“Belief” is a notion that isn’t necessarily tied to literal truth. Aquinas once said that “all statements about God are metaphors,” and Niebuhr (sp?) said something to the effect that “religious statements should be taken seriously, but not literally.” For a more recent (and accessible) variation, consider Tony Hillerman’s novels, in which one of his principal characters, Jim Chee, studies to be a Navaho shaman (not quite the right word, but I forget the Navaho one), taking myths very seriously without for a minute thinking that they are history. (Hillerman himself is Catholic, so he doesn’t think the Navaho myths are literal truth either.) Discussions of religious belief on this blog seem to me to assume too readily that they are just like beliefs about science or history. To some people, no doubt, they are. But not to me, and not to a lot of other religious people, either. I think there’s a bias about religion here, that needs to be overcome.
The cow thing does seem a stretch, though, even on the most sympathetic possible interpretation.
From the way this woman is portrayed in this post, this woman obviously believed that the myth was literally true, or was acting like she believed it for some other purpose.
If she actually believed in the literal interpretation of this creation myth, then it doesn’t matter whether or not there is a plausible metaphorical or symbolical interpretation. The subject matter, and conclusion of this post is indifferent to the nature of the myth. What matters is what that woman believed. Whether Yudkowsky is biased or not is irrelevant to the purpose of his post. (Unless were not assuming that this creation myth is false.)
Wow, I was coming to edit this post, and you responded so quickly...well, thank you.
I foolishly neglected to research this creation myth before commenting. I now can see how this myth could be purposely using symbolical language. But I wouldn’t know how to correctly understand it, without over-interpreting it. (That is if its worth interpreting.)
“Belief” is a notion that isn’t necessarily tied to literal truth. Aquinas once said that “all statements about God are metaphors,” and Niebuhr (sp?) said something to the effect that “religious statements should be taken seriously, but not literally.” For a more recent (and accessible) variation, consider Tony Hillerman’s novels, in which one of his principal characters, Jim Chee, studies to be a Navaho shaman (not quite the right word, but I forget the Navaho one), taking myths very seriously without for a minute thinking that they are history. (Hillerman himself is Catholic, so he doesn’t think the Navaho myths are literal truth either.) Discussions of religious belief on this blog seem to me to assume too readily that they are just like beliefs about science or history. To some people, no doubt, they are. But not to me, and not to a lot of other religious people, either. I think there’s a bias about religion here, that needs to be overcome.
The cow thing does seem a stretch, though, even on the most sympathetic possible interpretation.
From the way this woman is portrayed in this post, this woman obviously believed that the myth was literally true, or was acting like she believed it for some other purpose.
If she actually believed in the literal interpretation of this creation myth, then it doesn’t matter whether or not there is a plausible metaphorical or symbolical interpretation. The subject matter, and conclusion of this post is indifferent to the nature of the myth. What matters is what that woman believed. Whether Yudkowsky is biased or not is irrelevant to the purpose of his post. (Unless were not assuming that this creation myth is false.)
This:
Was basically just an attempt to be clever making a play on words related to “Overcoming Bias”. They were all the rage.
Wow, I was coming to edit this post, and you responded so quickly...well, thank you.
I foolishly neglected to research this creation myth before commenting. I now can see how this myth could be purposely using symbolical language. But I wouldn’t know how to correctly understand it, without over-interpreting it. (That is if its worth interpreting.)