About

For over ten thousand years, religion has been humanity’s primary tool for building stable societies. It has taught children right from wrong, given comfort to the grieving, provided frameworks for life’s major transitions, and bound communities together through shared purpose. When formal education was rare, religion taught moral lessons through stories. When communities were isolated, religious gatherings provided essential social connections. When people faced life’s greatest challenges, religious communities offered support and guidance.

Yet today, millions are walking away from traditional religion. They can no longer accept claims about virgin births, worldwide floods, or people rising from the dead. They reject the idea of eternal punishment in hell for finite transgressions. They question why an all-powerful deity would demand constant worship or allow innocent suffering. They see religious institutions defending discrimination, denying scientific evidence, and accumulating wealth while preaching poverty.

But here’s the challenge: when people leave religion, they often lose something vital. They lose the community that celebrates their marriages and supports them through loss. They lose the frameworks that helped them teach values to their children. They lose the regular gatherings that connected them with neighbors and reinforced moral principles. And society loses the shared ethical understanding and social bonds that help maintain stability and cooperation.

Welcome to The Testament, the foundational text of a movement we call The Path. We’re building something unprecedented: a way to preserve everything valuable about religion while leaving behind supernatural claims and institutional dogma. We’re creating communities that celebrate life’s moments, support each other through challenges, and teach moral wisdom, all while embracing reason, evidence, and open inquiry.

At the heart of The Path lies a profound recognition: that two thousand years ago, a remarkable teacher named Jesus offered insights about human nature, compassion, and community that science is only now confirming. Not the supernatural Christ of religion, not the miraculous birth, the walking on water, the resurrection, but the historical figure whose understanding of human nature was so keen that his core teachings remain revolutionary today.

When Jesus taught about forgiveness, he wasn’t invoking divine command. He was recognizing a deep truth about human psychology and community healing. When he advocated for the poor and marginalized, he wasn’t promising heavenly rewards. He was showing how societies become stronger by caring for their most vulnerable members. When he spoke of love and compassion, he wasn’t threatening hell for disobedience. He was illuminating The Path to human flourishing.

The Path emerges from a simple truth: humans need more than facts and reason to flourish. We need community. We need purpose. We need practical wisdom for navigating life’s challenges. For millennia, religions provided these through a mixture of insight and superstition. Today, we can preserve what works (the community support, the moral framework, the celebration of life’s transitions) while embracing evidence, encouraging questions, and focusing on what we can verify through experience and research.

This is a living document, created not through divine revelation but through human collaboration. Like science itself, it evolves as our understanding grows. We invite you to join us in this evolution, not as followers, but as fellow seekers of truth and builders of community. The Path offers no supernatural promises, no threat of divine punishment, no claim to absolute authority. Instead, it offers something more valuable: a way to combine the best of human wisdom with the insights of modern understanding, creating communities of purpose in a world that desperately needs them.

Whether you’re seeking deeper understanding, meaningful connection, or practical wisdom for life’s challenges, you’ll find here not a set of commandments, but an invitation to growth. Not a fixed destination, but a journey we walk together. Not another religion, but a new way forward that honors both our rational minds and our need for authentic community.

From ancient times, human societies have turned to religion (systems of belief, moral frameworks, and communal practices) to address questions about right and wrong, social stability, and life’s deeper purpose. Historically, religion not only guided morality but also offered community support where formal education and social structures were lacking. Over time, however, supernatural claims and fear-based doctrines began to overshadow these positive functions, leading many today to view religion as outdated or manipulative.

Yet people still need shared frameworks for moral values and supportive communities. Parents often struggle to teach values on their own, and schools, focused on academics, rarely address moral development in depth. Without the social glue once provided by religious communities, we risk losing the collective ethics and mutual support that help us flourish together.

Modern knowledge and critical thinking make it hard to accept miracles and divine interventions as literal truths. That’s why we’re building a new moral tradition, The Path, anchored by The Testament.

Inspired by Jesus’ moral teachings, we focus on virtues like compassion, forgiveness, humility, generosity, and justice (see Principles). We believe the historical Jesus, stripped of supernatural embellishments, offers timeless insights. Much like Thomas Jefferson did in his famous “Jefferson Bible,” we aim to preserve that moral core while setting aside the miraculous elements.

We recognize this approach raises important questions. For Christians, Jesus’s teachings are inseparable from his claimed divine nature. We acknowledge this complexity. The Path doesn’t claim to represent Christianity or to be what Jesus “truly meant.” Rather, we’re doing what humans have always done: taking wisdom from multiple sources (including Jesus’s ethical teachings) and building something new that serves our current needs. Just as Christianity itself evolved from Judaism, just as Buddhism emerged from Hindu traditions, just as every major religion built upon and transformed what came before, The Path represents the next step in humanity’s moral evolution.

This approach resonates with Deism, which acknowledges a Creator or first cause but relies on reason, observation, and moral reflection for ethical guidance. By blending Jesus’ ethical insights with a rational, open-minded worldview, The Path speaks to modern hearts and minds without resorting to fear-based doctrines.

Some will ask: why create something new? Secular humanist organizations, ethical societies, and community groups already exist. Why not simply strengthen these existing structures?

The answer lies in understanding how religions actually function in human life. Traditional religions weren’t designed by committee or built from philosophical principles alone. They emerged organically over generations, shaped by human needs, refined through lived experience, and passed down through stories, rituals, and community practices. They succeeded not because they had the best arguments, but because they integrated moral teaching with life’s rhythms: births and deaths, seasons and harvests, joys and sorrows.

