Well, there's a significant overlap between faith, community, trust, belonging,
etc. It seems to me like there's a large inter-individual variance for where
people land on the various dimensions. Catholicism is catholic precisely
because it covers a large ball of the whole space, or at least used to seem
that way to me. I've known several atheist Catholics over my lifetime, perhaps
not as large as atheist Jews, but still large. Allowing people to slip smoothly
from literal to metaphorical on any subject optimizes for community and
belonging. Bob thinks he's eating actual flesh, but Sally thinks it's just a
cracker. Nobody cares what you think. Just eat the damned thing and say Amen.
And that's something non-religious atheists don't really have (though they clearly *want* it:
https://seattleatheist.church/). The recent explosion of pent-up misogyny exposure in the Atheist and A+
communities demonstrates that fairly well and justifies your opinion to some extent. Atheism really is a
*lack* of something, a negative attribute. And that's one of the reasons I tend to avoid identifying as an
atheist and prefer agnostic ... or "free thinker" if you need such a phrase. I'm a
"seeker", not an atheist, trying to maintain a steady donning and doffing of belief systems, trying
to see what fits. Back when I had a Facebook account, my religion was "syncretic pantheism in a rhizomic
bath". It's the closest I can come to a positive belief that fits.
On 7/18/22 16:36, Marcus Daniels wrote:
There seems to be a spiritual aspect to adopting beliefs in absence of
evidence, or especially in situations where contrary evidence is available.
Guru following could just be a motivated way to gain a sense of belonging and
escape the weight of admitting that life is so uncertain. Liberal churches can
be overt about the desire to facilitate community even with relatively little
dogma. It isn't even the case that religions have all that carefully of
constructed unfalsifiable belief systems either. So, it isn't just a matter
of doing the faith exercise -- usually religions demand a little more and make
sketchy commitments to observable facts that require apology at some point.
(Like becoming initiated in an organized crime family.)
I've never found the criticism of atheism as being too strong of a truth claim
(a belief) convincing. Atheism (or nihilism) are more assertions about classes
of unproductive behaviors that don't facilitate getting to the bottom of
things. Atheism is a caution against adopting a class of beliefs. It is a
meta rule for knowledge acquisition.
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 3:31 PM
To: friam@redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] YAC - yet another cult
Yeah, cult and religion are fuzzy concepts. But I like the way it's
characterized in the Gurometer:
2. Cultishness
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19PKXFn3qrzWr6nx622g9cEzyNBow0svQs_dN4fP3hjY/edit
On 7/18/22 15:00, Marcus Daniels wrote:
I have never been clear on the difference between a cult and a religion besides
inertia. (I started watching Under the Banner of Heaven, and that checks the
boxes for me.)
Somewhat relatedly, was looking at the Berkeley PD budget and noticed that they
pulled back 23 sworn officers after George Floyd murder. That would seem to
be a smart political calculation because they didn't give up the positions,
they just deferred them. And in San Francisco, I was wondering what all the
fuss was about with the DA, given that the crime numbers are in some dimensions
improved.
https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/stay-safe/crime-data/crime-dashboard
The loudmouths here are all conservatives and reactionary types, like
everywhere. Say the world is dangerous enough times, and people start
believing it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 1:59 PM
To: friam@redfish.com
Subject: [FRIAM] YAC - yet another cult
Triggered by this article:
Abortion Rights Activists Call New Group Leading Protests a Front for a
Far-Left Cult
https://theintercept.com/2022/07/14/rise-up-4-abortion-rights-protests-revcom/
I spent my insomnia from 01:30-03:00 trying to find a complete criticism of
RevComm. I largely failed. But the RationalWiki provides a good quick take:
Revolutionary Communist Party (US)
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Communist_Party_(US)
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