I see it just as a product of the times. I certainly found the anti-theist content in Rationality: A to Z to be slightly jarring on a re-read—on other topics, Elizer is careful to not bring into it the political issues of the day that could emotionally overshadown the more subtle points he’s making about thought in general—but he’ll drop in extremely anti religion jabs despite that. To me, that’s just part of reading history.
Early LessWrong was atheist, but everything on the internet around the time LW was taking off had a position in that debate. ”...the defining feature of this period wasn’t just that there were a lot of atheism-focused things. It was how the religious-vs-atheist conflict subtly bled into everything.” Or less subtly, in this case.
I see it just as a product of the times. I certainly found the anti-theist content in Rationality: A to Z to be slightly jarring on a re-read—on other topics, Elizer is careful to not bring into it the political issues of the day that could emotionally overshadown the more subtle points he’s making about thought in general—but he’ll drop in extremely anti religion jabs despite that. To me, that’s just part of reading history.