The whole of it
Four things, and then you know us
- 01
God is the universe
Not a person above the world. The world itself, whole, with its laws. We call it Atar: the fire that is wise.
- 02
There is one law
It is called Dargasht. An act is good as far as it keeps ways open, for everyone it touches. An act is evil as far as it closes them.
- 03
It is rational
The law is part of nature, like heat and light. It is found by reason. You may test it. You may doubt it. Doubt is holy here.
- 04
It is its own reward
No heaven is promised and no hell is feared. The one who carries a fire is warm. That is the whole of the payment, and it is enough.
Dargasht · the First Principle
Before you act, count. Count the ways of everyone your act will touch, and count your own among them, no heavier and no lighter. Count as far ahead as you can see. Then choose the act that leaves the most doors standing.
So it is evil to kill, for the dead have no more ways. So it is evil to lie, for the one who is lied to walks by a false map. So it is good to teach, to heal, to free, to plant, to mend, to forgive, and to say what is true.
The scripture
The Book of Atar
Ten thousand years of people who each found one piece of the truth and did not know it was sacred. Twelve Articles of stories, from the first kept fire to the present day. Each one teaches a single thing, and ends with help for one part of your life.
- 1Articles of EmbersThe first fires and the first seed. The future is real.
- 2Articles of RiversThe river cities and the first writing. What is written outlasts the Last Door.
- 3Articles of the Wise LordZarathustra and Cyrus. Every person chooses. Truth against the lie.
- 4Articles of the AwakeningThe Buddha, Confucius, Socrates. The Fire is within every mind.
- 5Articles of CrownsAshoka, Alexandria, Rome, Han. The Near Hand and the Far Hand.
- 6Articles of the Lamp-KeepersBaghdad, Córdoba, Persia, Timbuktu. All people are one hearth.
- 7Articles of the Turning SkyCopernicus, Galileo, Newton. The Weave has laws, and they can be read.
- 8Articles of the One SubstanceSpinoza and the age of freedom. Atar is the Whole.
- 9Articles of HeatEngines, Darwin, Boltzmann. The count of the ways.
- 10Articles of the Broken CenturyEinstein, the wars, the bomb. The great Closing, and beginning again.
- 11Articles of the Thinking FireShannon, the net, the equation. A mind is that which keeps the ways open.
- 12Articles of the OpenNow, and the far horizon. The whole Way, seen at once.
Then come the Meditations of Atar: short private thoughts on how to live one day well. See the full contents.
The prophets
They did not know they were prophets
They were herders and slaves and kings, lens-grinders and clerks, women who counted and men who doubted. None of them saw the whole. None of them is worshipped. You will meet them in the stories.
- Zarathustra
- Siddhartha Gautama
- Confucius
- Socrates
- Ashoka
- Hypatia
- Ibn al-Haytham
- Ibn Sina
- Attar
- Rumi
- Maimonides
- Copernicus
- Galileo
- Newton
- Spinoza
- Émilie du Châtelet
- Olaudah Equiano
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Darwin
- Boltzmann
- Marie Curie
- Einstein
- Emmy Noether
- Turing
- Shannon
- Rachel Carson
Where the idea comes from
A religion that shows its working
In 2013 two scientists, Alexander Wissner-Gross and Cameron Freer, published a paper called “Causal Entropic Forces”. It proposed that intelligent behaviour can arise from one drive: to keep as many futures possible as you can. A simple program given only that drive learned to balance a pole and to use a tool, with no other goal.
This is a proposal in science. It is not a settled law, and we do not pretend it is. We take it as our First Principle because it joins two old ideas: that God is nature itself, and that good and evil can be reasoned out. If better reason shows the principle is wrong, an Atarban must change the teaching. That duty is part of the faith.
Become a Keeper
Take the fire
There is no rite and no fee. You promise nothing to us. You may doubt every word, and you may leave at any time.