Would it be moral or rational to try and save them from their own folly, or to write it up to personal choice instead?
I’d say yes, within limits. For example if it was a fact that masturbation made you go to hell, I’d be in favour of heavily censoring porn, and finding ways to reduce the incidence of masturbation. But not necessarily chaining people’s hands to their beds against their will (though even that is questionable—I would certainly be in favor of offering people the possibility of signing up for having their hands forcibly chained to their bed!).
By the way, you get roughly the same issue with drug use: is it moral or rational to try to save someone from becoming addicted to a drug that will ruin his life? (This is separate from the question of which substances can ruin someone’s life)
I’d say yes, within limits. For example if it was a fact that masturbation made you go to hell, I’d be in favour of heavily censoring porn, and finding ways to reduce the incidence of masturbation. But not necessarily chaining people’s hands to their beds against their will (though even that is questionable—I would certainly be in favor of offering people the possibility of signing up for having their hands forcibly chained to their bed!).
By the way, you get roughly the same issue with drug use: is it moral or rational to try to save someone from becoming addicted to a drug that will ruin his life? (This is separate from the question of which substances can ruin someone’s life)