Stories like that allow plausible deniability, so it’s hard to tell. “Of course the story isn’t about that, now that you’ve refuted it.” .
My first thought was that the story taught that it doesn’t matter whether religion is true, because it helps people cooperate. “There’s a powerful empire that will get you if you don’t do the right thing, but people only think it’s there” is basically God. Of course, if you do this, God is going to “tell” the people a lot of things, and they won’t all be as good as “you’d better cooperate”, and some of them can be pretty terrible.
Also, I was replying to you, not just the original post. People who don’t want open borders and who prioritize their country (or just their friends and family) over others are not being irrational. They just have different goals and different utility functions than you do.
Oh, I was commenting on the concept of “rationalist seder” and what we can/should learn and teach via fiction.
I think you and I disagree on whether there are rational and consistent sets of beliefs about strangers on one side of a border vs another side of it that lead to willingness to subsidize one and let the other starve, but that wasn’t the topic of this thread.
Ok, maybe I’m completely misreading the post. What do you think is the point of the stories?
Stories like that allow plausible deniability, so it’s hard to tell. “Of course the story isn’t about that, now that you’ve refuted it.” .
My first thought was that the story taught that it doesn’t matter whether religion is true, because it helps people cooperate. “There’s a powerful empire that will get you if you don’t do the right thing, but people only think it’s there” is basically God. Of course, if you do this, God is going to “tell” the people a lot of things, and they won’t all be as good as “you’d better cooperate”, and some of them can be pretty terrible.
Also, I was replying to you, not just the original post. People who don’t want open borders and who prioritize their country (or just their friends and family) over others are not being irrational. They just have different goals and different utility functions than you do.
Oh, I was commenting on the concept of “rationalist seder” and what we can/should learn and teach via fiction.
I think you and I disagree on whether there are rational and consistent sets of beliefs about strangers on one side of a border vs another side of it that lead to willingness to subsidize one and let the other starve, but that wasn’t the topic of this thread.