effects, but simply these effects are only differences between groups. When group sizes increase you can see why a difference would be found, and most anything can be significant. This is the point when modern statistics resembles “monkey math” as my husband calls it.

The third variable problem

When we see significance, or differences between groups, there are sometimes other variables having an effect. When doing an experiment, it is impossible to include every possible variable that has an effect and the result is sometimes effects that seem implausible because a third variable is involved. In statistics we are taught that correlation does NOT imply causation partly because of the third variable problem. A correlation is basically a value, between 0 and 1 that represents the relatedness of the variables. 1 is a perfect positive correlation, -1 is a perfect negative correlation, and 0 is no relationship. A high correlation ranges from .5-1, and if these numbers are negative that means the correlation is negative. With a positive correlation, it means that as one number increases, the other does also, and in a negative correlation, as one variable increases the other decreases.

For example, as the height of individuals increase, so does their weight. This means that there is a positive correlation between height or weight, or rather, the taller a person, the higher their weight (generally). Also, looking at US currency and gold, there is usually a negative correlation between the two. That is, as the value of currency increases, the value of gold decreases. This trend has held true since our currency was removed from the gold standard.

An example of the third variable problem is that ice cream sales and drowning accidents have a positive correlation. It has been shown that as ice cream sales increase, drownings increase, but this does not mean that people drown more because they buy ice cream. Can you think of a third variable that might be the actual cause? The third variable here might be temperature. As the temperature increases, people enter the water more, so drowning accidents are more likely, and they also buy ice-cream more often. Therefore, in this example temperature is the third variable. Simply, when one looks at temperature we see that it has an effect on both ice cream sales and drowning accidents. As sure as I am sitting here, some idiot has written that because drowning accidents increase as ice-cream sales increase, that consuming ice-cream causes drowning accidents, but that is not the case. Science can neither prove nor disprove anything, but rather offer evidence in either direction. This is why modern science is comprised of theories and not so many laws.

Introduction to Modern Universalism

This book attempts to link principles of modern universalism with scientific events. Universalism refers to religious and philosophical concepts with universal applicability. In this context, religion refers to a set of beliefs concerning the nature and purpose of the universe, and a code governing the conduct of human affairs. A “church” that calls itself Universalist today claims to emphasize the universal principles of all religions and is accepting of all religions. Universalism sees that all religions have something unique to share to the whole life experience, and gathers the beauty from previous doctrines as historical events that can shape our thinking.

Modern Universalists like me believe that the fault of religion is its interpretation of the nature of this world by man. Any religion can have extremists. Almost every religion has killed in the name of God, but the Modern Universalist sees God as a universal event, a way of thinking, not so much as a being but as a nature. It is important to understand that Universalism is not a monotheist religion, and not a religion believing in a single god either. Modern Universalism does not see god as a personified individual having a direct impact on our lives. The “Universe” itself as a spiritual being can have an impact on our daily lives, but not by picking which humans to help and which not to help, as in many religious doctrines. The universe grants all needs with simple belief in something larger than ourselves. It is often difficult for human beings to see past themselves and understand that the universe itself does not revolve around human beings. We are a species that lives on a tiny planet in a tiny galaxy in relation to the universe. Looking at it this way, it is not “all about us” as we are led to believe, but as human beings our default is to think of ourselves as the hub of a wheel that is our lives, and knowing that in relation to the universe we are really insignificant can be difficult or unsettling to consider. It often elicits a fear that nothing matters, but it is interesting to know that if nothing matters, then everything matters. Modern Universalism is not a particular doctrine followed but rather a way of thinking manifesting in behavior. One way to consider this is the rippling effect, or butterfly effect. Every single event has an impact on the Universe, but that does not mean that one event “matters” over another. The only reason things matter is because as human beings we assign meaning to events. December 25 has meaning for us because humans assigned an idea to that date, not because the Universe assigned meaning to it. The Universe assigns meaning to nothing and to everything all at once.

Therefore, belief in Modern Universalism is not belief in a particular god or doctrine, nor is it an atheistic belief. The Universalist view can coincide with other religious views, and many Universalists do subscribe to one religion over another. The Modern Universalist subscribes to all religions and no religions all at once.

This book attempts to dive deeper into Modern Universalism and even propose new theories of the nature of the Universe based on scientific and philosophical principles. To begin this journey, we will use science to understand the nature of the Universe and then dissect modern religious principles into philosophical entities to create a belief system comprised of scientific data, not just mountaintop “feelings” or instant gratification.