I think that it’s fairly obvious that there wouldn’t be even the relatively small percentage of seriously Christian scientists there are today if it had not been for centuries of proselytization, conversion by the sword, teaching Christianity to children from when they could talk, crusades, etc. I think it’s also fairly obvious that this is not true of the percentage of scientists who are atheists. I also think it’s obvious that it’s not true for the percentage of scientists who think that, for instance, there are an infinite number of twin primes.
Typically one only notices these “memetic effects” in ideas one already disagrees with.
Really? I haven’t heard anyone say “nobody would think there are infinitely many twin primes if they hadn’t been taught that as a 4 year old and forced to verbally affirm the infinity of twin primes every Sunday for the next few decades”. It just is not something that is said, or can sensibly be said, for any idea that one disagrees with.
Your choice of twin primes as an example is kind of odd; implicitly, we are discussing the cluster of ideas that are controversial in some ideological sense.
To be clear, I agree that ideas often spread for reasons other than their truth. I agree that because of this, if you are careful, you can use the history of religion as ancillary evidence against theism.
But in general, you have to be really, really careful not to use “memetic effects” as just another excuse to stop listening to people (LessWrong’s main danger is that it is full of such excuses). Sometimes true ideas spread for bad reasons. Sometimes what looks like a bad reason appears so because of your own ideology.
I’m not saying become a theist, or read huge treatises on theology. I’m saying give theism the 5 minutes of serious consideration (e.g., listening to a smart proponent) owed a belief held by a very large fraction of the planet.
I think that it’s fairly obvious that there wouldn’t be even the relatively small percentage of seriously Christian scientists there are today if it had not been for centuries of proselytization, conversion by the sword, teaching Christianity to children from when they could talk, crusades, etc. I think it’s also fairly obvious that this is not true of the percentage of scientists who are atheists. I also think it’s obvious that it’s not true for the percentage of scientists who think that, for instance, there are an infinite number of twin primes.
Really? I haven’t heard anyone say “nobody would think there are infinitely many twin primes if they hadn’t been taught that as a 4 year old and forced to verbally affirm the infinity of twin primes every Sunday for the next few decades”. It just is not something that is said, or can sensibly be said, for any idea that one disagrees with.
Your choice of twin primes as an example is kind of odd; implicitly, we are discussing the cluster of ideas that are controversial in some ideological sense.
To be clear, I agree that ideas often spread for reasons other than their truth. I agree that because of this, if you are careful, you can use the history of religion as ancillary evidence against theism.
But in general, you have to be really, really careful not to use “memetic effects” as just another excuse to stop listening to people (LessWrong’s main danger is that it is full of such excuses). Sometimes true ideas spread for bad reasons. Sometimes what looks like a bad reason appears so because of your own ideology.
I’m not saying become a theist, or read huge treatises on theology. I’m saying give theism the 5 minutes of serious consideration (e.g., listening to a smart proponent) owed a belief held by a very large fraction of the planet.