SaidAchmiz comments on Ritual 2012: A Moment of Darkness - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Raemon 28 December 2012 09:09AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 26 December 2012 11:52:14PM 4 points [-]

BTW, there are plenty of monogamists who think it's immoral for anyone to have a sexual relationship with someone without also committing to not have sex with anyone else, whereas I'd guess there aren't many poly people who think it's immoral for other people to have monogamous relationships.

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 27 December 2012 12:17:13AM 2 points [-]

How many monogamists hold such opinions but not due to religiosity (or the unexamined remnants of former religiosity)?

Comment author: Desrtopa 27 December 2012 01:22:01AM 3 points [-]

Well, quite a lot aren't aware of the existence of polyamory at all. If they think that a person who's in a sexual relationship with someone would necessarily feel betrayed if they knew that person was also having sex with someone else, they would be likely to consider it immoral even without a religious basis.

Numerically, though, I have no idea.

Comment author: [deleted] 27 December 2012 01:24:08PM *  1 point [-]

I dunno -- but if you mean “the unexamined remnants of former religiosity” on a societal level¹ rather than on an individual level, then I guess that's the main reason for the overwhelming majority of such people to hold such opinions. There might also be a few people who know that monogamy can curb the spread of STDs and lack a clear distinction between terminal and instrumental values, and/or (possibly incorrectly²) believe that monogamy is “natural” (i.e. it was the norm in the EEA) and commit the naturalistic fallacy, though.


  1. i.e., a society used to have a memeplex, originating from religion, which included the idea that “one can only (romantically) love one person at a time”; that society has since shed most of that memeplex, but not that particular idea, which is still part of the intersubjective truth -- even among individuals who were never religious in the first place.

  2. “Possibly” meaning that I don't know myself, because I haven't looked into that yet -- not that I've seen all the available evidence and concluded it doesn't definitely point one way or another.