Whether “X is a religion” is not a very substantive query, particularly if category-membership is not clear. It’s an argument about definitions, a rube/blegg question. An interesting question would be, say, whether lesswrong/transhumanists/rationalists are on an epistemic death spiral and will end up (or already are) comfortably compartmentalized (or not) deluded lunatics, like so many religious people. But this statement would need arguments focused on it in particular, and not just general reference class tennis that assigns connotationally related categories.
Whether “X is a religion” is not a very substantive query, particularly if category-membership is not clear. It’s an argument about definitions, a rube/blegg question. An interesting question would be, say, whether lesswrong/transhumanists/rationalists are on an epistemic death spiral and will end up (or already are) comfortably compartmentalized (or not) deluded lunatics, like so many religious people. But this statement would need arguments focused on it in particular, and not just general reference class tennis that assigns connotationally related categories.
See 37 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong and Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease.