Post by @gerikson@awful.systems

2026-09-09 07:56 UTC

the kindergarten/elementary school / New Atheism view of religion is “believe in big sky father, ask him personally for good stuff, get good stuff”. Religions that manage to progress out of the cult stage do have something more going on, generally a system of ethics designed to help people cope with the vagaries of life (and maybe also control their thoughts so they don’t revolt). I think this is why Buddhism (at least the Western kind) is so popular, as it relatively focussed on “how to live” rather than “what to believe”. “Rationality” strives to be a secular Buddhism, you have rules and precepts for how to approach life and personal interactions. It’s interesting and maybe a comment on how human brains work that they seem to have invented a great sky father from first principles too.

Replies (1)

@fullsquare@awful.systems 2026-09-09 09:01

there are some religions that put more emphasis on orthodoxy and there are religions that put more emphasis on orthopraxy. christianity would be more in the former category and buddhism, especially buddhism-as-mind-hacking-tool would be the latter. rationalists are just religious in a way that is less common in the west tangent >the kindergarten/elementary school / New Atheism view of religion is “believe in big sky father, ask him personally for good stuff, get good stuff”. there is some evidence that a couple of ancient polytheist religions worked this way, sort of acoup.blog/…/collections-practical-polytheism-par… you might wonder if there’s some space for new atheist racism to happen, as religions that do more of orthopraxy are not western or ancient (therefore primitive)

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