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Ask YC: Are you religous?

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Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#101

Post by pchristensen »

dhbradshaw wrote: post #93
BenS wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't really looking to conduct a survey, I was just hoping to get a few opinions. True, hacker news is not about religion, nor is it a good way to conduct statistically signifcant surveys, but it's still nice to hear what people think. I could think of lots of explanations for the shortage of religious sites...and I was looking for some opinions. A few possibilities include (A) there is no shortage of sites, i'm…

Most people would call me religious. I'm a practicing Mormon. I pray and believe that God answers my prayers. However, I hesitated to answer your original question because the label "religious" is mildly distasteful. It seems more external than internal, more political than spiritual. As a practicer of my faith, I get plenty of chances to interact with people of my religion. So I don't feel much of a need for a 'reli…

didn't mean to downvote - fatfingering on my new iPod touch.

I'm Mormon too, glad to know I'm not the only one. Email me.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#102

Post by crocus »

tjr wrote: post #99
xlnt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true. I bet YC is much more atheist than the general population. But I know a religious YC poster who's hesitant to express that kind of idea here; I also bet YC is a bit more religious than it appears.

I think it's also interesting that, up until the past century or so, many well-educated people were also openly religious. To wit, holding religious beliefs does not prevent one from doing excellent academic work... religion does not go hand-in-hand with stupidity or ineptitude.

I think you'd have to say "did not" rather than "does not."

200 years ago many well-educated people owned slaves. That doesn't allow us to conclude much about whether slave ownership and intelligence/education are intrinsically compatible.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#103

Post by Andys »

mattmaroon wrote: post #68
Prrometheus wrote: post #16

Why do you care? If you draw any generalizations from the replies on this forum, then you are committing every statistical fallacy in the book. As for your hypothesis, the Hacker News community is built around Hacker News and not religion or the lack thereof, so I find it hard to see how it fits in. I would agree that online communities built around religion are of little interest, but only because I find the subject…

A person's religion says a lot about their epistemology, which in turn says a lot about them. You have to pick and choose your friends somehow (this is not unnecessary meddling) and there are few more substantive ways. I'm a non-militant atheist, so I generally don't "look down upon" religious people or feel it's my duty to convert them. But I also have a hard time really relating to anyone who is willing to base the…

In a sense, it would be very logically unsound to base faith in God on just a book, even if it is "The Book".

Isn't it because faith transcends logic and reason? This is my understanding of the word "faith", any way.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#104

Post by tjr »

crocus wrote: post #102
tjr wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's also interesting that, up until the past century or so, many well-educated people were also openly religious. To wit, holding religious beliefs does not prevent one from doing excellent academic work... religion does not go hand-in-hand with stupidity or ineptitude.

I think you'd have to say "did not" rather than "does not." 200 years ago many well-educated people owned slaves. That doesn't allow us to conclude much about whether slave ownership and intelligence/education are intrinsically compatible.

I think you'd have to say "does not" rather than "did not."

Don Knuth is Lutheran, and has done some of the most excellent academic work of anyone alive today. Guy Steele holds Christian beliefs of some sort, and his work has been extremely influential in the programming world. Just two examples off the top of my head, but I think enough to keep the verb in the present tense.

We would be remiss to claim that religious beliefs imply academic stupidity. We would also be remiss to claim that lack of religious beliefs imply academic stupidity.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#105

Post by natch »

I do not believe in leprechauns. In fact, I actually do believe that there is NOT a leprechaun dancing around my feet at this very moment.

Note this is different from having "no belief." I also feel this way about God, because intelligence, which is a kind of organized complexity, does not just spring into existence without some stage of organization such as evolution, at least as far as we know. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but it would take more than empty assertions to do so.

So that makes me an atheist. Of course, someone claiming "no belief in God" is also an atheist, but one of a different flavor. (You know, strong versus weak atheism).

To agnostics, I have only one question: If you are agnostic about God, are you also agnostic about the invisible leprechauns dancing around your feet?

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#106

Post by nazgulnarsil »

silentbicycle wrote: post #66
gscott wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> morality is one of the great unsolved dilemma's of our kind With religion morality is supposed to be the norm. For Christians, Jesus feed the hungry not because it made Jesus feel good but rather to model "normal behavior". This goes on with Jesus saving the woman from stoning, the son coming back to his father and his father forgiving him (for demanding his inheritance early and blowing it on hookers), and so on.…

Not all religious authority rests on any sort of divine command. In buddhism* , morality is based on the idea that it's immoral to do some things (primarily: kill, steal, engage in sexual misconduct, lie/slander, and consume intoxicants that cloud judgement) because they tend to increase the amount of suffering in the world. * Which may or may not be considered a religion, depending on how you define things; it's not…

this is basically utilitarianism. i.e. this action will benefit me, but will create a disproportionate amount of suffering for others, thus increasing net suffering.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#107

Post by silentbicycle »

eznet wrote: post #89

Agnostic and atheist beliefs are likely more concentrated in the hacker world because this is a world of science and mathematics - worlds that have not traditionally reconciled well with the world of religion (no flaming please, historical observation - Copernicus: "The Earth is not the center of the Universe" Church: "Condemn the heretic!"). You need not search far to find examples of this (aside from the previous e…

It's not meaningful to generalize about all religion based on the church in medieval Europe. The potential behavior of a powerful theocracy, yes, but not religion in general.

Incidentally, your "fire insurance" argument is generally referred to as "Pascal's Wager" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager), in case you (or another reader) is interested in reading further along those lines.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#109

Post by nazgulnarsil »

gscott wrote: post #61
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #37

meh, I think religion in this context is merely morality side-taking. morality is one of the great unsolved dilemma's of our kind, I can see the appeal of taking a shortcut. I myself have struggled with the balance between objective and subjective morals. I take an evolutionary psychology approach to why humans behave how they do, but that doesn't answer what we should do. I think this question is very relevant to ha…

> morality is one of the great unsolved dilemma's of our kind With religion morality is supposed to be the norm. For Christians, Jesus feed the hungry not because it made Jesus feel good but rather to model "normal behavior". This goes on with Jesus saving the woman from stoning, the son coming back to his father and his father forgiving him (for demanding his inheritance early and blowing it on hookers), and so on.…

I think that morality in the real world is a set of behaviors that made it easier for our ancestors to get along with the group, thus increasing their mating pool and offspring survival rates. Dunbar's number explains why it is so easy for us to espouse ideals like thou shalt not kill within the group and then justify the killing of other groups to take their resources and women. Intuitive morality is a function of what was most effective in a tribal environment.

Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?

#110

Post by xlnt »

natrius wrote: post #97
xlnt wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's definitely left-leaning. Did you see the poll about who you'll vote for? Obama won by a landslide. YC's a bit right-leaning on economic issues, but left-leaning overall.

I don't think the current election is a good barometer for ideology. War is a big deal to some people, and they'll vote for the person who is likely to cause the least amount of death regardless of ideology. Then there's the whole intolerance thing, which maps poorly to ideologies, but strongly to political platforms.

In general, lefties think Obama's less militaristic policy will save lives (because diplomacy will work).

And righties think McCain's more militaristic policy will save lives (because the question is when not if to fight).

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