I think that people have to use abstractions and beliefs taken on faith just to exist in the world. I also think that if you are not really disciplined about stating your ‘I just assume blank to be true’ beliefs, you will end up with a bunch of unstated assumptions worming their way into your psyche that will lead you to weird and unhealthy places (would SSC categorize this as ‘Moloch’?)
Puritanical sexual beliefs (those practiced by 1600s Puritans in Massachusetts Bay) are in my opinion a good example of potentially healthy, but utterly irrational dogmas. To summarize (I have a source somewhere):
Married sex is a sacrament, unmarried sex is a grave sin. (Married being a social state that is easy for two people to enter but hard for them to leave)
Conceiving children is important and good.
Both parties much achieve orgasm during the act of intercourse to conceive a child.
Lack of sexual satisfaction is grounds for divorce by either party.
The details of ‘sex’ are explicitly left undefined.
One of those beliefs (orgasm and conception) is objectively false, but may be socially useful. The others are simply communally agreed upon truths.
Rationalism that leads to nihilistic hedonism and acrasia seems like a bad idea, even if life is pointless and the universe is actively hostile. I think I’m in step with this community’s ethos when I assert that most people accidentally end up with a variety of false beliefs. I think I break with the rest of this community in my assertion that maintaining carefully chosen, but objectively false, beliefs is a good idea.
Married sex is a sacrament, unmarried sex is a grave sin. (Married being a social state that is easy for two people to enter but hard for them to leave)
You realize that they didn’t have birth control, right? Sex makes babies. Marriage provides the legal infrastructure for parents to raise kids; for example a married woman is likely to have a man around when she’s too pregnant for agricultural labor. All known human societies have something like marriage (in considerable variations), and it’s hardly surprising that they thought sex without marriage was a bad idea.
Conceiving children is important and good.
If our ancestors hadn’t, we literally wouldn’t exist. Also remember that sex and conception back then were one decision, not two separate decisions.
The details of ‘sex’ are explicitly left undefined.
Even squirrels figure out sex well enough to get by. They seem to have managed.
Overall, the Puritan attitude toward sex doesn’t seem that irrational to me. There are fairly obvious reasons to adopt each of their policies, even if they were substantially ignorant of biology.
carefully chosen, but objectively false, beliefs
If you believe they’re objectively false, you don’t believe them. You believe that they’re convenient, not that they’re worth living for. If you ever get in a situation where everything has gone sideways and you really need an answer to what it’s all about, as most people eventually do, they won’t be enough.
Life has been way better since becoming an adherent of (Warhammer 40K lore)
If you have any pull with Nurgle the Plague Lord, could you ask him to knock it off?
I think that people have to use abstractions and beliefs taken on faith just to exist in the world. I also think that if you are not really disciplined about stating your ‘I just assume blank to be true’ beliefs, you will end up with a bunch of unstated assumptions worming their way into your psyche that will lead you to weird and unhealthy places (would SSC categorize this as ‘Moloch’?)
Puritanical sexual beliefs (those practiced by 1600s Puritans in Massachusetts Bay) are in my opinion a good example of potentially healthy, but utterly irrational dogmas. To summarize (I have a source somewhere):
Married sex is a sacrament, unmarried sex is a grave sin. (Married being a social state that is easy for two people to enter but hard for them to leave)
Conceiving children is important and good.
Both parties much achieve orgasm during the act of intercourse to conceive a child.
Lack of sexual satisfaction is grounds for divorce by either party.
The details of ‘sex’ are explicitly left undefined.
One of those beliefs (orgasm and conception) is objectively false, but may be socially useful. The others are simply communally agreed upon truths.
Rationalism that leads to nihilistic hedonism and acrasia seems like a bad idea, even if life is pointless and the universe is actively hostile. I think I’m in step with this community’s ethos when I assert that most people accidentally end up with a variety of false beliefs. I think I break with the rest of this community in my assertion that maintaining carefully chosen, but objectively false, beliefs is a good idea.
Life has been way better since becoming an adherent of https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Chaos_Undivided
You should try it!
Married sex is a sacrament, unmarried sex is a grave sin. (Married being a social state that is easy for two people to enter but hard for them to leave)
You realize that they didn’t have birth control, right? Sex makes babies. Marriage provides the legal infrastructure for parents to raise kids; for example a married woman is likely to have a man around when she’s too pregnant for agricultural labor. All known human societies have something like marriage (in considerable variations), and it’s hardly surprising that they thought sex without marriage was a bad idea.
Conceiving children is important and good.
If our ancestors hadn’t, we literally wouldn’t exist. Also remember that sex and conception back then were one decision, not two separate decisions.
The details of ‘sex’ are explicitly left undefined.
Even squirrels figure out sex well enough to get by. They seem to have managed.
Overall, the Puritan attitude toward sex doesn’t seem that irrational to me. There are fairly obvious reasons to adopt each of their policies, even if they were substantially ignorant of biology.
carefully chosen, but objectively false, beliefs
If you believe they’re objectively false, you don’t believe them. You believe that they’re convenient, not that they’re worth living for. If you ever get in a situation where everything has gone sideways and you really need an answer to what it’s all about, as most people eventually do, they won’t be enough.
Life has been way better since becoming an adherent of (Warhammer 40K lore)
If you have any pull with Nurgle the Plague Lord, could you ask him to knock it off?