The rationalist community needs to change.

Post Reply New Topic

Hi all. Today, I want to talk about the anti-science movement. It's been spiraling out of control lately. The majority of American Republicans want to do nothing about global climate change. The flat earth movement is winning converts online. Dr. Oz has a job in the US government. What is going on?

I think that the rationalist community is making some huge mistakes.

Now, I want to talk about my sister's boyfriend. He is an atheist, but he doesn't seem to understand science very well. A while ago, I was talking to him about prehistory ... and he thinks that early humans coexisted with pterosaurs. In my opinion, an atheist who thinks that humans coexisted with pterosaurs is like a Christian who has never read the Bible. Humans did not exist until millions of years after the last pterosaurs became extinct. This is something that everyone, especially atheists, should know. The whole world expects us atheists to explain the real history of the world competently. We should be prepared to do so.

Now, I want to talk about Sausage Party. Sausage Party is a movie that came out in 2016. It's basically a satire on religion with talking foods. It's probably supposed to be a twisted inversion of Veggie Tales.

Is Sausage Party funny? Yes, but it has a problem. The movie seems to think that getting laid is the meaning of life. Is religion sexually repressive? It can be, but Sausage Party places too much emphasis on this. A lot of people reject rationalism and atheism because they believe that rationalism and atheism are all about hedonism ... and a lot of those same people reject science because they think that it leads to atheism.

In reality, rationalism isn't just about sexual hedonism. Rationalism has depth. The natural world is so beautiful that learning about it can free me from desire and put me in a zen-like state. Science is wonderful because it has reveled the beauty of nature to us. The natural world that we can see with the naked eye is just the tip of the iceberg. Every plant, animal and mineral that we see in nature has a story behind it that has been reveled by microbiology and deep time. Everything has depth. Everything has an extra layer that's worth exploring. Reading about natural science is like watching a four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle being assembled.

All of this beauty is lost on the atheists who devote their whole lives to sexual hedonism. Most "former atheists" were probably hedonists who never understood natural beauty that well. Thus explains why so many people leave atheism.

Also, a lot of new agers are hedonists because post-modern spirituality generally allows that sort of thing. If you just want sexual hedonism and you aren't interested in intellectual depth, you might as well be a new ager ... or an occultist ... or whatever.

I know what some of you are thinking. "How DARE you tell me what to do? I choose to be a hedonistic rationalist who doesn't care about paleontology! I do whatever I want."

Fine then. Enjoy watching the anti-science movement devour the world around you. It's your choice.