I have coined the acronym AWESOME to summarize my philosophy:
Agnostic / Atheist + Worldly + Existential
+ Scientific / Statistical + Objective + Moderate + Educated =
AWESOME !
I came up with this term after describing How Life Got This Way as championing a “Scientific, Agnostic, Existential, Objective, Moderate outlook”. It was an unwieldy phrase; I hoped I could come up with a catchy acronym instead. I quickly realized that I was just two letters away from AWESOME, so I added “Worldly” and “Educated”.
In our world of hype, the AWESOME voice easily gets lost. Religion is considered to be righteous, and the irreligious are still lumped in with communists and fringe extremists. News programs love to interview guests at the far left and far right to get opposing strong opinions. Political parties force politicians into dramatically polarized teams. Conspiracy theorists, religious fundamentalists, and bitter cynics dominate every online forum. Nationalism is still a matter of pride, and globalism is viewed with suspicion even though the world is irrevocably globalized.
Beliefs, biases, opinions, allegiances, and emotions all have their place. Yet if your goal is to truly understand the world we live in, you must try to rise above these distractions. You can’t take sides or get married to preconceived notions. You have to be agnostic, worldly, existential, scientific, objective, moderate, and educated.
In a series of follow-up posts, I will delve into each of these words and further define what it means to be AWESOME! Each essay will be in the range of 2,000 – 3,000 words. Altogether, they will form my AWESOME manifesto.
Apply to join the AWESOME Thought Facebook group
A is for Agnostic / Atheist : Posted 6/05/18
W is for Worldly : Posted 4/22/20 (Earth Day)
E is for Existential: Posted May 5 – 6, 2021 (Kierkegaard’s & Freud’s birthdays)
S is for Scientific / Statistical: Posted February 12, 2023 (Darwin Day)
O is for Objective: Posted June 7, 2023
M is for Moderate: Posted Nov. 7, 2023, American Election Day
E is for Educated: In progress
“Totally AWESOME”: Putting it all together (future)