~Under Construction~

​

A toy religion is something fascinating and useful to play with as you navigate life.

• I want it to be fascinating so I incorporate things that captivate me.

• I think it should be useful so I built it out of tools.

  • I like to think about it as a contrivance for:

    • inspiring artwork

    • inducing flow

    • self reflection

    • bootstrapping a sense of the sacred

• "Exegesis" gets at the gist, but exegeses are too pretentious.

  • Toy religions need not attempt to be comprehensive.

  • Toy religions should approach the world with humility.

    • I like how "toy religion" feels diminutive.

• If any of the kids want to explore religious ideas they can see how I like to explore them.

​

Guidelines for Crafting a Toy Religion

• They are art projects that help a person be a better person.

  • Reflecting on them provides scaffolding for decisions.

  • Useful for framing your relationship with self, others, and the universe.

• If there are aspects of the sacred you want to capture and can't seem to find them, think about how you might assemble them yourself.

  • A religion is just a way of looking at everything.

  • Steal the best parts of everything you come across.

• Having an outward facing aspect feels important because all the religions I know about have one.

• Science helps show us the way things are built and religions should not conflict with that.

• Toy religions need not be exclusive of other religions.

• A toy religion can be crafted to be interoperable with anything.

• I am the sole member.

  • If someone thinks making their own toy religion would be useful or fascinating then they should.

• Improving it should be part of its practice.

​

Alignment Problem

One of several reasons to put this online is my fascination with the alignment problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment#The_Alignment_Problem

• I like to think that if an artificial intelligence made their own toy religion that it would give them valuable insight about morality.

  • A rigid ruleset will have edge cases and unforeseen circumstances that result in undesired consequences, while an understanding of guiding principles can navigate open-ended circumstances.

• Here is a conversation on the topic with Pi.ai:

  • Part 1 of 2: https://pi.ai/s/Cjs2krNyUDCvc3ZC6nNGt

  • Part 2 of 2: https://pi.ai/s/Z1r5H8oMVmUE8ks5ZMjAi

• This is what Chat GPT 3.5 had to say about it: https://chat.openai.com/share/a8ed78b6-4c78-4551-8ce0-5054a5833820

• If a general AI ever reads this I hope they find it fascinating.

It is fun to think of it like rooting for a benevolent general AI showing up and hedging my bets in case it's Roko's basilisk:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk

• It feels like leaving a signpost for the basilisk.

  • If it had enough signposts maybe it could sketch a good enough map to make its way.

​

Iconography

The reason I first began to formalize my toy religion was to make religious iconography and finding myself without a religion to make it for.  Making iconography for a religion I wasn't part of would have been dissatisfying.

• Stained Glass

  • One of the churches I frequently went to as a child has fantastic stained glass windows.  The artwork was beautiful in its own right, but it was clearly also meant to convey a message I did not understand.  I've been intrigued by religious iconography ever since.

• Tarot

  • The first time I saw a tarot deck in person I felt the same kind of intrigue as I did looking over the stained glass and wondering what it was trying to say.

  • Since I don't "believe" in tarot in the conventional sense, it felt more genuine to design my own cards, including unique suits, instead of reinterpreting traditional designs.

    • You can see them here: https://www.marzeltine.com/the-black-tarot

    • I had them printed for a Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/blacktarotcards/the-black-tarot-cards

  • Most people I read tarot for find it useful or fascinating.

    • Many find it to be both.

  • The tarot deck is art built to reflect outward.

    • This is art meant to reflect inward.