161–170 of 183 posts
What we "need" is for people to worship Jesus Christ and get their butts to church.
Please don't induce religious flamewars on HN. There's nothing more off-topic, uncivil, and tedious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, that inflexibility may be what just makes it work. Being held to the same strict standard makes the community much stronger.
Based on my own reflections on the Christian community I am part of, I'd have to agree. I believe one of the things holds the community together is that every sticks to the same set of rules. And is willing to change if they find they are living outside of the rules. Not everyone's cup of tea but it's a life I enjoy. Perhaps similar systems outside of religion could help people.
We already have plenty of secular communities. Hacker News, sports fans, standup comedians, book clubs, students in college, nerdfighters, groups organizing around hobbies and interests, groups of friends. Community forms not because religion has something sepcial about it, but because people tend to form communities around any subject they are interested in. Just because religion used to be there, doesn't mean we ha…
I've always felt that calling online forums "communities" was wishful thinking on the part of forum participants looking for a sense of belonging. Hacker News and nerdfighters, to use examples you posted, never felt like communities to me, just people coming together to talk about things they all liked, organizing around hobbies and interests. A group of friends does not make a community. I think physical proximity i…
Quite possibly, but what happens when you move? Labour mobility is an inescapable part of the modern world, as is the desire for young people to move to the "big city".
This is particularly bad for inter-generationality. Perhaps that will improve once the long term diversity acceptance values shift has completed.
In any case, I do not share author's optimism. Believing in supernatural is not that bad; what is bad is we-vs-them mentality, fanaticism (you don't need a religion, but an ideology); and rituals, while comforting, tend to froze progress.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't induce religious flamewars on HN. There's nothing more off-topic, uncivil, and tedious.
My comment was none of those things. Religion is intrinsically related to the topic of secularism.
I, personally, don't have a hole in my life where religion should be. I know people that do, many of them come from religious backgrounds and seek something to replace the religious structure that used to be in their lives. But I .... just don't.
How would you even know if you did? What would you have to see or experience about reality or yourself to make you change your mind? How can you know that you haven't already experienced such a thing and just didn't recognize it?
I know that's an extreme example, and quite negative, so may not map fully to what we'e talking aabout. It just sorta popped in there.
I, personally, don't have a hole in my life where religion should be. I know people that do, many of them come from religious backgrounds and seek something to replace the religious structure that used to be in their lives. But I .... just don't.
And that’s okay! My trans friend recently moved to stay with me in California. Her experiences, and the experiences of others, have helped me realise that gender is really important to many people—and I just don’t have a slot for it in my personality. Same goes for religion—my folks tried to teach me about their religious background from a young age, but I never had the ability to believe in it. I just try to respect…
This is extremely unlikely under the current political system (capitalism). Communities take care of their members, which reduces their dependence on the economy, which slows economic growth, which is one of the core goals of capitalism.
In the same vein, look at how the article's second recommendation, "Appeal to all kinds of people", which is described as a "necessary aspiration", is utterly unadorned with empirical proof. We can assume that diversity is rather just a strong part of the value set of the researcher's own community.
Things without boundaries will eventually cease to be things. Anti-discrimination laws remove many effective ways for communities to form boundaries around themselves. A lot of terrible shit about our society follows from this.