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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24615 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 8, 2024

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I mean, n of 1 here, but I became religious slowly over the course of years and it all started by getting deep into analytic philosophy and rationalism in an attempt to merely "be better at thinking." I'll spare you my superhero internet warrior origin story, but my path to Christ started in a firmly modern, PMC, intellectualist garden.

The ironic part is that I also agree with you. Use whatever version of "no atheists in foxholes" aphorism you want, but it is true that a lot of people turn to religion in types of trouble. You can cope by gesturing at placebo and self-serving cognitive biases if you like, but doesn't it remain knee-slappingly silly to imagine the idea of someone shouting "I"D BETTER UPDATE MY PRIORS" when they're on a plane with two blown engines.

I became religious slowly over the course of years and it all started by getting deep into analytic philosophy and rationalism in an attempt to merely "be better at thinking."

I find this a bit hard to take seriously. It's like if somebody told me they spent a lot of time analyzing economic models, and in the end they're now certain that Soviet Communism is the only correct choice. I don't know you're specific path, but option 1 is that you believe the superstitious parts of Christianity, in which case your attempts to be better at thinking is severely misaligned. Option 2 is that you believe in some watered-down deistic form of "cultural Christianity", and are arbitrarily ignoring the vast gulf between your beliefs and what most actual Christians believe.

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