= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
infotropism comments on Can Humanism Match Religion's Output? - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (102)
So inasmuch as possible, we'll need real world meetings : humans are social beings, and it was customary to see, hear, touch, smell even, people who'd be in your group in the environment of adaptation. Do we have any rationalist bonfire in preparation ? Excursions ? Doing sport together ? Watching films ?
It's pretty difficult to bond as strongly - and more importantly, as richly - to other people if you don't meet them in real life. That bond is what makes us work together so well, what can oil a well working machine. Families, groups of - real life - friends, are not uncommonly the starting point for successful ventures.
And I think it's not just the meeting in real life part. We need to build up a link, to feel the presence of the other, as another human being, as we would a friend. We need to share activities outside of just meeting an planning stuff.
We need to get to know and like each other on that fundamental level, by using the goddamn social machinery that's in our head. We're human beings before being rationalists, and we need to use that to our advantage, down to the last bit of it, rather than constantly forgetting about that fact. We run on corrupt hardware, we aren't rational, disembodied pristine minds. If we deprive ourselves, as well as our community, from that social background, then we will not thrive, and may even wither.
Side question, do we have anything secular, not religious, that looks like religious institutions ? Like, non religious monasteries where people would study, work together, live together ? The closest thing I can think of is the academia, but the academia doesn't seem like what I have on my mind.
What about religious feasts, celebrations, rituals even ? Do we have a lot of non religious rituals around, that could be recuperated, or at least inspire us ? We could use that, at least on a human level, it'd help foster people's willpower, brighten the fire inside. So long as we can direct that energy towards rational goals, and keep watch for any sign of becoming cult-ish, couldn't we benefit from such things ?
Maybe Eliezer needs to start that Bayesian conspiracy for real, eh?
My suggestion would be to come together to do something, something that is in and of itself valuable, and allow the community rituals and the social bonding to form around that, rather than to come together with the goal of togetherness.
The latter has a way of disappearing into its own navel.
the "feasts, celebrations, rituals" thing is a rather good point. Discusing a text (usualy a post from the sequences) each meetup seems to be somehting common enough that it may develop into somehting ritual like, but otherwise it's an area of deficiency.
I agree with much of what you posted here. I'm not sure rituals would be a good idea, but a rationalist's version of Christmas would be nice. And of course, meeting in person, perhaps even hosting talks by various speakers from the local area and beyond might be of use too. That would require a more coherent definition of secular humanism than seems to be in vogue with the masses at large at present, though. I imagine something similar to the Singularitarian movement envisioned by Ray Kurzweil.
What's so irrational about just celebrating Christmas?
My family has always celebrated Christmas and Hannukah. My father comes from a Christian family (although I've never even known him to talk about religion) and my mother is a non-practicing Jew. They don't regard it as their duty to observe the religious celebrations, they just take the excuse.
It would be possible to do ornaments based on Newton's work-- planets and prisms and rainbows.