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MugaSofer comments on What truths are actually taboo? - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: sunflowers 16 April 2013 11:40PM

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Comment author: MugaSofer 18 April 2013 08:16:11PM 3 points [-]

And after the Communist regime fell, in only a few years Russia has become about as publicly religious as the US.

... which is significantly lower than before it was outlawed.

Comment author: Oligopsony 19 April 2013 07:54:52PM 1 point [-]

Had it never been officially discouraged in the first place, I would still expect it to be less popular in 2013 than 1913. Wouldn't you?

Comment author: gwern 19 April 2013 09:01:12PM 2 points [-]

Wouldn't you?

The "secularization hypothesis" is seductive and common, but if you google, you'll see that it's debated whether societies do in fact become less religious as they get richer.

Comment author: MugaSofer 19 April 2013 11:20:09PM -1 points [-]

Honestly, I'm so uninformed any opinion I have on the subject is almost totally uncertain. I've typed out multiple replies to this comment, and deleted them all because I simply didn't have a high enough confidence rating. Sorry!

OTOH, religions can either get more or less popular, so all things being equal (which I doubt they are in real life) lowered popularity is evidence for the laws working.

Comment author: DanArmak 18 April 2013 11:24:23PM 1 point [-]

But is still higher than other Western countries today, and is a very sharp rise over the past twenty years, which may be still continuing.

Comment author: MugaSofer 19 April 2013 11:49:03AM *  0 points [-]

Would this be true if communism hadn't fallen?

Still, you're right, it doesn't seem to have stuck.