Open Thread, January 15-31, 2012

OpenThreadGuy

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

(I plan to make these threads from now on. Downvote if you disapprove. If I miss one, feel free to do it yourself.)

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

(I plan to make these threads from now on. Downvote if you disapprove. If I miss one, feel free to do it yourself.)

At LW, religion is often used as a textbook example of irrationality. To some extent, this is correct. Belief in untestable supernatural is a textbook example of belief in belief and privileging the hypothesis.

However, religion is not only about belief in supernatural. A mainstream church that survives centuries must have a lot of instrumental rationality. It must provide solutions for everyday life. There are centuries of knowledge accumulated in these solutions. Mixed with a lot of irrationality, sure. Many religious people were pretty smart, for example Reverend Thomas Bayes, right? Also in my life I know religious people whose rationality is very high above average.

I am afraid that because of the halo effect we can miss a great source of rationality here. For example I am pretty sure that there are many successful anti-acrasia tactics written by religious authors. Another example: a list of capital sins, if you replace the religious terminology with something more lesswrongian, is simply a list of mental biases. (Pride = refusing to use an outside view. Gluttony = using a scarcity mindset in an abundance environment.) So I guess we could sometimes reuse the wheel instead of reinventing it.

0NancyLebovitz14y

Accedia, an overview of catholic (and other, if I remember correctly) writing about sloth, plus a personal memoir. As I recall, quite an interesting book, but not personally useful-- and this is backed up by the top three amazon reviews. The fact that such a seriously researched book doesn't turn up much that's easily useful (a more careful or motivated reader might have found something) suggests that there may not be much practical advice in the tradition. This is reminding me of Theodore Sturgeon's complaint that Christianity told people to be more loving, but didn't say anything about how. (From memory, I don't have a cite.)

8Nisan14y

Have you seen this sequence? It reveals how the LDS church gets things done: By providing a real community for its members, and making them feel like they belong by giving them responsibilities. I'm sure an aspiring-rationalist version of that would be even better. This is the super-secret rationality technique of churches. It's the reason religious people are happier than nonreligious people in the US. It's the domain where religious people are correct when they say that nonreligious people are missing out on something good. Now we just have to implement it. It's not something that we can do individually.

16

Open Thread, January 15-31, 2012

16

16

16

Open Thread, January 15-31, 2012

16

16