Pseudonymous2 comments on Guardians of the Truth - Less Wrong

31 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 December 2007 06:44PM

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Comment author: Pseudonymous2 16 December 2007 10:05:45PM 4 points [-]

"The Inquisition thought they had the truth! Clearly this 'truth' business is dangerous."

The Inquisition was not that unusual. Religious and political loyalties tended to be quite entwined, so most states discriminated against believers in the wrong religion, sometimes banning such religions entirely. This naturally led to people carrying on the old (or new) beliefs in secret.

So the Inquisition was empowered to go looking for those secret heretics.

There were large, bloody and religiously inspired wars in Britain, France and Germany, to name but three.

There were none in Spain or Portugal, so perhaps the Inquisition did more good than you think.

Comment author: Rixie 01 November 2012 11:33:15PM 0 points [-]

This website kinda beats up on Christianity a lot . . . I'm sure that there are plenty of other influental religions to bang on . . .

Comment author: Strange7 14 November 2012 03:42:12AM 1 point [-]

Sure, but Shinto doesn't get so pushy about boneheaded cosmological claims. Mostly they just dance. Where's the fun in arguing with that?

Comment author: Desrtopa 14 November 2012 05:12:25AM 1 point [-]

Well, they do charge for purification rituals and so on (modern Shinto shrines are basically businesses, they have to get their money somewhere,) but I don't think anyone on this site has ever felt pressured to pay for their services.

Comment author: Strange7 15 November 2012 12:10:06AM -1 points [-]

Making a living by performing standardized services for money on the open market is pretty much the opposite of the sort of thought and behavior this site tends to "bang on."

Comment author: Desrtopa 16 November 2012 02:56:33AM 3 points [-]

Well, we've got a lot of libertarian and libertarian-leaning members, but I think a lot of people here are also not so hot on businesses like, say, homeopathy, which provide goods or services on the presumption that they do something that they actually don't.

Comment author: MugaSofer 14 November 2012 09:56:47AM 2 points [-]

How is this "beating up on Christianity"? Pseudonymous is saying that the Inquisition - the main counterargument to the claim that Christianity is good for society - was actually justified. That seems like defending Christianity to me.