If you knew this to be the case, the rational thing to do would be to avoid solving the puzzle :-)
Agreed, but there is at least one possible scenario (where I don’t know it is the case) where it would hurt me to be a superior rationalist.
Religious people would disagree with you here, I’d imagine.
I imagine they would. Because they would disagree with me, I’d like for my beliefs to challenge theirs to trial by combat. That way, the wrong beliefs might be destroyed by the truth.
This is another minor nitpick, but AFAIK not all Christian sects demand tithing (though some do).
Sure, 10% is not true of all Christian groups. To my knowledge though, all such groups run on donations from the faithful. If the number isn’t 10% it is still greater than zero. Arguments here are over scale and not moral righteousness.
The claims of the religious are false. Religious people would disagree with you here, I’d imagine.
I’m not so sure. I mean, it’s not like all religious people agree about religious claims, any more than all political activists agree about political claims, or all sports fans agree about claims regarding sports teams. In fact, quite the contrary… I suspect that most religious people believe that the religious claims of most religious people are false.
Fair enough, though religious people would surely disagree with the statement, “All religious claims are false”—which is what I interpreted electricfistula’s comment to mean.
Tangentially, I know a couple of Catholic seminarians who would disagree with “Most religious claims are false”—they argue that claims which contradict certain tenets of Catholicism aren’t religious claims at all, though the people making them may falsely believe them to be.
If you knew this to be the case, the rational thing to do would be to avoid solving the puzzle :-)
Religious people would disagree with you here, I’d imagine.
This is another minor nitpick, but AFAIK not all Christian sects demand tithing (though some do).
Agreed, but there is at least one possible scenario (where I don’t know it is the case) where it would hurt me to be a superior rationalist.
I imagine they would. Because they would disagree with me, I’d like for my beliefs to challenge theirs to trial by combat. That way, the wrong beliefs might be destroyed by the truth.
Sure, 10% is not true of all Christian groups. To my knowledge though, all such groups run on donations from the faithful. If the number isn’t 10% it is still greater than zero. Arguments here are over scale and not moral righteousness.
I’m not so sure.
I mean, it’s not like all religious people agree about religious claims, any more than all political activists agree about political claims, or all sports fans agree about claims regarding sports teams.
In fact, quite the contrary… I suspect that most religious people believe that the religious claims of most religious people are false.
Fair enough, though religious people would surely disagree with the statement, “All religious claims are false”—which is what I interpreted electricfistula’s comment to mean.
Yah.
Tangentially, I know a couple of Catholic seminarians who would disagree with “Most religious claims are false”—they argue that claims which contradict certain tenets of Catholicism aren’t religious claims at all, though the people making them may falsely believe them to be.