The hardline secularism is probably alienating (and frankly, are there not many people for whom at least the outward appearance of belief is rational, when it is what ties them to their communities?) to many people who could still learn a lot. Science can be promoted as an alternative to mysticism in a way that isn’t hostile and doesn’t provoke instant dismissal by those who most need that alternative.
The hardline secularism (which might be better described as a community norm of atheism, given that some of the community favors creating community structures which take on the role of religious participation,) isn’t a prerequisite so much as a conclusion, but it’s one that’s generally held within the community to be pretty basic.
However, so many of the lessons of epistemic rationality bear on religious belief that not addressing the matter at all would probably smack of willful avoidance.
In a sense, rationality might function as an alternative to mysticism. Eliezer has spoken for instance about how he tries to present certain lessons of rationality as deeply wise so that people will not come to it looking for wisdom, find simple “answers,” and be tempted to look for deep wisdom elsewhere. But there’s another very important sense where, if you treat rationality like mysticism, the result is that you’ll completely fuck up at rationality, and get a group that worships some “rational” sounding buzzwords without gaining any useful insight into reasoning.
Keep in mind that insofar as Less Wrong has educational goals, it’s not trying to reach as wide an audience as possible, it’s trying to teach as many people as possible to get it right. If “reaching” an audience means instilling them with some memes which don’t have much use in isolation, while leaving out important components of rationality, that measure has basically failed.
One would expect an alternative to a thing to share enough characteristics with the thing to make it an alternative.
Turkey is an alternative to chicken. Ice cream is not. Teaching rationality through stories and deep-wisdom tropes is an alternative to teaching mysticism through stories and deep-wisdom tropes. Teaching rationality through academic papers is not.
The hardline secularism (which might be better described as a community norm of atheism, given that some of the community favors creating community structures which take on the role of religious participation,) isn’t a prerequisite so much as a conclusion, but it’s one that’s generally held within the community to be pretty basic.
However, so many of the lessons of epistemic rationality bear on religious belief that not addressing the matter at all would probably smack of willful avoidance.
In a sense, rationality might function as an alternative to mysticism. Eliezer has spoken for instance about how he tries to present certain lessons of rationality as deeply wise so that people will not come to it looking for wisdom, find simple “answers,” and be tempted to look for deep wisdom elsewhere. But there’s another very important sense where, if you treat rationality like mysticism, the result is that you’ll completely fuck up at rationality, and get a group that worships some “rational” sounding buzzwords without gaining any useful insight into reasoning.
Keep in mind that insofar as Less Wrong has educational goals, it’s not trying to reach as wide an audience as possible, it’s trying to teach as many people as possible to get it right. If “reaching” an audience means instilling them with some memes which don’t have much use in isolation, while leaving out important components of rationality, that measure has basically failed.
Given that Eliezer wrote HPMOR is not really turning away from mysticism and teaching through stories.
One would expect an alternative to a thing to share enough characteristics with the thing to make it an alternative.
Turkey is an alternative to chicken. Ice cream is not. Teaching rationality through stories and deep-wisdom tropes is an alternative to teaching mysticism through stories and deep-wisdom tropes. Teaching rationality through academic papers is not.