These ideas seem to be of fundamental importance: 1. The world “just is" 2. I am part of the world, see #1 3. Shit happens These would seem so trivial and obvious, but the fact is that they do not play a part in the way most people see the world. To many, they are open for debate. To others, their flat denial forms a cornerstone of an entirely incompatible world view. Virtually all religions challenge the fundamental reality of the world we perceive by adding some kind of mythical meta-world that his somehow more real than the one around us. For example, Heaven and Hell are added, or this world is considered to be a dream of Brama, or reality is considered an illusion to be overcome by years of rigorous training (or un-training) of the mind. In common parlance, “religion” is a word we used for mythological frameworks that are not dead (yet). All mythological frameworks, both dead and alive, seek to “explain” the existence of the universe, rather than just accept it. Such “explanat