The most dangerous religious fundamentalisms lead people to do things such as blowing up buildings, committing mass murders, jailing and torturing people for apostasy, and throwing acid in the faces of schoolchildren. This occurs both when dangerous religious fundamentalists occupy positions of formal political power (governments), and when they do not (terrorist groups, militias, abortion-clinic bombers).
Arguably, these kinds of acts follow a normal distribution (where acts of extreme altruism are on the opposite tail), so if Less Wrong had much larger numbers we should expect to observe these kind of things. Do you really think if Less Wrong had over 1 billion members (like Catholic Church) we wouldn’t have members that commit violent acts (such as assassinating AI researchers not using FAI safeguards)? If anything, I would expect there to be greater variance of good and bad acts among Less Wrongers since they are explicitly trained not to compartmentalize.
Do very many Catholics assassinate government-funded mass murdering genocidaires? I refer of course to abortion clinics.
No, not really. According to Le Wik, only 8 people (less than 1 every 2 years) in the US have been killed as the result of “anti-abortion violence” since 1993. Two of the actual killings were attributed to Catholics (although another did try to ram an abortion clinic with his vehicle which resulted in no injuries but did cause some property damage).
In any case, it seems clear that “anti-abortion violence” occurs with much greater frequency in fiction than in reality. But then again, this shouldn’t surprise us given the predominance of the Hollywood Atheist and Straw-Vulcan archetypes.
EDIT: I made a factual correction and added context.
No; I made a mistake. Eric Robert Rudolph and James Charles Kopp (who, interestingly, had a masters degree in embryology, so was something of a “domain expert”) were self-identified Roman Catholics. Also, it is tricky determining who is or is not of a particular denomination. For instance, Paul Jennings Hill was excommunicated before commiting murder. Should that count in favor of or against the church that excommunicated him (in this case, Presbyterianism)? I’m not sure.
Should that count in favor of or against the church that excommunicated him (in this case, Presbyterianism)?
Of course in favor.
Assuming conservation of evidence, if there exists an action that would count against them (such as declaring him a saint), there must also exist an action that would count in favor of them. So what exactly were they supposed to do—burn him at a stake?
EDIT: Oops, now I see that the question can refer to the whole “former membership + excommunication” package, not just the “excommunication” part. Still, unless other churches had excommunicated such people (before the murder, or at least after), the fact that this one did is an evidence in favor or hypothesis that they disagree with such acts.
Arguably, these kinds of acts follow a normal distribution (where acts of extreme altruism are on the opposite tail), so if Less Wrong had much larger numbers we should expect to observe these kind of things. Do you really think if Less Wrong had over 1 billion members (like Catholic Church) we wouldn’t have members that commit violent acts (such as assassinating AI researchers not using FAI safeguards)? If anything, I would expect there to be greater variance of good and bad acts among Less Wrongers since they are explicitly trained not to compartmentalize.
Do very many Catholics assassinate government-funded mass murdering genocidaires? I refer of course to abortion clinics.
No, not really. According to Le Wik, only 8 people (less than 1 every 2 years) in the US have been killed as the result of “anti-abortion violence” since 1993. Two of the actual killings were attributed to Catholics (although another did try to ram an abortion clinic with his vehicle which resulted in no injuries but did cause some property damage).
In any case, it seems clear that “anti-abortion violence” occurs with much greater frequency in fiction than in reality. But then again, this shouldn’t surprise us given the predominance of the Hollywood Atheist and Straw-Vulcan archetypes.
EDIT: I made a factual correction and added context.
All the murderers were Protestants?
No; I made a mistake. Eric Robert Rudolph and James Charles Kopp (who, interestingly, had a masters degree in embryology, so was something of a “domain expert”) were self-identified Roman Catholics. Also, it is tricky determining who is or is not of a particular denomination. For instance, Paul Jennings Hill was excommunicated before commiting murder. Should that count in favor of or against the church that excommunicated him (in this case, Presbyterianism)? I’m not sure.
Of course in favor.
Assuming conservation of evidence, if there exists an action that would count against them (such as declaring him a saint), there must also exist an action that would count in favor of them. So what exactly were they supposed to do—burn him at a stake?
EDIT: Oops, now I see that the question can refer to the whole “former membership + excommunication” package, not just the “excommunication” part. Still, unless other churches had excommunicated such people (before the murder, or at least after), the fact that this one did is an evidence in favor or hypothesis that they disagree with such acts.
It sounds like it would follow from this account that the most dangerous religious fundamentalisms are also the most popular ones.
Have I understood you properly?
On an absolute level, yes, but per capita, no.