Two things that your perpsective appears to be missing here:
1) Lots of people here were raised in religious families; they didn’t start out privileging atheism. (Or they aren’t atheists per se; I’m agnostic between atheism and deism; it’s just the anthropomorphic interventionist deity I reject.)
2) You aren’t the first believer to come here and present the case you are trying to make. See, for example, the rather epic conversation with Aspiringknitter here. You aren’t even the first Mormon to make the case here. Calcsam has been quite explicit about it.
Note that both of those examples are people who’ve accumulated quite a bit of karma on LessWrong. People give them a fair hearing. They just don’t agree that their arguments are compelling.
Thank you for pointing out perceived fundamental flaws. It’s so much more helpful than disputing technical details.
1) I know that. However, I would guess that most people here have fully privileged atheism since the time they started considering themselves rationalists, and this is a big difference.
2) I was aware of that too; however, thanks for the specific links. I certainly got on here loudly proclaiming that I was religious; however, my original stated purpose was not to start an argument. That said, I really was asking for it, and when people argued, I argued back. Where I live it’s so hard to find people willing to have an intellectual debate about this sort of thing. So if I did something “taboo,” I apologize. But the reaction I’ve gotten suggests that people are interested in what I’ve said, and so my thoughts were worth something at least.
I suppose that when this thread resolves itself I’ll make a grand post on the welcome page just like AspiringKnitter did.
Let me see if I can explain my objection to (1) a different way. Rationalists do not privilege atheism. They privilege parsimony. This is basically a tautology. The only way to subscribe to both rationality and theistic religion is compartmentalization. Saying you want to be rational and a theist is equivalent to saying you want to make a special exception to the principles you follow in every other situation when the subject of God comes up. That’s going to take a particular kind of strong argument.
You’re telling me that it’s essentially impossible to be theist and fully rational. You’re saying that not only do rationalists privilege atheism, but if fact they have to follow it by definition, unless they manage to deceive themselves.
I disagree with your objection and I believe that it is possible to reconcile rationality and religion.
That is not the case. Observing something for which one can provide no natural explanation is going to cause a rationalist to increase their probability estimate for the supernatural. It’s not going to increase it to near certainty, because the mysteriousness of the universe is a fact about the limits of our own understanding, not about the universe, so it’s still possible that something we can’t explain has natural causes we don’t yet have the ability to measure or explain. But it will cause the estimate to rise. And if inexplicable things keep happening, their estimate will keep rising.
The question, though, is whether there is anything that could ever cause you to lower your estimate of the probability that your religion is correct. If the answer is no, then you’re not being rational right off the bat, and your quest is doomed.
The only way to subscribe to both rationality and theistic religion is compartmentalization
What do you mean by compartmentalization, then, if it’s not a bad thing? Sounds to me like it’s sacrificing internal consistency.
The question, though, is whether there is anything that could ever cause you to lower your estimate of the probability that your religion is correct. If the answer is no, then you’re not being rational right off the bat, and your quest is doomed.
That’s true. I actively go looking for things that might challenge my faith, and come out stronger because of it. That’s partly why I’m here.
compartmentalization IS a bad thing if you care about internal consistency and absolute truth. It’s a great thing if you want to hold multiple useful beliefs that contradict each other. You might be happier and more productive, as I’m sure many are, believing that we should expect the world to work based on evidence except insofar as it conflicts with your religion, where it should work on faith.
Also premature decompartmentalizing can be dangerous. There are many sets of (at least mostly) true ideas where it’s a lot harder to reconcile them then to understand either individually.
Two things that your perpsective appears to be missing here:
1) Lots of people here were raised in religious families; they didn’t start out privileging atheism. (Or they aren’t atheists per se; I’m agnostic between atheism and deism; it’s just the anthropomorphic interventionist deity I reject.)
2) You aren’t the first believer to come here and present the case you are trying to make. See, for example, the rather epic conversation with Aspiringknitter here. You aren’t even the first Mormon to make the case here. Calcsam has been quite explicit about it.
Note that both of those examples are people who’ve accumulated quite a bit of karma on LessWrong. People give them a fair hearing. They just don’t agree that their arguments are compelling.
Thank you for pointing out perceived fundamental flaws. It’s so much more helpful than disputing technical details.
1) I know that. However, I would guess that most people here have fully privileged atheism since the time they started considering themselves rationalists, and this is a big difference.
2) I was aware of that too; however, thanks for the specific links. I certainly got on here loudly proclaiming that I was religious; however, my original stated purpose was not to start an argument. That said, I really was asking for it, and when people argued, I argued back. Where I live it’s so hard to find people willing to have an intellectual debate about this sort of thing. So if I did something “taboo,” I apologize. But the reaction I’ve gotten suggests that people are interested in what I’ve said, and so my thoughts were worth something at least.
I suppose that when this thread resolves itself I’ll make a grand post on the welcome page just like AspiringKnitter did.
Let me see if I can explain my objection to (1) a different way. Rationalists do not privilege atheism. They privilege parsimony. This is basically a tautology. The only way to subscribe to both rationality and theistic religion is compartmentalization. Saying you want to be rational and a theist is equivalent to saying you want to make a special exception to the principles you follow in every other situation when the subject of God comes up. That’s going to take a particular kind of strong argument.
You’re telling me that it’s essentially impossible to be theist and fully rational. You’re saying that not only do rationalists privilege atheism, but if fact they have to follow it by definition, unless they manage to deceive themselves.
I disagree with your objection and I believe that it is possible to reconcile rationality and religion.
That is not the case. Observing something for which one can provide no natural explanation is going to cause a rationalist to increase their probability estimate for the supernatural. It’s not going to increase it to near certainty, because the mysteriousness of the universe is a fact about the limits of our own understanding, not about the universe, so it’s still possible that something we can’t explain has natural causes we don’t yet have the ability to measure or explain. But it will cause the estimate to rise. And if inexplicable things keep happening, their estimate will keep rising.
The question, though, is whether there is anything that could ever cause you to lower your estimate of the probability that your religion is correct. If the answer is no, then you’re not being rational right off the bat, and your quest is doomed.
What do you mean by compartmentalization, then, if it’s not a bad thing? Sounds to me like it’s sacrificing internal consistency.
That’s true. I actively go looking for things that might challenge my faith, and come out stronger because of it. That’s partly why I’m here.
compartmentalization IS a bad thing if you care about internal consistency and absolute truth. It’s a great thing if you want to hold multiple useful beliefs that contradict each other. You might be happier and more productive, as I’m sure many are, believing that we should expect the world to work based on evidence except insofar as it conflicts with your religion, where it should work on faith.
Also premature decompartmentalizing can be dangerous. There are many sets of (at least mostly) true ideas where it’s a lot harder to reconcile them then to understand either individually.