There's another side, however -- signaling has to be costly (or it's too easy to fake) and the higher the cost the better the signal. So demonstrating tribal affiliation can't all be happening in an imaginary realm
So then religious beliefs and weird ethnic culture are basically truth vaccines, as they signal group membership using topics other than reality. Otherwise we get memetic auto-immune arguments like Climate Change w/ disagreement much higher than facts support.https://twitter.com/JonHaidt/status/993680634479632384 …
-
-
-
Yes, that's mostly true, and "The Elephant in the Brain" signaling theory lays this out. But, while costly signals are needed, burning truth is not. A restrictive diet or prayer schedule are still costly signals, w/o muddling other beliefs about reality.
-
In practice that "leave reality alone" notion gets muddled quite a bit. Plus some parts of reality (e.g. military tech) are obviously much more important than some other parts.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Religion is one of the best ways to signal group affiliation. It's individually costly but very good for the group as a whole. Notice that most of the "anti-science" religious beliefs are harmless! Religion also led directly to Enlightenment, etc.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
This is one way to carbon-date religions: how many real-world sacrifices do they demand of members?
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.