There are no gods to be worshipped; the Dawns believe
that "god is ourselves."
According to this belief, the concept of god was invented by
humans as a mechanism to cope with their fears and anxieties, to
inspire them to better behavior, and to give meaning to life.
Therefore the notion of a god acts as a placebo, and it is the
idea of god acting within the person which can produce measurable
change. And since the placebo effect is real and can be harnessed,
the Dawns embrace the habits such as meditation, yoga, exercise,
and study which improve self awareness and discipline. The
ultimate goal of a Dawn is to achieve the ideal life balance and
satisfaction in this life, as there is no belief in an afterlife
with delayed rewards or punishments. The name Dawn is taken from
the sunrise and reminds us that every day is a new day. We should
always focus on making today a little better than yesterday.
Concentration is always on the future and continuous improvement;
reflections on the past are limited only to teaching us how to
avoid our past mistakes as we move through life.
There is a more significant and fundamental meaning for "god is ourselves". It
means that we alone have the decision making authority over ourselves. We are not answerable
to any other authority. But this doesn't mean we can do anything (kill, rape, steal, invade,
subjugate, domineer, or other masculine shit), we must always act to improve the
life of this world, according to our best judgement.
Dawnism is a very positivistic religion and all efforts are placed on encouragement, learning, and developing one's person to reach one’s idea of perfection. There are no sins, and no punishments. To the extent that any behavior is wrong, it is only because it has not contributed positively to the person’s life experience or has negatively impacted their health. Dawns will view that as a learning experience, something regrettable perhaps, but not a sin. We will not condemn a person’s behavior, but will help them modify their behavior to the extent necessary to achieve their personal perfection. Dawnism does not dictate what personal perfection means; that is for each person to establish for themselves.
We observe some rituals in connection with our beliefs and
traditions. Those are described here: RITUALS
Dawnism is a female centric religion because women are complete
persons, whereas males have an incomplete genetic code and have
not developed complete anatomic features. Consequently men are
abbreviated humans, which is why we use abbreviated terms like
“male” and “man” instead of the complete terms “female” and
“woman”. Leadership of our families, organizations, clubs,
committees, etc should preferably be a woman, although men are
permitted if they have unusually feminine qualities. Historically,
the majority of our membership has been female, because the first
ones were followers of Anaxelovda and in those days most men
refused to follow a woman. We try to avoid gender stereotyping,
but science has shown that post-adolescent males are susceptible
to testosterone dominated behavior which causes illogical decision
making. So males should generally be applied to roles that require
physical strength and disregard for personal danger, rather than
in roles that require logical decision making. Similarly, the
higher levels of progesterone of women leads to better
understanding and relationship building, better organization, more
discussion and consideration of alternative views before making a
decision, resulting in generally more healthy outcomes. Since our
religion is determined to achieve the most comfortable, healthy,
and pleasant lifestyle for our members we select our leaders to
have qualities which are often stereotyped as female. Leaders will
generally be referred to as Mistress unless they have a more
formal title, such as Mother (see Medicine Mother) or Girl (see
Root Girl).
Dawns do not forbid, condemn, or in any way discourage the belief
and practice of other religions. We believe that every person
should do the best they can to improve their life, and every tool
available should be used. Dawns are free to believe and practice
other religions at the same time as Dawnism. We do not pretend
that we have all the answers; that would be utterly unscientific.
Consequently we do not hate other religions nor try to convert
anyone. Our efforts are directed internally toward self
improvement.
We believe that the concept of God is a useful construct that has
provided many cultures with an effective and convenient way to
package their collections of taboos and mores. As far as whether
God exists, that is answered by following the scientific method in
the exact same way that we would determine whether any particular
thing exists (the Higgs Boson for example). First, we determine
whether it can be detected either directly, or indirectly by it's
effect on other objects. Since belief in God does unquestionably
cause detectable behavior in people, we can say that the existence
of God can be detected. The next question then is to establish the
nature of God. So far no statistically meaningful data has been
collected to show that God is any more than a useful philosophical
construct. Our current position on this question then is that
belief in God does influence human behavior, and there is no data
to show anything more than that.
We believe that there is no good evidence to support the theory
that heaven and hell are features of this universe. We also
believe that there has been no actual serious research on the
subject; only a lot of screaming back and forth with zero data to
back any of it up. The absence of evidence is not proof of
non-existence; that's why it is logically impossible to prove the
non-existence of something. In the meantime, we don't find that
the concept of heaven and hell gives any helpful tools to use in
our efforts toward continuous improvement, so we don't spend time
thinking about it.
Since we reject the claim that the world was created by a
dictator who has the unquestionable authority to specify right and
wrong, sins -as a behavior that is forbidden by said dictator- are
not possible. However, the concept of good and bad, or right and
wrong, is useful. Here we define good as something which promotes
the health and well being of ourselves (including friends, family,
neighbors, etc) and our home. Bad is defined and anything which is
detrimental and works against us. So it is not possible to sin in
the sense of offending God, but it can be considered a sin to harm
someone or something. Reincarnation: We are agnostic on this
issue. So far we have not seen convincing data to lead us to
conclude either that reincarnation is, or is not a feature of the
universe.
We have a philosophical objection to the behavior of the
universe, and especially its predilection for quantum mechanics.
And if it all degenerates in vacuum decay, well all I have to say
is that it got what it deserves.
There may come a time when the discipline of Information Science
progresses to the point of being able to build some mathematical
formalism around humanity, but at the time of this writing
(-89,471) that time seems as far from reach as it has ever been.
So until that point is reached, our only meaningful explanation
for our human experience is to give the name of "soul" to our
self-awareness and sense of being.
The Unicorn is Magdelena. Tradition has it that Anaxelovda's
mother's name is Magdelena. So ever since that massacre, The
Unicorn has always taken the name Magdelena. We know almost
nothing of unicorns in general, and they maintain the utmost
secrecy around The Unicorn. Which means that the extent of our
beliefs on this subject is that The Unicorn is Magdelena who
brings back the magic. We keep trying to collect more data about
unicorns, but they are very elusive; oh yes, they are very
elusive.
Generally the Dawnism traditions are based on pagan and Native
American religions, with a few adopted from Christianity. Weekly
meetings are recommended as experience has shown these to be
useful for maintaining group cohesion. There is no particular day
which is preferred; it should be chosen to be most convenient for
the group. Weekly meetings often start with a song. The leader
will then give a short inspirational talk, and reminder of our
goals for continuous improvement. The leader then passes the
Speakers Stick to the first person in the circle. That person may
then talk about any personal struggles, recent achievements, or
other matters of importance to them. The Speakers Stick gets
passed around the circle until everyone who wishes has spoken. A
closing song then concludes the weekly meeting. Administrative
meetings are held when necessary and follow the same format as
weekly meetings. The difference is that the leader begins with a
description of the issues at hand. The others then give their
thoughts on the subject during their turn to speak.