Comment on Raising the Sanity Waterline

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:37:05 GMT

We think that religions are false, and a shared priority of Less Wrong denizens is to believe things that are true instead. I'll readily admit that religion has some good effects. Many people find it comforting; it's inspired great works of art and music and architecture; it does a lot of work to funnel money to charitable causes, some of which are very helpful; it encourages community-building; and it has historically served as a cultural touchstone to enable the development of some very powerful iconography and tropes.

It's still false.

If you like the good things about religion, there are alternatives (although most of them only work piecemeal). For instance, there's Ethical Culture, which fills in the community gap a departing religion can leave.

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