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Religious Discrimination at Google

cajundiscordian.medium.com

171–180 of 320 posts

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#171

Google engineers tend to overestimate how smart they are because they were able to solve a few medium-difficult Leetcode questions. And they just don't see the water that they are swimming in. They probably don't know any young, intelligent Christian. Of course, even talented software engineers, like most people today, tend to be ignorant about history, philosophy, and theology. They only heard a strawman caricature…

Yikes, I hope you are aware that how incredibly tasteless your comment sounds.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Catholics were responsible for several huge discoveries in science and science is absolutely in line with the religion This comes off as hugely apologetic. I’m not sure whether Copernicus would agree with the sentiment.

Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity was taught in several Catholic universities until growing Protestant opposition made them stop. The worst the Catholic Church could be accused of is submitting to popular opinion, not being anti-intellectual.

That is not true: Catholic opposition made them stop. Catholics were also the first and most vocal to criticize heliocentricism of its heretical nature.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity was taught in several Catholic universities until growing Protestant opposition made them stop. The worst the Catholic Church could be accused of is submitting to popular opinion, not being anti-intellectual.

That is not true: Catholic opposition made them stop. Catholics were also the first and most vocal to criticize heliocentricism of its heretical nature.

Some Catholic theologians criticised but the church did not denounce the theory for some time

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#174
post #66
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are at a meeting with colleagues, one colleague suddenly starts to insist that Santa Claus is real. Do you take them seriously? Sure it’s freedom of speech but there will be some kind of drop in respect. I mean I get that you believe that one book trumps all of human science because you were raised that way but when you grow up your critical thinking skills should kick in. If they don’t, it’s very difficult to ke…

That's such a bad take, and I'm not even religious. This is the utmost lack of respect for another person that we should strive to stray very very far away from. Also, if you would know anything at all about religion (from context, I assume you mean Christianity), they don't believe that one book trumps all of human science at all -- taking the text literally is a relatively modern take done by very few branches of i…

The author doesn't say which beliefs of his were mocked, and he doesn't say what religion he follows in this post, other than "Christian Mysticism." But in another post[1] he says

> The Gnostic gospels were what made the most sense to me so they formed the basis of my belief. That search never stopped and eventually led me to found Cool Magdalene. A cult led by Miss Kitty Stryker. That project is partly an artistic statement, partly a for-profit religious life coaching company and partly an attempt to build diverse communities of respect and dignity based around family in all of its senses.

I don't know if this is what OP was strawmanning about with his "Santa Claus" quip, but I think it's fair to say "founding a for-profit self-described cult / art project" doesn't have quite the same rich tradition as Christianity or other mainstream religions, and might be more deserving of skepticism.

[1] https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/explaining-google-c73caa0...

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not true: Catholic opposition made them stop. Catholics were also the first and most vocal to criticize heliocentricism of its heretical nature.

Some Catholic theologians criticised but the church did not denounce the theory for some time

It is notable that the first critic was the Magister of the Holy Palace, the church’s chief censor.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some Catholic theologians criticised but the church did not denounce the theory for some time

It is notable that the first critic was the Magister of the Holy Palace, the church’s chief censor.

But wasn’t allowed to call it heresy until 1615, a while after Copernicus died. This isn’t an apologetic that the Catholic Church did the right thing, I’m not even Catholic. I’m trying to highlight that historically Christianity hasn’t been as anti-intellectual as many have been led to believe

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Moral compass is innate" is a belief. Science cannot provide evidence for it. It's such a good belief, that we are blind to it being a belief and blind to its origins. It's a belief that is so successful because it is true. It comes from the belief that every person has an intrinsic value. Philosophy isn't about rational atheistic science. Science cannot prove or disprove the idea that every human has value. The Naz…

False dichotomy. There's a big gap between "morality is innate" and "morality can be achieved only through religion."

The argument isn't "you can only be moral if you're religious", it's: "modern Western moral attitudes, even explicitly atheistic ones, are strongly influenced by historical religious ideas, and therefore the idea that religion is inherently immoral is incoherent; and contempt for religion is unjustified." Seems reasonable to me.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False dichotomy. There's a big gap between "morality is innate" and "morality can be achieved only through religion."

The argument isn't "you can only be moral if you're religious", it's: "modern Western moral attitudes, even explicitly atheistic ones, are strongly influenced by historical religious ideas, and therefore the idea that religion is inherently immoral is incoherent; and contempt for religion is unjustified." Seems reasonable to me.

Your argument ignores cause and effect.

Religion was created by man, not by god. Religious ideas, including religious morality, are the results, not the causes, of the prevailing cultural attitudes of the societies that created them.

In the modern West, such as the US, "religious morality" is mostly synonymous with the morality of the ancient societies in which those religions originated, which is why religion is so out of step with modern sensibilities.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#179
post #168
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.

Okay - do you think you would/wouldn’t have participated in the games as a viewer were you born in the times?

A man can be made to say or do anything, with enough conditioning; we are animals after all. I'm not arguing the irrelevance of context here, but I am saying that people have natural tendencies which amount to an implicit innate moral compass. People want to be good and chill.

Most people want to be nice to their neighbors / tribe.

Most people find violence disturbing.

That they live in circumstance that encourages, requires, them to kill, to manipulate, to be an asshole - is just circumstance. That's why being a Good Person is Hard. You need to remain true to yourself, and fight against all kinds of external forces that seek to corrupt you.

Re: Religious Discrimination at Google

#180
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are at a meeting with colleagues, one colleague suddenly starts to insist that Santa Claus is real. Do you take them seriously? Sure it’s freedom of speech but there will be some kind of drop in respect. I mean I get that you believe that one book trumps all of human science because you were raised that way but when you grow up your critical thinking skills should kick in. If they don’t, it’s very difficult to ke…

Comparing one’s religious beliefs with believing in the existence of Santa Clause misses the point completely and it validates what the author of the article is saying, i.e. that contempt for religion and, in the end, religious discrimination, is widespread in tech circles. (if it matters I’m an atheist myself)

In one sense I see why it's insulting, but isn't Santa Claus basically a benevolent god?
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