thomblake comments on Holy Books (Or Rationalist Sequences) Don’t Implement Themselves - Less Wrong

32 Post author: calcsam 10 May 2011 07:15AM

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Comment author: handoflixue 11 May 2011 10:36:07PM 1 point [-]

Speaking solely for myself, I've found that my spiritual / religious side helps me to set goals and to communicate with my intuitions. Rationality is simply a tool for implementing those goals, and processing/evaluating that intuitive data.

I've honestly found the hostility towards "spirituality writ large" here rather confusing, as the majority of the arguments seem to focus on a fairly narrow subset of religious beliefs, primarily Christian. I tend to write it off as a rather understandable bias caused by generalizing from "mainstream Christianity", though, so it doesn't really bother me. When people present actual arguments, I do try and listen in case I've missed something.

Or, put another way: Rationality is for falsifiable aspects of my life, and spirituality is for the non-falsifiable aspects of my life. I can't have "incorrect" goals or emotions, but I can certainly fail to handle them effectively.

Comment author: thomblake 11 May 2011 10:47:06PM 7 points [-]

I can certainly fail to handle them effectively.

If 'spirituality' helps you to handle these things effectively, that is empirically testable. It is not part of the 'non-falsifiable' stuff. In fact, whatever you find useful about 'spirituality' is necessarily empirical in nature and thus subject to the same rules as everything else.

Most of the distaste for 'spirituality' here comes from a lack of belief in spirits, for which good arguments can be provided if you don't have one handy. If your 'spirituality' has nothing to do with spirits, it should probably be called something else.

Comment author: handoflixue 11 May 2011 11:57:23PM 4 points [-]

Hmmmmm, I'd never considered the idea of trying to falsify my goals and emotions before. Now that the idea has been presented, I'm seeing how I can further integrate my magical and rational thinking, and move to a significantly more effective and rational standpoint.

Thank you!

Comment author: thomblake 12 May 2011 12:01:29AM 0 points [-]

Glad to be of help :)

Comment author: JohnH 14 May 2011 08:36:35AM -1 points [-]

There are stats on the effects of religion on a population that practices said religion. This should give some indication of the usefulness of any spirituality.