Ep. 39 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - The Religion of No Religion

In this episode of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," Dr. Vervaeke discusses the concept of creating a religion that is not a religion to address spiritual hunger in those who find organized religion and pseudo-religious ideologies unviable. He emphasizes the importance of religio (a comprehensive set of psychotechnologies within communities) over credo (belief systems), advocating for an open-ended mythos that acknowledges the centrality of religio. He introduces signal detection theory to explain how credo functions as setting the criterion on religio, and he stresses the need for contextual sensitivity in setting this criterion. Vervaeke also suggests cultivating an ecology of psychotechnologies, including a meta-psychotechnology, and explores organizational structures like a credo wiki and co-op communities to facilitate this. Finally, he sets the stage for a discussion on the cognitive science of wisdom, highlighting its importance in addressing the meaning crisis and its connection to individual and collective well-being.