... that we are instinctually compelled to try and create answers in the absence of evidence. Predicting the future is one of the primary characteristics of human intelligence. It’s an adaptive trait with a high survival value.
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Replying to @SimsYStuart @likeplastic_
I disagree. The meaning of our life is precisely the reward function we are operating on. Analytically figuring out what that function looks like is not required for acting on it, and it is not trivial to discover that we act eg on behalf of our grandchildren before they are born
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The meaning of our life is based on priors that have been implanted into us by evolution and recent mutations, and cultural software that hooks into them. Religious faith is a particular type of cultural software, one that was deliberately designed to keep the peasants in check.
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Replying to @Plinz @likeplastic_
Yes, faith is very commonly twisted into that shape by cynical people, unfortunately. But formalized religion provides very useful heuristics by which billions of people make life decisions. Faith is both functional and adaptive.
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Replying to @SimsYStuart @likeplastic_
Of course it is functional and adaptive, otherwise faith based populations would not have displaced secular ones. However, the adaptive value is very high for agricultural workers in feudalist societies, and rather low for generals, scientists, government advisors and popes.
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Replying to @Plinz @likeplastic_
Yes, the simple behavioral heuristics of organized religion lose utility when applied with more complex problems often faced by generals, scientists, popes, etc. This is both a burden and a terrible privilege endured by those of very high intelligence.
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Replying to @SimsYStuart @likeplastic_
One of the most beautiful tricks of religion is religious platonism: the ugly mishapen and cruel thing that you get taught by your local cult is only the shadow of religion's true, perfect and angelic form, which you can try to construct yourself.
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Replying to @Plinz @likeplastic_
The human population has many limitations imposed by the IQ distribution. I’d say individuals creating a functioning religious belief system from scratch is one of those limitations.pic.twitter.com/G5zNLOupAg
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Replying to @SimsYStuart @likeplastic_
These systems are usually not created from scratch. You can easily trace the genealogy of the dominant cults.
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Replying to @Plinz @likeplastic_
Yes, but the vast majority of people have no interest in Zoroastrianism or the Avesta, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or the Upanishads. Much less the ability to absorb that material and make the connections between those ideas and modern religious mythology. Human limitation
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The vast majority of people also have no interest in finding out how their sausage is made. The appetizing commercial is more than sufficient.
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