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HA2 comments on The Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture - Less Wrong
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Comments (26)
I have no interest in joining a church, period. It doesn't matter to me whether that church spouts theistic nonsense or humanistic nonsense. I'm interested in what groups teach and what they practice, not in their rituals or atmosphere.
Certainly a rationalist group could avail themselves of techniques that make people feel good about the group. But people who join the group for the sake of those feelings, or who wouldn't join if their feelings carefully massaged, aren't rationalists. Bringing those people into the fold can only distract us from what's important and dilute the message. Syncretism requires a sacrifice of the essential nature of at least one of the two incompatible things associated.
And if you're interested in what groups do rather than how they do it, you're in a vast minority. Good for you - you don't have to join a church, even a rationalist one! Nobody's making you!
But people have emotions. It's not 'rational' to ignore this. As Eliezer says, and clarifies in the next post, rationalism [is/is correlated with/causes] winning. If the religious get to have a nice community and we have to do without, then we lose.
Yes, I would like to join a community of people very much like a church, but without all the religious nonsense. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this.