Religion solves some coordination problems very well. Witness religions outlasting numerous political and philosophical movements, often through coordinated effort. Some wrong beliefs assuage bad emotions and thoughts, allowing humans to internally deal with the world beyond the reach of god. Some of the same wrong beliefs also hurt and kill a shitload of people, directly and indirectly.
My personal belief is that religions were probably necessary for humanity to rise from agricultural to technological societies, and tentatively necessary to maintain technological societies until FAI, especially in a long-takeoff scenario. We have limited evidence that religion-free or wrong-belief-free societies can flourish. Most first-world nations are officially and practically agnostic but have sizable populations of religious people. The nations which are actively anti-religious generally have their own strong dogmatic anti-scientific beliefs that the leaders are trying to push, and they still can’t stomp out all religions.
Basically, until doctors can defeat virtually all illness and death and leaders can effectively coordinate global humane outcomes without religions I think that religions serve as a sanity line above destructive hedonism or despair.
leaders can effectively coordinate global humane outcomes without religions
Coordinating global outcomes with religion these days mean war between religion. I think even today more secular ways of thinking about different countries interacting with each other leads to better outcomes.
What about humans or religions make religions necessary for humanity to rise from agricultural to technological societies? While it’s not ‘high-tech’, and came long before the scientific revolution, what makes an agricultural society not also a technological one, insofar as agriculture might be considered closer to a technological society than to one which is purely run by hunter-gatherers?
By “technological society”, do you mean “industrial society”? If not, what’s the line between a technological society and an agricultural one in your mind? How have you determined the agricultural society is closer to one of hunter-gatherers than a technological one? Do you have a reason for expecting religion is necessary to raise humans from agriculture to more technological societies, but not from a state of tribal hunter-gatherers to agricultural city-states?
Religion solves some coordination problems very well. Witness religions outlasting numerous political and philosophical movements, often through coordinated effort. Some wrong beliefs assuage bad emotions and thoughts, allowing humans to internally deal with the world beyond the reach of god. Some of the same wrong beliefs also hurt and kill a shitload of people, directly and indirectly.
My personal belief is that religions were probably necessary for humanity to rise from agricultural to technological societies, and tentatively necessary to maintain technological societies until FAI, especially in a long-takeoff scenario. We have limited evidence that religion-free or wrong-belief-free societies can flourish. Most first-world nations are officially and practically agnostic but have sizable populations of religious people. The nations which are actively anti-religious generally have their own strong dogmatic anti-scientific beliefs that the leaders are trying to push, and they still can’t stomp out all religions.
Basically, until doctors can defeat virtually all illness and death and leaders can effectively coordinate global humane outcomes without religions I think that religions serve as a sanity line above destructive hedonism or despair.
Coordinating global outcomes with religion these days mean war between religion. I think even today more secular ways of thinking about different countries interacting with each other leads to better outcomes.
What about humans or religions make religions necessary for humanity to rise from agricultural to technological societies? While it’s not ‘high-tech’, and came long before the scientific revolution, what makes an agricultural society not also a technological one, insofar as agriculture might be considered closer to a technological society than to one which is purely run by hunter-gatherers?
By “technological society”, do you mean “industrial society”? If not, what’s the line between a technological society and an agricultural one in your mind? How have you determined the agricultural society is closer to one of hunter-gatherers than a technological one? Do you have a reason for expecting religion is necessary to raise humans from agriculture to more technological societies, but not from a state of tribal hunter-gatherers to agricultural city-states?