Thanks for the feedback. I wondered whether I should post a link to the Pew study. I decided in favor of it because I assumed that news about changes in religious belief over time would be of interest to rationalists, but if others agree that articles of this sort do not belong here I’d be happy to remove it. Thanks again.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the topic, if it comes with a little bit of discussion along the lines of palladius’s comment below, or along the lines of “What evidence would convince us that the sanity waterline is actually rising, as opposed to just more people being raised non-religious?”
It would be very interesting to see this study in the context of trendlines for other popular sanity-correlated topics, such as belief in evolution, disbelief in ghosts, non-identification with a political party, knowledge about GMOs, etcetera, even though there are lots and lots of confounding variables.
One alone, though, without commentary about rationality, probably does not belong on LessWrong.
Indeed. At least where I am, ISTM that the main factor in determining whether one is a theist is where and when their parents grew up. (And I suspect that once you control for that, the oft-mentioned correlation between atheism and high IQ would be much weaker.) And the fact that theists are more likely to be anthropogenic global warming sceptics is likely mediated by political affiliations—right-wingers are more likely both to be theists and to be AGW sceptics—and maybe it would disappear once you control for position on the Political Compass.
I don’t think this topic is a mindkiller. Atheism isn’t a guarantor of good reasoning, especially as the number of atheists grow, and you end up with more people raised atheist who haven’t necessarily had experience with actually changing their mind. The demographic expansion points to the weakening power of atheism to signal the correct contrarian circle.
Isn’t America also more religious than other developed countries across the world? Regardless, a comparison would be welcome, if the article were posted at all.
Do not attempt to transform Less Wrong into r/atheism. Just do not even try.
Thanks for the feedback. I wondered whether I should post a link to the Pew study. I decided in favor of it because I assumed that news about changes in religious belief over time would be of interest to rationalists, but if others agree that articles of this sort do not belong here I’d be happy to remove it. Thanks again.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the topic, if it comes with a little bit of discussion along the lines of palladius’s comment below, or along the lines of “What evidence would convince us that the sanity waterline is actually rising, as opposed to just more people being raised non-religious?”
It would be very interesting to see this study in the context of trendlines for other popular sanity-correlated topics, such as belief in evolution, disbelief in ghosts, non-identification with a political party, knowledge about GMOs, etcetera, even though there are lots and lots of confounding variables.
One alone, though, without commentary about rationality, probably does not belong on LessWrong.
Indeed. At least where I am, ISTM that the main factor in determining whether one is a theist is where and when their parents grew up. (And I suspect that once you control for that, the oft-mentioned correlation between atheism and high IQ would be much weaker.) And the fact that theists are more likely to be anthropogenic global warming sceptics is likely mediated by political affiliations—right-wingers are more likely both to be theists and to be AGW sceptics—and maybe it would disappear once you control for position on the Political Compass.
I don’t think this topic is a mindkiller. Atheism isn’t a guarantor of good reasoning, especially as the number of atheists grow, and you end up with more people raised atheist who haven’t necessarily had experience with actually changing their mind. The demographic expansion points to the weakening power of atheism to signal the correct contrarian circle.
If we’re going to become a subreddit, can we become r/nongolfers?
Isn’t America also more religious than other developed countries across the world? Regardless, a comparison would be welcome, if the article were posted at all.