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James_Miller comments on February 2015 Media Thread - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: ArisKatsaris 01 February 2015 11:03AM

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Comment author: advancedatheist 02 February 2015 01:42:22AM *  3 points [-]

Shermer writes that he got married a few months back. I wonder what the new Mrs. Shermer makes of these allegations: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/anomalous-events-that-can-shake-one-s-skepticism-to-the-core/

The whole sexual harassment thing at atheist conventions seems ironic, considering that for generations both christian authority figures and many atheists themselves have maintained that nonbelief in god can lead to a swinging sex life. I've read biographies of several well known atheists - Denis Diderot, Percy Shelley, Bertrand Russell, off the top of my head - and they all articulated some kind of ideological message linking their atheism with sexual freedom. Even female atheists like Emma Goldman, Ayn Rand and Madalyn Murray O'Hair have said things along those lines.

So what has actually happened? When you gather a bunch of atheists together for a conference, do you have a sexual utopia going on in the hotel rooms upstairs? Apparently not. But then people made other bad predictions about atheists' behavior before we had enough atheists around to supply empirical evidence. Godless women still reject non-alpha males, just like other women.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 02 February 2015 08:52:11AM 4 points [-]

How is this relevant? I have never seen Mr. Shermer, so I have no idea whether he is an "alpha" or not, but regardless...

  • being an atheist does not imply a desire for a swinging sexual life
  • a swinging sexual life does not imply consent to sex with a specific person

So speculations about whether atheism can lead to sexual utopia in general are irrelevant for whether a specific person have raped another specific person.

Sexual freedom does not mean people must have sex with everyone. It means that if two (or more) people agree on having sex together, they can have it.