Glory be to Gauss in the Highest!

I think I just found the electrical engineering club their new T-shirt slogan. :)

So the problem is that when I start singing (badly) along to Jauchzet, Frohlocket or something, I might feel vaguely guilty because I'm getting emotionally carried away by music with an irrationalist message.

One of the most helpful of Eliezer's memes to me, has been to ask if State-of-Mind X is "something the truth can kill." Applying that criterion, I find I can easily get swept up in the music and in the posture of praise, but when it's over I discover that I don't believe anything I didn't believe before. Introspecting, I find that the feeling of praise - for me, at least - does not involve thinking about truth claims. It's purely emotional. (Not understanding the language being sung is very helpful.)

As to rationalists doing their own praising on their own terms... well, maybe we need to get less self-conscious as a movement before we're capable of that. Maybe when there are 15 existing hymns to the Andromeda galaxy, the 16th will be loved on pure aesthetic merit, rather than being something atheists dutifully praise to support the home team. Gravitas is pretty hard to get without the weight of tradition behind it.