I think that, in practice, a few religious people on LW are harmless and will probably have a positive effect.
It seems politically correct to go softly-softly on the few theists here, but let’s not forget that theism is known to systematically lead to false beliefs (above and beyond the [probabilistically] false belief that there is a God), such as theistic moral realism, denial of evolution and evolutionary psychology, and abandonment of the scientific method. In a community dedicated to creating an accurate map-territory correspondence by systematic weighing of evidence and by fostering a fundamental mistrust of the corrupted hardware that we run on, theism is not welcome en-masse.
I would add that in order to be welcome en-masse, theism first has to be welcome in small quantities, which seems to be the case already, judging from the overall positive response to the original post. This makes me think that Less Wrong is on the path to failure as a rationalist community.
I think that a mass invasion of theists is unlikely for social reasons—they just won’t bother to come; I don’t lie awake at night frightened that when I next check LW the top article will be about how we can learn rationality lessons from JC.
Neither would I. The last several months has been another of those depressing periods where I have gotten my nose rubbed in the essential truth of Lazarus Long’s “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
I think that, in practice, a few religious people on LW are harmless and will probably have a positive effect.
It seems politically correct to go softly-softly on the few theists here, but let’s not forget that theism is known to systematically lead to false beliefs (above and beyond the [probabilistically] false belief that there is a God), such as theistic moral realism, denial of evolution and evolutionary psychology, and abandonment of the scientific method. In a community dedicated to creating an accurate map-territory correspondence by systematic weighing of evidence and by fostering a fundamental mistrust of the corrupted hardware that we run on, theism is not welcome en-masse.
Hear, hear.
I would add that in order to be welcome en-masse, theism first has to be welcome in small quantities, which seems to be the case already, judging from the overall positive response to the original post. This makes me think that Less Wrong is on the path to failure as a rationalist community.
I think that a mass invasion of theists is unlikely for social reasons—they just won’t bother to come; I don’t lie awake at night frightened that when I next check LW the top article will be about how we can learn rationality lessons from JC.
Neither do I, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a post promoting religious accommodationism before 2010 is over.
Neither would I. The last several months has been another of those depressing periods where I have gotten my nose rubbed in the essential truth of Lazarus Long’s “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”