Poll: What is your religion? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#141

Post by anthonyb » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:52 AM UTC

kylemathews wrote: post #132

anthonyb wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faith healing was just an example. You can substitute pretty much any "because God said so" explanation. I think the reason that the world makes sense for most people is because they have their adequacy levels set too high - they're too used to 'hand wavy' explanations and not having to actually think through things for themselves.

I think that was augustl's point. Most atheist understand just as little about science as most religious people understand about God. And is there any difference really between a "because God said so" explanation and a "because the Doctor said so" explanation? To follow either, you must rely on faith in the goodness and wisdom of the instruction given as you don't fully understand the reasoning behind it. To the reli…

For the "because the Doctor said so" version, you can at least ask for an explanation. If you ask, there'll be a number of papers and/or scientific studies behind the decision and the doctor will be able to tell you their reasoning, which is normally straightforward ie. we can treat it like this, which gives you an x% chance of recovery, or like that which is x+y%

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#142

Post by philwelch » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:55 AM UTC

zemaj wrote: post #58

Tycho wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as far as everyday life goes, would it make a difference? Being part of the religions usually means various changes to your routines

I think the split is a fairly good indication of how rational someone is. People who consider themselves atheist tend to act more rationally in the bayesian sense. I'd like to see a split between atheists and agnostics, particularly because the numbers are so high in that category in this community. I would guess that there would be many more agnostics than atheists. I don't think that being an entrepreneur is partic…

Not necessarily--rational Bayesians are more often atheists, but lots of atheists are completely irrational people who have been raised with atheist beliefs by secular liberal society, just like lots of religious people are completely irrational people who have been raised by religious society. (There are also a small number of highly rational people who have, in my opinion, a very small, God-shaped blind spot in their thinking.)

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#143

Post by hakl » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:55 AM UTC

Emacsian. I don't believe in God, so atheist is technically correct, but probably misleading.

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#144

Post by zephjc » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:55 AM UTC

Taoist (in the classical sense) so I voted Atheist

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#145

Post by apinstein » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:58 AM UTC

Gormo wrote: post #105

It's fairly common for people to respond to this sort of question by saying something along the lines of "I disapprove of organized religion, but have spiritual faith." My own view is exactly the opposite. I see the value in the ritual, community, and psychological "anchor" that organized religion can provide. But spiritual faith seems absurd; why mix your emotional security and your sense of identity up with a bunch…

Mine, too. It's called secular humanism.

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#146

Post by jodrellblank » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 2:58 AM UTC

lukeqsee wrote: post #125

etherael wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "where'd it come from" clause can terminate successfully at the genesis of time proper, to define a time prior to time is to posit a time where there was still time, ergo... "Big guy in the sky was hanging around in void and created it all" posits nothing about the nature of time, and in fact infers that time is eternal and has always been, as big guy in the sky is eternal and has always been, that's why it's not…

No. It can't. Where'd time come from?

might be time to reread Timeless Physics http://lesswrong.com/lw/qp/timeless_physics/

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#147

Post by hakl » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 3:00 AM UTC

Gormo wrote: post #122

MikeCapone wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whether or not God exists objectively isn't really something I think about or care about answering. I think that you could fairly be described as an agnostic, then.

Apathetist is a better description. An agnostic says he doesn't know the answer; I'm saying the question is meaningless.

That sounds vaguely like ignosticism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignosticism

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#148

Post by memetichazard » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 3:00 AM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #60

michael_nielsen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe in God because I've never heard a good reason to believe in God. I find it odd that you presume a need for a good reason to not believe in something. If I did need such reasons, I'd need a good reason to not believe in invisible pink unicorns, teapots in orbit around Saturn, and many other things. (Apologies if I've misinterpreted you.)

Let's assume that neither of us know if God REALLY exists...don't you think it might be safer to hedge your bet and believe in a god - for the afterlife? What will it cost you to believe in God while you are alive? Nothing. What will it cost you if there really is a god and you chose not to believe? Could cost you eternity. So why not believe? The upside is (in the worst case) the same as not believing, but the downs…

My preferred counterargument to this (Pascal's Wager) is that assuming there is a god, professing to believe in him just to avoid eternal damnation is more likely to damn you than being honest. Does believing for the sake of belief count as belief? (see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavkas_toxin_puzzle) which feels related)

And there is the problem of 'multitude of religions' which other people (and you) have mentioned.

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#149

Post by PostOnce » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 3:01 AM UTC

I am not an adherent of any organized religion, but this question is puzzling:

Where did stuff come from? There are two possibilities, either 1] it was put there, or 2] it was just there to begin with.

God is an easy solution, but then where did he come from? Same problem.

Maybe there are other possibilities that our brains just aren't able to process at this stage in our evolution.

Anyway, before anyone says "the big bang", isn't that the explanation of how stuff got where it is, rather than how it came to be to begin with? It started with a singularity, where'd that come from?

Re: Poll: What is your religion?

#150

Post by philwelch » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 3:01 AM UTC

jacoblyles wrote: post #72

chc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps so, but neither atheism nor agnosticism is equivalent to scientific materialism.

No, but I'd be willing to bet that a large portion of the atheists here are atheists because of such a viewpoint.

Precisely. I don't care two shits whether God exists or not, frankly--that's not the interesting question. And "scientific materialism" is a bad way to cast it--materialism is a metaphysical system while science is an epistemic system.

I'm nonreligious because I don't believe claims without a good argument behind them. Buddhism is a set of claims without any good arguments just the same as Christianity, whether or not those claims are about gods and resurrected demigods or not.