I think an important distinction to make here is between the beliefs “there is a God who is Good in a nonspecific way that doesn’t contradict very basic morality” and “there is a God who is very concerned with our day-to-day behavior and prescribes additional moral and factual precepts beyond what society generally already believes”.
The former is the sort of belief which seems partially optimized for never needing to be examined (I’ll wave my hands and say “memetic evolution” here as if I’m confident that I know what it means), and is probably more common among scientists and liberals and people with whom atheists are likely to agree than the latter. From an instrumental rationality perspective, it’s the latter which ends inquiry and stifles truth, and the latter which we need to destroy by raising the waterline; the former is just collateral damage.
I think an important distinction to make here is between the beliefs “there is a God who is Good in a nonspecific way that doesn’t contradict very basic morality” and “there is a God who is very concerned with our day-to-day behavior and prescribes additional moral and factual precepts beyond what society generally already believes”.
The former is the sort of belief which seems partially optimized for never needing to be examined (I’ll wave my hands and say “memetic evolution” here as if I’m confident that I know what it means), and is probably more common among scientists and liberals and people with whom atheists are likely to agree than the latter. From an instrumental rationality perspective, it’s the latter which ends inquiry and stifles truth, and the latter which we need to destroy by raising the waterline; the former is just collateral damage.