I feel like growing up religious (and especially having lots of different Protestant sects in the family) gives me insight that a lot of people in EA who were raised secular don’t have. I think it’s because we think of those failure modes as having to do with irrational religion (like believing in the supernatural) and not the rational approach we’re taking. Short of getting a specific study of EA, I think most EAs would benefit from learning about the history of social and especially religious movements to see how much we are like them.
Giles Fraser summed up EA London’s atmosphere as ‘an evangelical youth group’ - not in a mean way—and I’ve frequently worried that we’ll undergo something akin to a church split. The parallels are quite obvious if you’re familiar.
I feel like growing up religious (and especially having lots of different Protestant sects in the family) gives me insight that a lot of people in EA who were raised secular don’t have. I think it’s because we think of those failure modes as having to do with irrational religion (like believing in the supernatural) and not the rational approach we’re taking. Short of getting a specific study of EA, I think most EAs would benefit from learning about the history of social and especially religious movements to see how much we are like them.
Giles Fraser summed up EA London’s atmosphere as ‘an evangelical youth group’ - not in a mean way—and I’ve frequently worried that we’ll undergo something akin to a church split. The parallels are quite obvious if you’re familiar.