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Nornagest comments on Thwarting a Catholic conversion? - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Jay_Schweikert 18 June 2012 04:26PM

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Comment author: Nornagest 19 June 2012 02:09:29AM 5 points [-]

Nobody converts to Thor-worship or pastafarianism; they do convert to major traditions

I've met a number of converts to Asatru, as well as several relatively serious followers of semi-parody religions like Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius. Don't think I've ever met a serious Pastafarian, but I'm not going to rule out the possibility of their existence. Unsubstantiated personal gnosis can point people in some pretty strange directions.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 19 June 2012 08:50:00AM 0 points [-]
Comment author: selylindi 19 June 2012 08:32:54PM -1 points [-]

OK. Do you happen to know what they converted from?

Comment author: Nornagest 19 June 2012 09:44:46PM 0 points [-]

Catholicism in one case, a secular upbringing in another. I don't know or remember the rest.

Comment author: selylindi 06 August 2012 01:56:19PM -1 points [-]

Interesting that the two came from opposite origins. I genuinely didn't know there were serious followers of those religions. It seems I incorrectly generalized from the people I've encountered, who merely use those religions for jest and argument.

So I'll retract my claim and instead agree with the author's risk evaluation. If you're going to analyze and critique a belief system, be wary of developing an unconscious Us Vs Them dichotomy in your mental model. If the argument is conceived of as strictly a two-player game, then weaknesses in your theory are strengths in your opponent's. But where the range of alternative theories is practically infinite, a reduction in the probability of your belief is balanced by only an infinitesimal increase in the probability of a specific other belief.