I don’t have time to construct a full response, but I would like to hit a couple of points.
Catholics vs. rationalists: An analog seems to be large institutional investors (market makers) vs. small or independent investors. Clearly both kinds of market players (the very big vs. the small) play important roles, but the market makers, well, they have the ability to move the market in different directions because of the strength of their market position. “Following” the market makers is often viewed as a safe bet (i.e. a cheap risk computation) for a good return, but not always. Small investors seek out opportunities either missed by big investors, or misjudged by big investors.
Being an active member of the Catholic church requires forgoing critical thinking concerning a number of important aspects of reality, but such participants view this arrangement as being beneficial overall: it reduces the amount of mental computation that need be expended on a wide variety of subjects (no need to enumerate, I hope ;-) ). Some of the “benefits” gained by participants are that a number of “important causes” are prepared for them to act on, and many of them will. Although the Catholic church has it’s full share of strange quirks, the thing we refer to as the Catholic church today is far more tame and humanistic than say it’s 16-17th century version: many of the high-profile causes adopted by the church have pretty broad appeal as worthy issues. Of course, when Catholic missionaries go into an impoverished area to help feed and clothe people there is also an evangelical element. So, at least some of the causes picked up by the church will be “objectively” good, and some bizarre or bad (like condoms and family planning).
Rationalists, on the other hand are likely to explore many of these issues more in depth, as a result will also likely have a more diffuse impact on shaping future outcomes. Take world population (by humans) for example. Given the Catholic view of sexuality and reproduction, it is likely that the “cheap mental computation” that “participants” (and the people they effectively spread the “word” to) adhere to will likely have a negative impact on the human species’ ability to survive. Rationalists are free to wander the landscape of ideas and turn their attention to many areas that the Catholic church (or any number of religious organizations) simply cannot find effective ways to engage, like the smaller investors above. In fact, it is precisely this rationalistic pressure on the Catholic church that has tamed it from the rather malevolent imperialistic beast it once was, to the more calculating and insidious beast it is today, only with a more friendly public-relations face.
On the other hand: better sanitation, and sources of clean water are probably the largest contributors to improving world health and longer lifetimes. Neither of these solutions to problems of human life came from religious organizations, and just possibly outrank the “output” of all religious organizations put together. The printing press and the “small” book did more for literacy and the development and spreading of ideas than any active effort by any European religion. The same could (should?0 be said for the Internet today. Could we come up with a better meaning for output?
I don’t have time to construct a full response, but I would like to hit a couple of points.
Catholics vs. rationalists: An analog seems to be large institutional investors (market makers) vs. small or independent investors. Clearly both kinds of market players (the very big vs. the small) play important roles, but the market makers, well, they have the ability to move the market in different directions because of the strength of their market position. “Following” the market makers is often viewed as a safe bet (i.e. a cheap risk computation) for a good return, but not always. Small investors seek out opportunities either missed by big investors, or misjudged by big investors.
Being an active member of the Catholic church requires forgoing critical thinking concerning a number of important aspects of reality, but such participants view this arrangement as being beneficial overall: it reduces the amount of mental computation that need be expended on a wide variety of subjects (no need to enumerate, I hope ;-) ). Some of the “benefits” gained by participants are that a number of “important causes” are prepared for them to act on, and many of them will. Although the Catholic church has it’s full share of strange quirks, the thing we refer to as the Catholic church today is far more tame and humanistic than say it’s 16-17th century version: many of the high-profile causes adopted by the church have pretty broad appeal as worthy issues. Of course, when Catholic missionaries go into an impoverished area to help feed and clothe people there is also an evangelical element. So, at least some of the causes picked up by the church will be “objectively” good, and some bizarre or bad (like condoms and family planning).
Rationalists, on the other hand are likely to explore many of these issues more in depth, as a result will also likely have a more diffuse impact on shaping future outcomes. Take world population (by humans) for example. Given the Catholic view of sexuality and reproduction, it is likely that the “cheap mental computation” that “participants” (and the people they effectively spread the “word” to) adhere to will likely have a negative impact on the human species’ ability to survive. Rationalists are free to wander the landscape of ideas and turn their attention to many areas that the Catholic church (or any number of religious organizations) simply cannot find effective ways to engage, like the smaller investors above. In fact, it is precisely this rationalistic pressure on the Catholic church that has tamed it from the rather malevolent imperialistic beast it once was, to the more calculating and insidious beast it is today, only with a more friendly public-relations face.
On the other hand: better sanitation, and sources of clean water are probably the largest contributors to improving world health and longer lifetimes. Neither of these solutions to problems of human life came from religious organizations, and just possibly outrank the “output” of all religious organizations put together. The printing press and the “small” book did more for literacy and the development and spreading of ideas than any active effort by any European religion. The same could (should?0 be said for the Internet today. Could we come up with a better meaning for output?