== Discussion at [[Sol 2012]] ==
Lion: Nobody in this room believes that everybody has to believes the same thing, except in a few areas, ex. understanding of [[science]]
* Brandon: Almost everybody feels the drive to pursue truth, or has that capacity
* Lion: Does everyone have to participate in a given goal, or do you have your goals and I have mine? (topic to discuss later)
** I can't know or do everything ... I have a bond with people who are doing cool things that I'm not able to do
** Brandon: There can be antagonizing/otherizing relationships instead
* Eric: I think the universal level that we can all agree to is philosophy, not religion
** We can agree that we need meaning and purpose, but we need different communities with different purposes
** If we have that structure, religions will be forced to accept that other purposes are valid
* Brandon: Philosophy is a treatment that is added on top of what already exists ... there is a "hivish" biological imperative which is focused/expressed by religion, but philosophy is only one way to talk about it, and philosophy is only 2500 years old and hasn't mattered nearly as much
** Eric: I'm talking about philosophy as anything that's meta ... we're doing philosophy about religion
** Lion: What we're doing is reasoning, which can include emotional stories from our lives
* Lion: The arts are the secret to every new idea, things that are inexpressible in the language we're surrounded by
** Brandon: That's the Elephant ... philosophy is how the Rider distill these things into language afterward
*** Hank: Elephant/Rider is like unconscious decisions/conscious rationalization
**** Or Jay Hansen: everything is determined by our genes