I don’t think this is a good way of looking at things.
The Sequences are an important part of LW history. I would guess that most LW regulars mostly agree with most of the prominent ideas in them. (As do plenty of people who aren’t LWers at all.) They say many sensible and useful things. But they aren’t the sort of thing it makes sense to “accept” or “reject” wholesale. That really is, as Richard_Loosemore says, the way religions tend to think about their traditions; it leads their adherents into bad thinking, and doing the same here would do the same to us.
Now, in this particular case, I don’t think there was anything very religion-y about Viliam’s quotations from the Sequences. (Despite his use of the word “mantra” :-).) He found something that made the point he wanted and quoted it, much as one might quote from a textbook or a familiar work of literature. So I don’t think Richard’s “let’s keep the Sequences out of it: I’m not religious” response was warranted—but I think that response is better understood as an expression of the longstanding Loosemore-Yudkowsky hostility than as a serious assessment of the merits of the Sequences or any specific idea found in them.
Be that as it may, the appropriate reaction is more like “fair enough” or “Viliam wasn’t actually using the Sequences the way you suggest, but never mind” than “if you Reject The Sequences then you should keep away from here”.
(Actually, I would say more or less the same even if LW were a religious-style community where membership is predicated on Accepting The Sequences. A community should be open to criticism from the outside.)
I don’t think this is a good way of looking at things.
The Sequences are an important part of LW history. I would guess that most LW regulars mostly agree with most of the prominent ideas in them. (As do plenty of people who aren’t LWers at all.) They say many sensible and useful things. But they aren’t the sort of thing it makes sense to “accept” or “reject” wholesale. That really is, as Richard_Loosemore says, the way religions tend to think about their traditions; it leads their adherents into bad thinking, and doing the same here would do the same to us.
Now, in this particular case, I don’t think there was anything very religion-y about Viliam’s quotations from the Sequences. (Despite his use of the word “mantra” :-).) He found something that made the point he wanted and quoted it, much as one might quote from a textbook or a familiar work of literature. So I don’t think Richard’s “let’s keep the Sequences out of it: I’m not religious” response was warranted—but I think that response is better understood as an expression of the longstanding Loosemore-Yudkowsky hostility than as a serious assessment of the merits of the Sequences or any specific idea found in them.
Be that as it may, the appropriate reaction is more like “fair enough” or “Viliam wasn’t actually using the Sequences the way you suggest, but never mind” than “if you Reject The Sequences then you should keep away from here”.
(Actually, I would say more or less the same even if LW were a religious-style community where membership is predicated on Accepting The Sequences. A community should be open to criticism from the outside.)