I grew up Mormon and attended BYU for a few years, and a lot of descriptions of Mormons I read on here are completely foreign to me. Knowing that the LDS Church was literally true was always an extremely important aspect of the religion when I grew up—it wasn’t just about the community.
I think this is rather typical and also age and personal development related. As a child, I was a staunch believer of my Catholic Sunday school teachings, to the point where I found my parents to be alarmingly lax and contrary. This changes for lots of people as they get older. In my 30′s I had a girlfriend who described herself as a “cultural Catholic” and basically went to church because it’s what most of the people she knew did.
In any case, at the local Hackerspace, I found that most everyone professed beliefs in the importance of science and rationality, but much of this is indistinguishable from professing a preference for a genre of music or a type of gaming. As far as people rigorously applying rationally grounded beliefs to their own lives, I don’t think much was done which couldn’t be comfortably explained as people generally doing what their peers do.
I suspect that the types of Mormons that people on LessWrong tend to come in contact with are very much outside the mainstream.
My Mormon colleagues were all working for software companies.
While I can see that Mormon theology can be twisted to support a sort of trans-humanism, in my experience the typical Utah Mormon would find this very bizarre.
The typical human being finds trans-humanism bizarre. Most people are just doing what those around them are doing, saying what those around them are saying, and generally just getting on with their day to day lives.
Perhaps we should hold our leaders to a higher standard.
I think this is rather typical and also age and personal development related. As a child, I was a staunch believer of my Catholic Sunday school teachings, to the point where I found my parents to be alarmingly lax and contrary. This changes for lots of people as they get older. In my 30′s I had a girlfriend who described herself as a “cultural Catholic” and basically went to church because it’s what most of the people she knew did.
In any case, at the local Hackerspace, I found that most everyone professed beliefs in the importance of science and rationality, but much of this is indistinguishable from professing a preference for a genre of music or a type of gaming. As far as people rigorously applying rationally grounded beliefs to their own lives, I don’t think much was done which couldn’t be comfortably explained as people generally doing what their peers do.
My Mormon colleagues were all working for software companies.
The typical human being finds trans-humanism bizarre. Most people are just doing what those around them are doing, saying what those around them are saying, and generally just getting on with their day to day lives.
Perhaps we should hold our leaders to a higher standard.