An Inferential Philosophical Discipline
A Rational Ethical Alternative to Religion
A Naturalised “Spirituality” Without the Woo
What is Mystrikism?
🎧 Audio Version 🎧
Mystrikism is a sensible, syncretic, inferential, and principled philosophical discipline that offers a rational, provisionally naturalistic and physicalist alternative to traditional religion. Our ultimate purpose is to encourage and facilitate sapient beings in exploring and uncovering the mysteries of the universe, marvelling at its sublimity and complexity, and expanding our knowledge and wisdom. We do so without relying on unsubstantiated ingredients such as the supernatural.
The Union of Mystriks respectfully enhances, complements, and expands upon secular humanism. It provides common ground for sceptics through evidence-guided ethics directed towards reducing needless suffering and promoting flourishing among sapient beings and sentient life, while protecting the health, resilience, and diversity of ecosystems; the dynamically infinite unknown as a rational higher concept; and Aweism (coined by the sociologist Phil Zuckerman), a naturalised "Spirituality" (in quotes) that celebrates moments in life that transcend the ordinary. We strive to be Curious, Human, Just, Honest, Real, Humble, and Inspired.
Recognising the limits of human knowledge, perception, memory, and cognition, we use our Integrated Principles of Inquiry as our complete system for exploration, judgement, ethical deliberation, action, and correction. Nested within it are our ROVRRTTELF standards of evidence, sources and reasoning. In a nutshell, we try to be firm about honest method while keeping our conclusions open to correction: an anti-self-deception toolkit for pursuing the best current, provisional approximation of objective truth. Reality has the final word.
We recognise the reality of first-person experience without treating every interpretation of it as an objective fact. Mystrikal morality concerns the ends, which are subjectively grounded, not arbitrary, yet rationally guided: moral ends arise through valuing life and the living are openly stated and refined by sapient minds. Ethics concerns the means, which should be methodologically objective: assessed as fairly as possible through evidence, disciplined reasoning, science where applicable, justice, rights, consent, care, consequences, and real limits. Kindness is our preferred first instrument when it can work safely; justice, however, is our wider goal. Compassion adds warmth and sustainability to the cold logic of reason.
Mystrikism provisionally treats everything established to exist as natural and physically realised because naturalistic methods and explanations have earned, by far, the strongest verified and independently checkable record so far. This does not assume that science must eventually explain everything, and the position remains open to sufficiently strong contrary evidence or reasoning. God-claims predicting detectable effects have not earned sufficient support, while entirely undetectable god-concepts remain scientifically untestable, not scientifically disproven. Our agnosticism concerns what we claim to know; our provisional non-theism concerns what we presently believe. We prefer non-theism (a subset of atheism - of the piss-weak variety) because it names that current absence of god-belief without making an absolute claim about every conceivable god.
Mystriks revere - simply meaning respect and awe - the “dynamically infinite unknown”: the vast, apparently open-ended frontier beyond our present understanding. It humbles egotism, tempers pride, and offers much-needed perspective to human self-importance. It is not a being or force and implies no mind, agency, agenda, awareness, divinity, or supernatural element. Through Aweism, Mystriks deliberately pause and savour naturalised "Spiritual" (in quotes) moments: gazing at our Milky Way galaxy, learning a profound truth, seeing the delicate beauty of a dewy spider’s web, or hearing a perfect piece of music. These experiences arise naturally through our brains, bodies, and nervous systems without becoming any less sublime.
Mystrikism is not so much a membership as a mindset. There is no initiation rite, conversion ceremony, or membership card. You can engage lightly or deeply, take what resonates, test it honestly in your life, and leave what does not, with no pressure and no strings attached. The point is to think more honestly, act more justly, and live with more wonder, without abandoning reality. If this resonates with you, explore our website or drop us a line. Genuinely happy to answer any and all questions.