Thread by @DefenderOfBasic

Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2025-05-08

We all agree beliefs have functional effects on behavior. A religion is a package of pre-tested beliefs that are useful & true. It’s open source because if you find that one isn’t true, you’re supposed to update it. That’s how it worked in ancient times

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Louis Santoro @dikaiosvne 2025-05-09

I find this rosy picture of religion and its history hard to tolerate. Are there any that come with all true beliefs or are tolerant of updates? Which ones? It just never seems to work out that way. I choose autonomy every time. Eppur si muove.

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2025-05-09

it’s not a question of whether you should accept religion or not, it’s examining the religion you’re already in (any large group of humans has a set of beliefs & axioms, and breaking those is blasphemy, unless you have influence to update & change those beliefs)

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Louis Santoro @dikaiosvne 2025-05-09

There is no religion we are (or I am) socially already in. That’s an admirable accomplishment we shouldn’t nostalgically undo. We aren’t forced to accept or tolerate a prepackaged set of beliefs, which is good because many such beliefs would likely not be true.

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2025-05-09

that’s what culture is though. I don’t know what industry you’re in, but every industry, every country, has a set of prepackaged beliefs. It’s hard to see because it’s “the water”, we accept them as obviously true, it’s the base axioms everyone has

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Louis Santoro @dikaiosvne 2025-05-09

i’m in the philosophy industry. there is something more abstract and basic than religion in the green example and in religious myopia. but my aversion to ideals that i consider defective is a result of my own education, experience, and free and autonomous moral judgment.

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

it’s also very possible you have greater awareness of how information enters your mind, and how you label something as true. But the more I looked at how people change their mind the more I saw great predictive power of this frame

2024-03-22

How to change anybody’s mind about anything:

- Understand the territory

- Understand their map

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- Find insightful examples of their map not matching the territory that they know

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Louis Santoro @dikaiosvne 2025-05-09

there’s a lot of evidence to the effect that people don’t have such awareness, so i don’t know why i would be any different. but that doesn’t mean that what i have is a religion.