Existing secular organizations often approach ethics as an intellectual exercise or social cause. They host lectures, organize volunteer projects, and provide social gatherings. These are valuable, but they don’t fully replace what religion provided: a comprehensive framework that touches every aspect of life, that marks every major transition, that turns abstract principles into lived practices passed naturally from generation to generation.

The Path is being built from the ground up, much like religions were originally built, because we need something that works the way humans actually work. We need regular gatherings that become part of life’s rhythm, not optional events we attend when interested. We need rituals that mark life’s passages with meaning and community support. We need stories that teach children values through example rather than lecture. We need practices that connect moral principles to daily choices. We need elders passing wisdom to youth in contexts of genuine relationship, not occasional mentorship programs.

This is why we use terms like “Assembly” and “Testament.” Not to mimic religion, but because we’re building the same kind of comprehensive, multigenerational, life-integrated community structure that religions built, only founded on reason rather than revelation. We’re not adding supernatural claims to make it feel religious. We’re recognizing that the social structures religions created served real human needs, and building those structures on a foundation of evidence and shared wisdom.

The open-source, living document approach addresses another concern: how do we maintain stability while allowing growth? Religious texts became fixed, unable to incorporate new knowledge or adapt to changing circumstances. This rigidity has caused tremendous harm. Yet purely fluid philosophies lack the stability and continuity that help communities maintain shared values across generations.

The Path walks a middle way. Core principles (compassion, honesty, justice, community responsibility) remain stable, forming the foundation on which everything else builds. But our understanding of how to apply these principles, our knowledge of human psychology and social dynamics, our responses to new challenges evolve as we learn. The text itself acknowledges uncertainty, invites questions, and treats wisdom as something we discover together rather than receive from authority.

Think of it like the difference between religious scripture and scientific knowledge. Scripture claims eternal, unchanging truth but can’t adapt to new understanding. Scientific knowledge evolves constantly but can feel unmoored from values and meaning. The Testament aims to be like a living garden: stable perennial roots that persist (core moral principles), with room for new growth and adaptation (specific applications and understandings) as conditions change and knowledge increases.

Gatherings on The Path (called The Assembly) are about learning, dialogue, and mutual support, not worship or ritual. There are no hymns or ceremonies venerating miracles. Instead, assemblies provide a safe place to build understanding, empathy, and shared moral growth. These gatherings incorporate what we’ve learned about how humans form strong communities: regular rhythm (weekly or monthly), shared practices (reflection, celebration, service), and structured yet flexible formats that can adapt to each community’s needs while maintaining connection to core principles.

Moral teaching is essential. People benefit from consistent guidance on empathy, compassion, and ethical behavior. A shared set of moral principles helps societies function and thrive. But moral teaching doesn’t require supernatural authority. Parents teach their children to share and be kind not because God commands it, but because this is how humans thrive together. The Path simply extends this natural moral education into adulthood and community, providing ongoing support for ethical development throughout life.

Community is vital. We’re social beings. Beyond survival, we need emotional support and collective growth. A strong moral community encourages civic responsibility, generosity, and deeper human connection. The Path recognizes that community doesn’t happen automatically. It requires intention, structure, and practice. This is why we’re building something comprehensive rather than adding another occasional social group to already busy lives.

A rational, ethical approach matters. By setting aside supernatural claims, we focus on the best moral insights from multiple traditions, grounded in what we can verify through experience and research. This resonates with critical thinkers and skeptics. It offers those who’ve left traditional religion a way to reclaim community and moral clarity without dogma, while remaining intellectually honest.

We don’t claim to have all the answers. The Path is an experiment in conscious cultural evolution. We’re attempting something difficult: creating the kind of deep, comprehensive, multigenerational community that took religions centuries to develop, but building it on foundations of reason and evidence from the start. We’ll make mistakes. We’ll learn. We’ll adapt. That’s not a weakness but a strength.

Some communities will thrive while others struggle. Some interpretations of these principles will prove more helpful than others. Some practices will become cherished traditions while others fade away. This is healthy evolution, not doctrinal chaos. The open-source nature allows communities to learn from each other, to share what works, and to build collective wisdom about how to create flourishing, ethical communities in the modern world.

You can contribute text by adding new chapters, refining existing ones, or proposing edits that clarify and improve our moral teachings. Offer commentary by asking questions, suggesting alternative viewpoints, and engaging in meaningful discussion. Help translate and adapt The Testament to make it accessible across languages and cultures while preserving its core principles. Spread the word by sharing this work, forming an Assembly in your area, and discussing these principles with friends, family, or online communities.

Most importantly, test these ideas in practice. Form an Assembly (tools to get started). Gather regularly with others who share these values. Support each other through life’s challenges. Celebrate together. Teach your children. Serve your community. Then share what you learn so others can benefit from your experience. This is how The Path grows: not through conversion or evangelism, but through demonstrated effectiveness at helping people live more ethical, connected, meaningful lives.

By collaborating in an open-source, transparent, and inclusive way, we can forge a community grounded in reason, empathy, and collective well-being. Join us on The Path as we shape The Testament into a living, ever-evolving guide toward more compassionate and fulfilling human societies. We’re building something that humanity needs: comprehensive moral communities for the age of reason, where questions are welcome, evidence matters, and ancient wisdom meets modern understanding in service of human flourishing.

Welcome to The Path. Let’s walk together.