The Five Tenets

The Basic Tenets of Timicism are each loosely based on Five Basic Principles:

• Self
• Fairness
• Humor
• Harmlessness
• Love

And one Bonus Principle: Balance, which holds each of these principles together.

The Five (+1) Tenets

1. Be an individual. Think for yourself. Don't blindly follow any person, group, doctrine or book. Question everything that doesn't make sense and come to your own conclusions.


2. Be fair. Always apply consistent logic in your search for truth and in your interactions with others. Acknowledge and understand your biases.


3. Don't take yourself too seriously. Be humble. Learn to laugh at yourself and the absurdity of this world.
   


4. Be harmless. In your interaction with the world around you, leave people and things in at least as good of shape as when you found them.


5. Choose love and its many physical manifestations, including cuddling, hugging, stroking, petting, snuggling, nuzzling, touching and rubbing.


6. (Bonus) Stay balanced. Live your life in moderation and don't indulge one principle at the expense of others.
   

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The Five Tenets (+1) Explained

Although the tenets are numbered, they are not ranked. They each carry equal weight like spokes on a wheel. And they also work to hold each other in check, like the U.S. government system of checks and balances. For example, although one tenet extols the beauty of sex, you would not want to violate the principle of harmlessness by pleasing yourself at someone else's expense (i.e. infidelity, dishonesty, coercion, etc.)

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The Truth Tenets

The first two tenets of Timicism, Self and Fairness, make up a sub-category known as the Truth Tenets. Both emphasize the importance of truth, and using skepticism, consistency, and logic to arrive at conclusions. They don't tell the Timicist what to believe, but rather, what process he uses to determine those beliefs.

Self

Be an individual. Think for yourself. Don't blindly follow any person, group, doctrine or book. Question everything that doesn't make sense and come to your own conclusions.

There is no middleman between the Timicist and his beliefs. He consults many people and books in his quest for understanding, but he does not accept any external source as the one ultimate authority. Although one source might have a lot of good things to say, that does not make it infallible on every issue. Question everything you hear and come to your own conclusions based on a consistent world view.

Each Timicist custom builds his or her own beliefs.

An important part of this tenet is to acknowledge that nothing is static. Everything is in a constant state of change, and therefore ideas and principles may become obsolete or even dangerous based on changing circumstances. The Timicist is constantly examining and, if need be, revising his conclusions based on these changing circumstances or new evidence. In Timicism, you never convince someone with the argument that "it's always been that way."

NOTE: It is important to keep in mind that the "self" emphasized in the first principle (and corresponding tenet) of Timicism is only to be thought of as opposing a dogmatic or herd mentality. "Self" should not be misinterpreted as the "ego" which holds itself above (or in opposition to) the world around it. The third and fourth tenets of Timicism serve to mitigate this kind of thinking.

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Fairness

Be fair. Always apply consistent logic in your search for truth and in your interactions with others. Acknowledge and understand your biases.

Don't believe everything you hear simply because you want it to be true. Skepticism is an important part of this tenet. Whenever you hear a fact, statistic, or "true" account of events, ask yourself: who is telling me this piece of information, and what do they have to gain by my believing it? And on a more subconscious level, what do they have to gain by their believing it? Aside from outright lying, every "fact" you've ever heard in your life has been through some kind of filter, a filter of how some person, group, or culture sees the world. The important thing here to the Timicist is to always question what you hear and consider alternate explanations.
In this quest for truth, the Timicist acknowledges the importance of fairness; of looking at every person and situation from all sides and applying consistent rules across the board. We can never arrive at any semblance of truth if we are favoring one side over the other and applying double standards. Of course, it is human nature to do just that, and so the next best thing you can do, as you strive for fairness, is to acknowledge your biases and fight against them. Think about the filter through which you see the world. In order to get to the truth, we often have to put our personal feelings of what we want to be true aside, and consider all possibilities, no matter how unpleasant they might be. The Timicist, though skeptic, is not closed-minded.


This tenet has been (partially) inspired by my long and fascinating study of urban legends at Snopes.

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Humor

Don't take yourself too seriously. Be humble. Learn to laugh at yourself and the absurdity of this world. You are just as important, but no more, than everyone else.

A lot of the pain and suffering in this world has been caused by people who have taken themselves way too seriously. People in positions of authority who thought they were way too important and deserved more respect than the rest of us. To prove it, they made life hell for everyone else.

