Robin Hanson recently wrote about this on Overcoming Bias. I don’t see what’s wrong with it. The no-criticism rule can be a useful instrument in some scenarios, but I generally feel innate frustration with entire institutions that are predicated on the no-criticism rule. It speaks to the larger problem of being unwilling to critically examine evidence. In some cases, a church is basically predicated on the idea that (implicitly within a wide range of cultural norms, but this is never explicitly stated) any uncontroversial opinion is equally valid. In my worldview, that’s often a contemptible idea all on its own merits. It has very negative consequences even if it can sometimes allow for coalition productivity in achieving subgoals. Those subgoals would have to be mighty highly valued by me before their benefit would offset the cost of perpetuating the idea that the social discomfort of critical examination makes it bad and in need of avoidance.
Robin Hanson recently wrote about this on Overcoming Bias. I don’t see what’s wrong with it. The no-criticism rule can be a useful instrument in some scenarios, but I generally feel innate frustration with entire institutions that are predicated on the no-criticism rule. It speaks to the larger problem of being unwilling to critically examine evidence. In some cases, a church is basically predicated on the idea that (implicitly within a wide range of cultural norms, but this is never explicitly stated) any uncontroversial opinion is equally valid. In my worldview, that’s often a contemptible idea all on its own merits. It has very negative consequences even if it can sometimes allow for coalition productivity in achieving subgoals. Those subgoals would have to be mighty highly valued by me before their benefit would offset the cost of perpetuating the idea that the social discomfort of critical examination makes it bad and in need of avoidance.