Vaniver comments on Building rationalist communities: lessons from the Latter-day Saints - Less Wrong

15 Post author: calcsam 09 May 2011 03:14PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 10 May 2011 05:21:16AM 1 point [-]

It would matter if the doctrine -- reward and punishment in the afterlife, for example -- is tied with the practice of the members.

Ok. Does it look like that's the case? Which of these lessons hinge on reward and punishment in the afterlife?

Comment author: drethelin 12 May 2011 06:28:23AM 2 points [-]

unfortunately, much of the motivation. It's easy to get yourself motivated to do something if you have a clear reward for it. If you truly believe that working to convert people to your faith will get you into heaven, it's not hard to get up in the morning and go do it. If you think that there's a 1 percent chance that one of the 57 people you talk to today will become slightly less wrong about the world and go on to lead a somewhat happier life, it's a lot less motivating. I think the entire unpaid ministry/missionary thing would be much harder to get recruits for here than in the LDS.