Rationality is supposed to score a win (whenever it is possible). Rationalists only try to use rationality, to the best of the capability, to win. They may or may not succeed.
It may well be that Christianity is winning (in that sense). That doesn’t mean that it has a winning strategy: it might (and clearly does) have other advantages which rationalism doesn’t have and either couldn’t or shouldn’t get.
I’m going to take the downvote I got for that as indicating that I wasn’t clear enough and explain a bit further.
Suppose A beats B at some game. (Here A is Christianity, B is rationalism, the game is having as many people as possible onside.) It could be that this is because A is playing the game better than B. But A could also be winning for reasons that have nothing to do with how A and B are playing.
Example 1: two people are trying to outdo one another in getting many sexual partners. (I make no comment on the wisdom or morals of playing this game.) A might be winning by being physically more attractive, or by having a pile of inherited money and therefore more scope for generous gestures.
(… Perhaps Christianity just is more appealing to most people than rationalism; see, e.g., Pascal Boyer’s theories about what sorts of belief tend to lodge in people’s minds and form religious doctrines. Perhaps Christianity benefits from having been officially adopted by the Roman Empire and plenty of other empires since then, and spread by the sword or by economic intimidation.)
Example 2: two people are playing the game of making as much money as possible. A might be winning by virtue of getting lucky early on and therefore having more resources for the rest of the game.
(… Perhaps Christianity has many adherents now simply because it had many in the past, and people tend to pass on their religion to their children and to others around them.)
Example 3: two people are playing a game of tennis. A might be winning because she’s friends with the referee, who calls balls in or out dishonestly to favour A.
(… Perhaps Christianity has many adherents because powerful people and institutions are Christian and others are intimidated or impressed by their status. Roman Empire, again—or the US today.)
It’s not hard to come up with further examples, but I’ll leave it there. Rationalism doesn’t have the option of being something different and more appealing, or changing history so as to have the advantage of lots of existing members; perhaps rationalists could somehow contrive to gain enough power to intimidate, or enough influence in schools etc. to brainwash, but it might not be possible to do that without becoming corrupted and ceasing to be rationalist.
These are all ways in which Christianity could “win” whether or not it employs a “winning strategy”.
I didn’t say that it was winning. I said it looked to me like it had a more winning strategy. Their strategy is to win converts by any means, as opposed to the rationalist strategy that several people are endorsing that says that we can’t use irrational persuasive methods. Comparing those two strategies, I predict the first will win.
Yes, where winning equates gaining converts. But gaining converts, for us, ought to be only instrumental to a greater purpose. Many strategies may win on the short or mid term, being more explosive or efficient, but still lead to a dead end.
So what religion uses to gain converts, may not work for us, as it destroys our long term purposes. Though I find it difficult to disentangle what in those methods we could use, and what we couldn’t.
I would call 2000 years long term. (In the set of strategy histories observed so far.)
Part of my point is that the methods they use to gain converts are also against their long term purpose. The fact that thoroughly-evolved religions do this indicates it is adaptive, despite the short-term hit to their worldview.
Rationality is supposed to score a win (whenever it is possible). Rationalists only try to use rationality, to the best of the capability, to win. They may or may not succeed.
Looks to me like Christianity has the more winning strategy (where winning = gaining converts).
It may well be that Christianity is winning (in that sense). That doesn’t mean that it has a winning strategy: it might (and clearly does) have other advantages which rationalism doesn’t have and either couldn’t or shouldn’t get.
I’m going to take the downvote I got for that as indicating that I wasn’t clear enough and explain a bit further.
Suppose A beats B at some game. (Here A is Christianity, B is rationalism, the game is having as many people as possible onside.) It could be that this is because A is playing the game better than B. But A could also be winning for reasons that have nothing to do with how A and B are playing.
Example 1: two people are trying to outdo one another in getting many sexual partners. (I make no comment on the wisdom or morals of playing this game.) A might be winning by being physically more attractive, or by having a pile of inherited money and therefore more scope for generous gestures.
(… Perhaps Christianity just is more appealing to most people than rationalism; see, e.g., Pascal Boyer’s theories about what sorts of belief tend to lodge in people’s minds and form religious doctrines. Perhaps Christianity benefits from having been officially adopted by the Roman Empire and plenty of other empires since then, and spread by the sword or by economic intimidation.)
Example 2: two people are playing the game of making as much money as possible. A might be winning by virtue of getting lucky early on and therefore having more resources for the rest of the game.
(… Perhaps Christianity has many adherents now simply because it had many in the past, and people tend to pass on their religion to their children and to others around them.)
Example 3: two people are playing a game of tennis. A might be winning because she’s friends with the referee, who calls balls in or out dishonestly to favour A.
(… Perhaps Christianity has many adherents because powerful people and institutions are Christian and others are intimidated or impressed by their status. Roman Empire, again—or the US today.)
It’s not hard to come up with further examples, but I’ll leave it there. Rationalism doesn’t have the option of being something different and more appealing, or changing history so as to have the advantage of lots of existing members; perhaps rationalists could somehow contrive to gain enough power to intimidate, or enough influence in schools etc. to brainwash, but it might not be possible to do that without becoming corrupted and ceasing to be rationalist.
These are all ways in which Christianity could “win” whether or not it employs a “winning strategy”.
I didn’t say that it was winning. I said it looked to me like it had a more winning strategy. Their strategy is to win converts by any means, as opposed to the rationalist strategy that several people are endorsing that says that we can’t use irrational persuasive methods. Comparing those two strategies, I predict the first will win.
Yes, where winning equates gaining converts. But gaining converts, for us, ought to be only instrumental to a greater purpose. Many strategies may win on the short or mid term, being more explosive or efficient, but still lead to a dead end.
So what religion uses to gain converts, may not work for us, as it destroys our long term purposes. Though I find it difficult to disentangle what in those methods we could use, and what we couldn’t.
I would call 2000 years long term. (In the set of strategy histories observed so far.)
Part of my point is that the methods they use to gain converts are also against their long term purpose. The fact that thoroughly-evolved religions do this indicates it is adaptive, despite the short-term hit to their worldview.
What use is a dumbed down, brain-hacked convert? Are you using them to keep score, or something?