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Keep your identity small (2009)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#101

Post by tomp »

reedlaw wrote: post #55

This is the weakest pg essay I've come across. I can think of so many counter-examples. "Stand for nothing and you'll fall for anything." It's very convenient to have a small identity with few convictions because convictions are costly. Sophie Scholl identified with anti-Nazi politics and it cost her her life. We have a word for people like her: hero.

Did she identify with anti-Nazi politics or did she only support them because her principles and deepest beliefs told her that Nazi politics is just wrong?

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#102

Post by tomp »

sysk wrote: post #90
athenot wrote: post #53

I don't think it's so much about identity as it is about (in)security. Regarding politics, I completely follow his argument: I don't identify with any party and like to think I'm evaluating each policy on its on merits and according to my personal beliefs. Which leads me to the other one. I happen to be Catholic and strongly believe in the mental and societal framework put forth by that theology. However, I'm more th…

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#103

Post by tonyedgecombe »

tomp wrote: post #102
sysk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

Atheism doesn't have any doctrines or the spiritual connection of a religion.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#104

Post by tomp »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #103
tomp wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

Atheism doesn't have any doctrines or the spiritual connection of a religion.

I didn't say it does. But it requires faith, i.e. belief into something that is fundamentally unprovable.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#105

Post by DavidWanjiru »

ixtli wrote: post #74

> any mention of religion on an online forum degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with Javascript Then later > the question of the relative merits of programming languages often degenerates into a religious war, because so many programmers identify as X programmers or Y programmers. Also as another poster said, this works because he's been able to go his entire life c…

"Keep" implies agency and control. Keep it simple. Keep me posted. Keep your identity small. The entire article is premised on the existence of this agency and control. If it is lacking, then I would argue that that's not the type of situation he is speaking to.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#106

Post by erikpukinskis »

Spivak wrote: post #81
zyxley wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded of the inevitable "I'm not biased, but I'm going to complain about this because I think it's an attack on me" that comes up whenever anyone on the internet mentions that institutional racism exists.

You do understand the other side's situation right? You are, albeit impersonally, being accused of participating in something monstrous, the institutional subjugation and prejudicial treatment of an entire class of people, and there is literally nothing you can say or do which will demonstrate otherwise since your racist acts are unconscious and unknowable to you. It's like trying to convince someone that you're not…

If you don't believe in widespread racism, what is your explanation for why people of color, as a group, keep having a bad time?

It can't be some property of them, because believing that would be racist, right? If it's not them and it's not us (I'm white) then what is it?

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#107

Post by [deleted] »

tomp wrote: post #102
sysk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

[deleted]

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#108

Post by rcxdude »

tomp wrote: post #102
sysk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

Depends on your precise definition. Most atheists consider atheism the lack of belief in a god, as opposed to the belief that there is no god. The distinction is important.

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#109

Post by eivarv »

tomp wrote: post #102
sysk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.

Atheism is faith just like any other; belief that no god exists is just as substantiated (i.e. not at all) and provable (i.e. not at all) as the belief that particular god(s) exist.

What sysk is saying that atheism is not the belief that no god exists, but rather the lack of a belief in a god.

It's also not as if any two unsubstantiated and unprovable positions are just as likely to be true; see Russell's teapot[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot

Re: Keep your identity small (2009)

#110

Post by wastedhours »

tomp wrote: post #104
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atheism doesn't have any doctrines or the spiritual connection of a religion.

I didn't say it does. But it requires faith , i.e. belief into something that is fundamentally unprovable.

Still depending on definitions, but faith is the belief in something. Not accepting that there's anything to have belief in is something separate, and grouping a-theism with different types of theism isn't a usually accepted argument. I appreciate the angle you're taking, but the semantics of it are important.
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