Mystrikast

About Mystrikast

Discover Mystrikism: a rational, sensible, naturalistic alternative to religion. Each episode explores core principles, non-theism, and our reverence for the infinite unknown, while savouring secular moments of awe, our naturalised "spirituality". Learn to think like a scientist, live justly, and marvel at reality.

Publisher

Duncan McDonald

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Oct 2025

Latest episode

4 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

37 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Sept 2026

   Mystrikast — A Synopsis

   This episode offers a full synopsis of Mystrikism — a practical philosophical discipline for clearer thinking, fairer action, and natural wonder. Mystrikism begins in a small but powerful gap: the gap between what happens, what we notice, and the story we immediately build around it. A feeling may be real while our first explanation of it is mistaken. A memory may be sincere while some of its details are wrong. A reaction may feel justified before we have checked what actually happened. Slowing that sequence down does not make us less human. It gives reality a fair chance to correct the story. From there, the episode explains Mystrikism as a developing philosophy and way of life. It asks us to make our beliefs answerable to reality, our decisions answerable to those affected by them, and our sense of wonder answerable to honesty. For people who want one, it can function as a rational, non-supernatural alternative to traditional religion: one that keeps meaning, moral seriousness, reflection, awe, and purpose without asking anyone to pretend belief has been earned before the evidence arrives. We walk through the seven core principles: curiosity, humanity, justice, honesty, reality, humility, and inspiration. These are not badges or awards. They are standards against which conduct can be examined, especially when following them is inconvenient. The episode also introduces the FRAME system: Framing, Reasoning, Accountable Action, Monitoring, and Error-correction. FRAME is supported by the CLEAR toolkit: Critical Thinking, Logic, Evidence, Analysis, and Reasoning. Together, they help connect inquiry to values, action, consequences, and repair. We also look at Mystrikism’s present naturalistic and physicalist view of reality, its agnostic non-theism, its distinction between facts and values, and its two important practices: Ignognosis, disciplined engagement with the unknown, and Aweism, natural awe without supernatural decoration. The ethical heart of Mystrikism is also explored: reducing needless suffering, supporting fair and lasting flourishing, respecting informed choice and consent, protecting those with less power, extending concern to sentient life, and sustaining the ecosystems on which life depends. This is not presented as salvation, certainty, or a finished script for living. Mystrikism does not guarantee happiness, wisdom, goodness, or success. What it offers is a structured and correctable way to meet uncertainty, error, harm, meaning, and wonder. Not reflex. Not pride. Not pretence. A more honest responsiveness to reality, affected lives, and the strange beauty of the world we actually inhabit. ⸻ https://www.mystrikism.org https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/ https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mystrikast/id1848253540 mystrikism@pm.me

2. 

   21 Aug 2026

   Mystrikast — Brute Facts: A Mystrikal Perspective

   This episode takes on one of the strangest and most important questions in philosophy: could some facts simply have no further explanation? That is the idea of a brute fact. Not a mystery we have not solved yet. Not a gap in the textbook. Not a difficult question that makes everyone quietly stare at the carpet. A genuine brute fact would be a fact where the relevant explanation really ends. From a Mystrikal perspective, that idea has to be handled with care. We should not declare something brute just because inquiry is hard, but we also should not assume that reality must satisfy every explanatory demand our minds make of it. The correct posture is disciplined inquiry: search before surrender, test before declaring a boundary, and keep confidence proportional to the evidence. We walk through what brute facts are not: not merely unknown facts, not simply fundamental facts, not just random events, not necessarily uncaused events, not axioms, and not emotional discomfort dressed up as metaphysics. We also explore the Principle of Sufficient Reason, necessity, infinite regress, coherent loops, fine-tuning, quantum events, and the problem of asking why there is something rather than nothing. The episode also takes aim at a familiar shortcut: using God as an automatic explanation. Mystrikism does not accept “God did it” as explanatory magic. Any proposed necessary being must still be shown to exist, to be necessary, to explain what it is supposed to explain, and to possess whatever further attributes are claimed. Unknown natural foundations and unknown supernatural agents are not automatically evidential equals. At the same time, Mystrikism does not turn naturalism into a closed dogma. Naturalistic inquiry has earned priority because it predicts, corrects, unifies, and works. But whether reality ultimately ends in a brute foundation, necessity, an infinite structure, a loop, an inaccessible explanation, or something outside our current concepts remains unsettled. This is not fence-sitting. It is calibrated honesty. At the edge of explanation, Mystrikism says: keep looking where looking is possible, admit what remains unknown, do not paint gods into the fog, and do not write “brute fact” in permanent ink just because the road is hard to see. Curiosity without fantasy. Humility without surrender. Wonder without pretending. Reality has the final word. For now, on whether reality itself has a final reason, our most honest word is: we do not yet know. ⸻ https://www.mystrikism.org https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/ https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mystrikast/id1848253540 mystrikism@pm.me

3. 

   21 Aug 2026

   Mystrikast — Facts: A Mystrikal Perspective

   This episode is a plain-language Mystrikal guide to facts: what they are, how we find them, how we confuse them with claims, and how we avoid fooling ourselves when the evidence is incomplete. The basic distinction matters. A fact is what is actually the case. A claim is what somebody says is the case. Evidence helps us judge the claim. Belief is the position we take toward it. A good conclusion fits the evidence and remains open to correction. Simple enough, until people start arguing in the real world. We explore why context can change what a claim actually means, why two people may appear to disagree about a fact while really disagreeing about wording, values, trust, causes, or certainty, and why “everyone has their own truth” is only half-useful. People have their own experiences. They do not each receive a private universe. We also look at the messier categories: personal experience, social facts, institutional records, statistical claims, missing evidence, measurements, models, scientific correction, and true details that still mislead. A number can be accurate but framed dishonestly. A record can be official and still incomplete. A personal experience can be real while the first explanation for it needs checking. The Mystrikal approach is steady but not rigid: reality exists independently of our wishes, human methods can fail, confidence should match support, science is our strongest organised method for learning about the natural world, and the unknown should be admitted rather than stuffed with comforting invention. This is not about becoming cold or cynical. It is about becoming fairer to reality. Honesty about what is known. Humility about what is not. Compassion about how facts affect living beings. And the courage to let reality correct us. That is how we get less wrong. ⸻ https://www.mystrikism.org https://www.facebook.com/groups/1782830925522213/ https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/mystrikast/id1848253540 mystrikism@pm.me