ScottL comments on Robert Aumann on Judaism - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (60)
Anybody have a clue what he means by all this?
I think that he is essentially saying the he believes in the idea of non overlapping magisteria. It should be fairly obvious that this is a case of compartmentalization. Here is a related post religions claim to be nondisprovable
Here are some other quotes from the interview not in the OP:
Do you think this is a valid way of looking at the world and/or religion? If not, how confident are you in your assertion? If you are very confident, on what basis do you think you have greatly out-thought Robert Aumann?
No. I won’t go into details, but see crisis of faith which also talks about Aumann. I also don’t think it’s a matter of out-thinking, per say, I think that it is more of a matter of clearer thinking. I am not a religious authority or been brought up with a religion, so I can see it from the outside. I think that a big reason for Aumann’s belief is the costs involved if he were to start to disbelieve. See the below quotes:
There might also be an element of learned blankness. That is, going to Rabbis to sort out moral dilemmas for you instead of thinking about it yourself. Without religion it often becomes harder to know what is right or wrong and perhaps Aumann does not like that.
a confirmed Bayesian
I would be careful here. I find it useful to think that to be a 'rationalist' you actually have to be a rationalist. That is, you need to actually practice what you have learnt otherwise you only know about rationality. Aumann knows a lot about Bayesianism, but this doesn't necessarily make him a confirmed Bayesian. It just means that he knows a lot about what a Bayesian agent would be.
"Non-overlapping magisteria" is absolutely the right phrase to use when describing Aumann's defense of his religious beliefs. Further, I'd point out that it seems like Aumann really wants Judaism to be true, in that he enjoys being Jewish, and feels that he'd lose tangible benefits (such as being able to enjoy the sabbath) by becoming a secular person. I think it's somewhat common for religious people to feel threatened by the thought of losing something in the process of becoming atheists, and that this fear can push them into adopting positions (such as the non-overlapping magisteria position) they wouldn't have otherwise adopted. I'm not sure that most religious folks adopting such positions for such reasons are aware that these reasons are their true rejections of atheism, though. Sometimes, making people feel comfortable (with, for example, the idea that they can have supportive social networks without being religious) is half of the battle.
On a personal note, I was raised in a religious family, and I always enjoyed the peace and warmth that came along with the Christmas season. Since becoming an atheist, I've found that I can get the same warm feelings by being nice to others, and by drinking spiced black teas. Similarly, I still like gregorian chants just as much as I did years ago. Very little is lost upon becoming a secular person.