I've turned agnostic recently from being a sole christian. The more time I spend with computing and learn about machine learning/AI, I think that we can and will create self-aware AIs. At that point, we'll have to question what reality programmed us?
Poll: How religious is hacker news?
111–120 of 168 posts
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#112I believe dualism and I know how to do induce out of body exp but I don't know is scientific or not. what its criterion?
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#113I don't see a voting option for "I'd really rather not debate religion on HN at all, please go away"
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not what agnostic means. Most people who believe in God wouldn't say they can prove God exists, and they aren't agnostic.
No, that is exactly what it means. It doesnt take very long to look something up (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism ). Agnosticism is not about being uncertain, it's the position that the answer is unknowable or unknown - which is much stronger than merely being uncertain.
If that's the definition then it's useless as a distinguishing label since everyone on either side of faith can't know. If anyone could know, faith and belief wouldn't be necessary.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#115It looks like this thread is being moderated off the front page, but it's something that I think is interesting too.
I was astonished about the overwhelming response the church software got. Don't get me wrong, it's a great effort, but the sheer amount of votes it received seems somewhat out of proportion for what you'd expect a comparable project to get. So I'm curious if this Show HN maybe released some pressure in that regard.
But I do think the poll's setup is mistaken, as are people who feel their particular faith should be reflected accurately. It would have been better (and less fraught with squabbling over definitions) if we kept it simple and allowed people to self-identify as non-religious, somewhat religious, and very religious.
To me, the intensity of faith would have been more interesting than the precise flavor. I also think there is a community aspect we could have captured as a second variable: "how engaged/motivated are you by being part of your religious community?" - I suspect this is a big factor as well, maybe in some cases even more so than the actual belief in the supernatural. Who knows, but I would have loved to get some data on this.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of my early jobs (mid-90s) was working for an unnamed but relatively famous (for the time) ISP in Los Angeles where the vast majority of other employees turned out to be Scientologists. They do exist in the tech industry.
What exactly is the point of saying "unnamed" when everyone knows exactly which company you're talking about? Its scientology connections are not a secret and have been covered in both tech and muggle press many times over the years.
Well, speaking of muggles it is just a name that shall not be named (by me).
I didn't mean to imply nobody would know the name, I specifically made sure there was enough information in the post (city/time frame/specific tech business type) so that it would be pretty obvious what company I was talking about (at least to anyone who was on the net back then).
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These people should just suck it up and call themselves atheists. Boy, look at you telling people what and how they should believe. I'm agnostic because I don't know if there exists a God, and couldn't care less when it comes to the day to day affairs of my life.
Right, so what you're saying is you're an atheist. It's okay. There are a lot of us. I don't know if there is a teapot orbiting the Earth, but I wouldn't invent weasel words to distinguish between subtle groups of people who have varied opinions around the likely absence of said teapot. Especially not if most of the population believed strongly in the existence of said teapot. edit: Also I'm not telling anyone how to…
I think most of us agnostics are simply identifying as such to avoid being associated with the pompous breed of atheists that the Internet's pseudo-anonymity has brought out of the woodwork.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#118Having grown up in the church, I have honestly never found a good replacement for the sense of community and support that a church offers. Its a shame that no other non-religious organizations have been able to replicate it.
I've been having some good discussions about this exact topic lately. I'm glad you brought it up.
After mulling it over with some friends, I think it would be awesome to have a community gathering where the principles of its "teachings" are based on respect for the earth, each other, and critical thinking.
Instead of typical weekly worship, it could be replaced by something like "Science Sundays" - where folks can bring their kids for a lecture and experiment that the family can do. If one can find enough local individuals who could serve as advocates then I think something like this is possible. Although, I don't what spark it would need for it to reach critical mass.
The closest thing that we've identified as such a group is the Maker community. One problem that we've had in these discussions is that any time we try to add structure to the idea (ie, a common reference book, hierarchy) we immediately realize that it sounds like it would be mistaken for a cult. :( http://abstrusegoose.com/31
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#119The idea of religious engineers has always been one that fascinates me.
I'm one. Feel free to ask me anything you want. With the caveat that I don't participate in uncivil discussions.
If you believe god's takes part in the world in obvious ways (like miracles as written in many texts) why don't such things seem to happen around people documenting things ? Why allow large amounts of people to live lives of pure suffering? Etc.
If you say that god's more of a force from afar, why is that worth worshipping any more than another natural phenomenon?
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#120The idea of religious engineers has always been one that fascinates me.
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My view on the divine intervention issue is, essentially, "God helps those who help themselves". Do as much as you can to accomplish your goals according to secular understanding, and after that it can't hurt to pray and faith, too. If I'm wrong about my faith, it might not help, but it certainly won't hurt.
In the vast majority of cases, conflicts between my arational religious beliefs and rational scientific beliefs are essentially consequenceless; acting according to rational belief does not result in Sinning, so I can make practical use of scientific knowledge in my life while still gaining emotional satisfaction and sense of purpose from the belief in things that cannot be definitively proven one way or the other.