KevinGrant comments on Engineering Religion - Less Wrong

2 Post author: KevinGrant 07 December 2015 01:34PM

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Comment author: KevinGrant 13 December 2015 12:02:58PM 0 points [-]

I'm doing a little reading on both of them now. Big question: how to make them successful as social movements. I wonder if their elements can be modeled in a fashion similar to that which I did above. And if so, if there's anything that such an application can tell us about how to improve their chances for success.

Comment author: Tem42 13 December 2015 03:31:14PM 0 points [-]

This sort of problem is susceptible to the red queen's race -- if you solve it, that just means that lots of people will copy you, and you will find yourself in competition with a new crop of viral religions. You don't make much long-term progress by being innovative, so perhaps your best bet is to copy some moderately successful cults and hope that power won't corrupt you. The Hare Krishnas are a good template -- just avoid the racketeering, mail fraud, murder, and child abuse, and you should do fine.

Comment author: ChristianKl 13 December 2015 12:57:21PM 0 points [-]

I don't think it's even helpful to model them in that way. Your list for example doesn't contain a point for "community". It doesn't consider the need for charismatic leaders.

There not much reason to focus on issues like contraception because a good new ideology can spread much faster if the community can recruit well and give new members a lot of value.