But suffering is not only the result of assholes in power taking themselves too seriously. Our inability to laugh at ourselves and the world around can limit us. Similar to Buddhism, Timicism believes that we cause our own pain and suffering when we are too attached to our own ego.

Part of not taking yourself (and your world) too seriously is to see the absurdity all around you. I've heard the world described as tragic to those who feel and absurd to those who think. The Timicist is a thinker, and he sees the absurdity all around him. And he tries to laugh at it.

Laughter is a big part of Timicism. The Timicist values humor and is always looking for situations where it can be used.

This is not to say that the Timicist should never take anything seriously. And laughter, although mostly good, is not always appropriate. Laughter that harms or belittles others can violate the tenet of Harmlessness (see below). When you're not in someone's presence, belittling them is fine, just as long as the Timicist realizes his own humility and gives himself equal portions of belittlement. 'Cause when you consider the entirety of everything, each of us is mighty little.

If you would like some practice in giving funny (but equal) belittlement to everyone, a good start is The Onion.

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Harmlessness

Be harmless. In your interaction with the world around you, leave people and things in at least as good of shape as when you found them.

The main moral tenet of Timicism is to be harmless. If you think of your contributions to this world as a bank account, you never want to be in debt. Do no harm, and if you do, try to make it right.

Think of this tenet as following the campsite rule, where you should leave people & things in better shape than how you found them.

Being harmless can be hard work. By merely going about your day, taking up space, your actions will affect other people and things. An important part of this tenet is to think about how your actions affect the world around you. Frequently we don't even realize it when we are causing harm. Self-reflection is key. If you see harm being done, either in your own experiences or in the world at large, ask yourself: what could I possibly be doing to contribute to this?

Part of being harmless is not interfering with others' rights to live as they choose, as long as they do it harmlessly.

At this point, we need to discuss what we mean by "harm." A simplistic approach would be The Golden Rule, which says to treat others how you would want to be treated. That's a good start, but the Timicist also acknowledges the shortcomings of this rule. For example, what if you're a masochist? Then you probably shouldn't treat others to the beatings you enjoy. So, the Timicist will respect others' right to define harm for themselves. I acknowledge that this, too, falls short, especially in cases where personal definitions of harm collide or when harm to one person or thing benefits many others.

The Timicist acknowledges that we all have different definitions of what is "harmful." For now, I will leave this up to each individual. Each Timicist should have a consistent and fair definition of harm that acknowledges and respects all people and living things, including the environment. Still not a foolproof rule, but it will have to do for now.

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Love

Choose love and its many physical manifestations, including cuddling, hugging, stroking, petting, snuggling, nuzzling, touching and rubbing.


Almost every religion focuses on love. That's important to the Timicist as well, but in Timicism we focus more on the physical aspect of love. The ideal Timicist world is one where everyone has a special someone to touch and be touched.

Timicists value physical affection. Touching another being (be it a lover, family member, friend, or pet) is a wonderful and beautiful thing, and you should always appreciate it and not take it for granted. Always remember, of all the people in the world, this person (or thing) chose you to share this experience with. This appreciation applies to all forms of physical intimacy, but especially to sex.

Timicists dig sex. And it gets too much of a bad rap in our purityrranical* society. There's something wrong with a society that sends the message, 'Sex is dirty and evil. Share it with someone you love.' "

You could say that the "culture wars" in the United States are waged between those who fear violence and those who fear sex. It's interesting to me that sex and violence are both considered "indecent," even though they are opposites. One creates life and the other destroys it. One is positive, one is negative. One is the result of love, the other is the result of hate. (Not always, but in general.)

Timicists are lovers and not fighters. The Timicist dreams of a world where, instead of bashing your neighbor's head in, you give them an orgasm. Or a hug, depending on what you're most comfortable with.

*Yes, I made up that word.
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Bonus Tenet

Balance

Stay balanced. Live your life in moderation and don't indulge one principle at the expense of others.

Whether it's your gait, how you spend your time, or dealing with competing tenets in your life, balance is essential. Nothing is good for you if you do it too much at the expense of everything else.

Each of us has his own measure of what's important and what's not, but balance is the thing that keeps your life in perspective. Keeps you from falling over, both physically and metaphorically.