Joining

Joining this site is free. No credit cards, no payments, no tricks.
The registration form is further below. First we explain a few things about membership types and privacy.

Membership Types

Membership types are: to Monitor, an Associate, a Member or a Contributor.

If you choose `Monitor` then we just take this to mean that you are interested enough to watch the development of the site. You might be reluctant to actually support the ideas expressed here, or you might just be curious.

If you choose `Associate` we will take this as general support of the aims of the site, and a positive encouragement to improve the site further. The more Associates we have, the more motivated we will be, to get to the stage when Associates upgrade themselves to Members. We expect you could say that you support the idea of trying to define and explain global beliefs and values, considering all knowledge domains, including philosophy, science, history, religion, the arts, media and culture, personal practice and finally politics and economics.

If you choose to be a `Member` we will count you as a supporter in our statistics about what we call a Reasonable Global Way: REALigion. We will, in due course, invite you to become a formal member of an association called, for instance Reasonable Way - Melbourne, or Reasonable Way - WA, based on your region, or the nearest big city, depending on the numbers, or Reasonable Way - Global for those who don't provide a location. Membership fees will be zero. Really zero! Of course, donations will always be gratefully received. If we get many Members then we will be able to brag about it and probably get greater access to funding. We expect that as a Member could say that you choose to value and support truth (or reason), reality (evidence-based debate), diversity (uncertainty, tolerance, or freedom), life (the struggle), love (or compassion), equality (or human rights), responsibility (or justice and mercy), beauty (in nature, human life), and hope (as a positive choice, at least partly historically justifiable).

If you choose to be a `Contributor` we count you as a Member willing to help develop, support or promote a REALigion: Reasonable Global Way. We will contact you via the email address you provided to find out how you can help, perhaps by assisting with the development of more detailed content, or by providing technical support, or by contributing funds. People contributing funds will have a say in how those funds are spent, but not direct control. Right now we don't have any on-line payment system, and we need to do lots of work to present more detailed content.

What will we do with your details?

We intend to use your membership details to notify you of updates to the site. We intend to use the members' page to provide information relevant to members that is not available to the general public. This might include details of controversies on particular issues, plans for expanding the site, the impact the site is having on others, and so on.

Please be aware of possible breaches of privacy. We will not knowingly pass on your details to anyone else. But the internet is not secure so please do not give us any information that would cause you harm if it inadverdantly became public knowledge. Support staff have access to the database, and although we can believe they are trustworthy, they could be required by law to access our data.

If you live in a free society you may be able to proudly say you support this quest. If you live in an oppressive community you may need to be more careful and not declare your support publicly. You can join anonymously - all we really need is an email address. You can create an anonymous email in Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo and use a pseudonym - a made up name - if you want to remain anonymous.

We will not willingly give your details to anyone. We will restrict and monitor the people accessing our databases on our behalf.

You can choose to make your details visible or to hide them. If they are visible then the name you provide will be shown:

* in the members only area when members select the option to show the membership list, and * if you enter a comment at the end of a page.

We will display to other members the `public comments` and the details `about yourself` which you entered. We do not intend to show any other details at this stage.

What does it mean to `Join Up`?

Mostly it means that we can notify you of updates to the site. At this stage there will be normally be considerable time delays between updates. You will be able to modify your membership details, to change your password and control whether you receive these notifications. Later we may be able to provide more options for liaising with other members. Perhaps we will be able to provide ways for members to directly contribute articles for the public to see, without manual intervention.

Joining probably means you don't accept literal interpretations of any sacred book but you do agree that somewhere in our shared humanity there must be a way for us to get along without harming each other too much. Joining up doesn't mean you have to believe everything that is said here, or anywhere else. If we are being reasonable, we have no absolute creeds or doctrines, other than reason itself and a degree of empathy with others. We can and should debate what is true and what is the right thing to do: what is a reasonable way.

At a maximum, becoming a member is a statement of support for adopting the plan we are trying to propose here.

You can return to reading, where you left off, without joining up.
Otherwise, please fill out the form below.