“As long as the idea’s adherents are human, they will be vulnerable to the flaws in reasoning that cause cults.”
I could say many things here, but hear me out… this one is the most important:
That quote is a circular argument fallacy. It goes: ‘Humans cause cults so if you have humans in your group they will cause a cult’
It ignores the idea that the humans MAY not cause a cult.
I agree where it says: “Simply basing a group around the idea of being rational is not enough.”
But i see that by following critical thinking criteria of credibility and scientific and debating procedure. Would render the group safely filling the criteria of being ‘rational’.
I don’t think it’s a rigorous statement, but I don’t think the intended line of reasoning was “human beings cause cults, ergo all human begins cause cults.” The implied reasoning (in my mind anyway) was “If you look at selection pressures within groups (in general) and knowledge of human psychology, you will see that most humans, when grouped together around a cause, have a tendency towards cultishness, and that means that unless you’re specifically guarding against it, your group will probably become increasingly cultish over time.”
“As long as the idea’s adherents are human, they will be vulnerable to the flaws in reasoning that cause cults.” I could say many things here, but hear me out… this one is the most important:
That quote is a circular argument fallacy. It goes: ‘Humans cause cults so if you have humans in your group they will cause a cult’
It ignores the idea that the humans MAY not cause a cult. I agree where it says: “Simply basing a group around the idea of being rational is not enough.”
But i see that by following critical thinking criteria of credibility and scientific and debating procedure. Would render the group safely filling the criteria of being ‘rational’.
I don’t think it’s a rigorous statement, but I don’t think the intended line of reasoning was “human beings cause cults, ergo all human begins cause cults.” The implied reasoning (in my mind anyway) was “If you look at selection pressures within groups (in general) and knowledge of human psychology, you will see that most humans, when grouped together around a cause, have a tendency towards cultishness, and that means that unless you’re specifically guarding against it, your group will probably become increasingly cultish over time.”